Get ready for the spin. You are going to be told that the Weiner scandal is a personal matter. It’s just sex talk. Conservatives are so uptight and judgmental. Time to move on to important matters like the budget. Oops, forget about that.
Don’t fall for that. The issues involved here are much deeper.
First, let’s talk about the lie. Liberals like to take conservatives to task for their prudishness. They ridicule family values as old fashioned nonsense. We need to get with the times. And yet, even though their liberal constituents are supposedly so much more open-minded than the rest of us, for some reason liberal politicians always feel compelled to hide their behavior and then lie about it when caught. Liberals have lower standards, to be sure, but the dirty little secret is that they, too, can be “judgmental.” Weiner wasn’t ashamed of his behavior, as he claimed. He didn’t want to lose his job.
But here’s what really makes this scandal important: lies have consequences. When you lie and claim that you didn’t do something others are accusing you of, then by default you intimate that THEY must be the liars. Weiner implied that he had been “hacked” or “pranked,” and at one point I think he hinted that it could be the work of his political foes. Aha! Another right-wing conspiracy, just not so “vast” as the one that led to the false scandal against an innocent Bill Clinton. Those mean republicans. Is there nothing they won’t stoop to?
The fact is, if Weiner hadn’t been cornered with irrefutable proof of his behavior and his lies he would have, without conscience, fueled the charade of himself as the innocent victim of nasty right-wingers. It doesn’t get much lower than that, although it’s what we’ve become accustomed to.
Lying does have consequences and it should hurt the Dems. But I remember when Clinton lied and he had no consequences. I do believe that Dems hold themselves to a lower set of moral standards and that should not bode well for them. I find it silly that they believe they are the moral party for the poor, minorities, and even the planet, but they could care less about the family unit.
ReplyDeleteAs always, very well thought out and written!
ReplyDeleteTwo comments, CW ...
First, lying only has consequences if those to whom the lie has been told delivers those consequences. In this case, I doubt seriously anything major will happen.
Second, this guy has always given me the creeps (this aside from his political positions). Good thing I have that woman's intuition happening, eh?
P.S. Could not log onto blogger account AGAIN. Mrs. Al posted previous comment.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you need more traffic here!
Thank you Patrick and Mrs. AL. I appreciate the feedback.
ReplyDeleteActually when I said “lies have consequences” I was thinking mostly about the innocent bystanders. If Bill Clinton wasn’t lying, then Paula Jones must have been a liar and an exceptionally evil one at that to want to do such damage to an innocent man. If Weiner wasn’t lying then someone (Andrew Breitbart perhaps?) played a very malicious trick on him. Those were these implications of these mens' lies.
The willingness to allow others to suffer damage to their reputations and be unfairly hated and ridiculed shows a disturbing lack of conscience. I find this aspect of these coverups to be rarely addressed.