American Guillotine

I first thought that perhaps Eliot Spitzer should consider resignation last summer. Less than seven months into his term he was accused of using state resources to pursue a vendetta against Joe Bruno, republican state senate majority leader, who was already under FBI inquiry at the time of Spitzer’s inauguration. I don’t like Joe Bruno, but I hate abuse of power. I saw shades of Rudolph Guliani and the ever-tragic belief that the end justified the means. It would seem the governor, whom had run on a platform of ethics, was operating on the premise that turnabout was fair play.

After that, we were subject to one display of incompetence after another. From his politically disastrous my way or the highway methodology, to his handling the MTA with blissful oblivion and his kooky illegal alien driver license plan, to the failures in public works agendas, including the inability to facilitate desperately needed renovations at the Javits Center and most recently the apparent scrapping of the plans to replace Penn Station, we have witnessed a perfect example of bad government.

I refused to tolerate this pattern of behavior from the Bush Administration and I am no less forgiving for a Democrat. It would seem Mr. Spitzer believed the headlines equating him to another famous crime fighting Eliot. However, Ness wasn’t actually untouchable, he was innocent.

So Spitzer made enemies in government the same way, and for some of the same reasons, he made them on Wall Street. And they wanted him. They berated and attacked him but they couldn’t get him. For all his bad, unethical, and perhaps even criminal behavior it would seem Mr. Spitzer’s hype was well founded.

But then, amidst an ordinary investigation, wink wink, some suspicious transactions came to light. And low and behold, Mr. Spitzer appears guilty of using state accounts to hide personal transactions. Worse, those transactions were for sex.

Bells rang, the earth shook, and sirens wailed. A man likely guilty of real crimes, was unhorsed by the only thing that can take a politician down. When the story broke, it was all about the sex. The public clamored for more. They ignored the last fourteen months but now, mouths dry, appetites whetted, pulses quickening, the public was ready to hear about slander, hypocrisy, and abuse of power. They would ransack news stories, overturning details of corruption, deception, and revenge, in the hopes of finding something dirty. Just one more juicy detail, please.
That’s ironical for those who missed it.

It is sex we care about. It sells. We are obsessed with it, much like Eliot Spitzer, and much like Mr. Spitzer we condemn and attack it. We don’t know a politician’s policy or party. Until they are caught in a public bathroom or a hotel, all we base our level of involvement on is whether there is money in our pocket. There’s a war on and, if we believe the exit polls, the last midterm election was decided based on “morality”. Do we really care if a Democrat is cheating on his wife or if a Republican is a homosexual?

Let us not lose sight of the crime being talked about. Sex for money is only a part of it. No one is hurt by the crime, and volumes have been written about the validity of the legislation, but the irony here falls in another hypocrisy. Prostitution isn’t illegal in every state, but you can’t bring a prostitute across state lines. Talk about regulating a woman’s body!

Americans feel a need to protect their children, and other people’s children, from overt sexuality without explaining why. One side tells kids, “Just don’t.” or they bring an unreasonable, unfounded morality into play the adults don't follow or fully accept themselves. Of course, they’d never admit it. The other side tells children it’s perfectly natural and believes if they simply throw information out, children will make the right decision. Just once I would like to see someone sit down and explain, not just all the consequences of sex, be they real or imagined, but the benefits of responsibility. Let us not be afraid to admit the power of a sexual bond and the need to guard against its exploitation or its dismissal. It’s health, people.

Finally, there will soon be the anger, much like during the Clinton scandal, over people feeling forced to parent their children and explain sex to them. There was anger and resentment over having to discuss oral sex and this time it appears the same emotions will be present surrounding anal sex. I wonder if anyone will be upset about having to discuss the epidemic of infidelity highlighted by this type of story. Not to worry. No one will think to tell little Timmy or Sally that it isn’t okay to cheat, and that it only seems common because of the attention given to it. No one will bother to see what really needs to be discussed with a child. They won’t use the opportunity to point out this attention comes precisely because cheating isn’t acceptable behavior. Children will again miss out on the reassurance of stability that in their formative years negatively affects them far more than the existence of sexuality.

We’re obsessed with, terrified by, and enslaved to sex. It is a constant distraction from the issues with true weight. We seem to wish to have sex taken away from us, locked in a box, and released only when it is safe.

The time is here to take sex out of politics. But then, how would we get people to pay attention?