(no subject)
There's a senator named Anthony Wiener who didn't understand that twitter, like all social media and most electronic communications, is completely public. He used twitter to broadcast some some of his less popular personal choices to everyone and lost his senate seat over it. It's silly, it's senseless and I find myself wishing for what seems like the millionth time that American politics were less uptight about sexual stuff and infidelity stuff. I'm starting to see a lot of snarky complaints like, "lie about what you put on twitter: Resign. Lie about why to go to war: Get re-elected." And for the most part, I agree with the snark. American voters have some really poor priorities for what we want from our leaders. But here's the thing. Weiner is a democrat and the snark sounds just about exactly like the defense-of-Bill-Clinton snark from the 90's. If you're one of the sources of that snark and you really do think it's a problem that our priorities are so backwards, where were you when Larry Craig was accused of soliciting a gay prostitute in a public restroom? If you're like me, you were getting ready to dance on top of his political-funeral pyre and chortle about homophobic senators getting their due.
So here's my advice if you (like me) are upset about seeing Wiener resign and the terrible priorities our voter-base has: Hold your tongue, let this one go. Pretty soon, another political figure is going to get embroiled in a sex-scandal and, statistically speaking, it's likely to be a republican simply because there are more of them serving right now than democrats. When that happens, defend him ('cause it won't likely be a woman and you know it) the same way you're defending Wiener right now. Let the people around you see that you're against poor priorities, not just against democrats taking hits about sex scandals.
So here's my advice if you (like me) are upset about seeing Wiener resign and the terrible priorities our voter-base has: Hold your tongue, let this one go. Pretty soon, another political figure is going to get embroiled in a sex-scandal and, statistically speaking, it's likely to be a republican simply because there are more of them serving right now than democrats. When that happens, defend him ('cause it won't likely be a woman and you know it) the same way you're defending Wiener right now. Let the people around you see that you're against poor priorities, not just against democrats taking hits about sex scandals.