Politics, corruption, and hypocrisy -- but again, I repeat myself

LaShawn Barber asks a reasonable question in the wake of the Mark Foley cyber-sex scandal and the new dirt being thrown at Senator Larry Craig -- "If a person speaks out against laws, policies, lifestyles, etc., that you support and you find out he is doing the thing he speaks against, should you expose them as a hypocrite?"

I think LaShawn is on the right track.  I wrote an awful lot about Mark Foley during the last few weeks, but I never defended him or what he did, and I never said that Foley was not a hypocrite.  In fact Foley is a HUGE hypocrite.  As a politician, he worked to stop sexual predators from using the Internet to snare innocent kids -- yet he had no problem engaging in the same behavior that he publicly condemned. 

I simply marveled at the Democrats (who have shamelessly defended some of the biggest hypocrites in the history of American politics) as they tried to play morality police and as they tried to engage in the same gay bashing tactics that they (rightly) accuse Republicans of using.  And I was disgusted at their attempt to manufacture a completely phony conspiracy scandal solely for the purpose of forcing Speaker Hastert to resign.  What Mark Foley did was despicable, but so was the Democrats' shameless politicizing of the event and their slimy attempt at using homophobia for the clearly obvious purpose of scaring "evangelicals" away from the Republican lever at the voting booth.

As I grow older, politics seems more and more like a truly vile horror movie -- you can't believe the gore and violence that you are witnessing, yet you are completely wrapped up in the story and you can't stop watching until you see how it all ends.  I find politics endlessly fascinating, yet at the same time, hopelessly corrupt and morally bankrupt.  I doubt I would ever have the stomach to participate in politics at anything more than the local level.  And though I tend to vote Republican most of the time, I have pretty much given up hope that the Republican party will ever accomplishing anything outside of retaining and expanding their power at all costs.  (For the record, I gave up on the Democrats in that regard a long time ago.)

LaShawn also links to a thought-provoking piece by liberal blogger Glenn Greenwald that amply illustrates the Republicans' continual promotion of the sexual immorality of Democrats in order to win the votes of religious Americans and conservatives, all while turning a blind eye to the moral bankruptcy of many of their own politicians.

But are Democrats any more virtuous?  The eagerness with which they abandoned feminism and women's rights in order to slime Paula Jones and defend Bill Clinton, and the eagerness with which they tried to stoke homophobia among Republicans after Mark Foley's double life became public, even after slavishly supporting gay rights for decades, indicates that they are not.  If sexual smears are really as repugnant as Democrats claim, and if Democrats are truly as virtuous as they themselves claim, then they should refrain from dragging themselves down to the level of their opponents.  Sadly, anything seems to be fair game if it might win an election.

The Republicans claim to stand for "family values," but many of their senior party members do not live lives that reflect those claims.  Democrats are quick to smear them as hypocrites, claiming that one's personal life must reflect the values that they preach in public.  Yet in order to accommodate the many diverse groups that make up the intellectual left, the Democrats have given up any attempt at defining core moral values for their own party.  Perhaps in their own eyes their moral vacuousness makes them immune to charges of hypocrisy, but in reality it only makes them weak, perhaps too weak to be an effective force of leadership.

That, unfortunately, is the state of the political system here in America.  Is it any wonder why Christ taught us to build his Kingdom by relating to people one-on-one, as individuals, rather than focusing our efforts on accomplishing "good" through the corrupt human systems of government and power?

(ADDED: Flopping Aces has a good writeup on the Larry Craig smear and its possible unintended negative consequences for Democrats.)

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I also wanted to take a moment and thank blogger RightWingSparkle for her honesty about why she decided to leave the blogosphere, even though she was at the peak of her popularity and probably destined to become one of the top conservative bloggers in the country.  Here's a sample:

Many of you that have been reading this blog for a while have read my references to my past volunteer work. What you may not know is why I stopped volunteering except for some Church activities. Several years ago when I moved from Dallas to Houston I was burned out. So I simply stopped volunteering when we moved.

... When I served meals on wheels I found that most of the elderly poor’s problem was not being poor, but in having children who didn’t care enough for their parents to fix lunches and fill their refrigerators with food for the week. It was simply easier to let someone else do it.

In helping at a soup kitchen I discovered that drugs hold more people prisoner than any prison in our country.

I have watched a young teenager kiss her baby goodbye as she gives it to parents who can give it the kind of life it deserves. A great and noble sacrifice to be sure, but one that is difficult to watch.

I found that nursing homes are the loniest places on earth. But it was there I felt closest to God. It seemed to me that at the beginning of life and then at the very end, we have forgotten what the value of life really means.

These were just a few experiences that brought me down, but what I forgot was that for every negative experience there were dozens of wonderful life giving and fulfilling experiences.

Politics isn’t like that. There are no life giving moments. The more I know about it the more I am astounded that we have anyone of character or substance in office. Left or right. Why would anyone who has a good life want to be in office? It’s too mean, too easliy corrupted, and sometimes truth doesn’t matter. My father refused to run for Governor so many years ago. Now I understand why.

... So I have to go.

I know this is abrupt and I apologize for that.

But there is a world of need out there and I need to get back to it.

Giving something up while you are on top really takes guts.  God bless you lady, for thinking of others instead of yourself.

Comments

[libhomo]

Your posting makes no sense at all. Democrats are speaking out against sexually harassing minor employees. Republicans are the ones playing the homophobia card to try to cloud the issue.