Bubbling Mud, Yellowstone (Laurence Lewis)
That so many progressives were so emotionally invested in attempting to disprove the allegations about a popular but controversial congressman's legal personal behavior was itself part of the story. Because the presumed veracity of the Congressman's initial denials wouldn't have needed defending. Had his story been true, he would have had valid legal means of pursuing restitution. Had his story been true, the continued efforts by his supporters to confirm his denials would have served only to perpetuate the story, to keep it alive as much more important stories and issues continued to be marginalized. As well-intentioned as were the efforts to defend the congressman, they were even under the best of all factual scenarios counter-productive. In light of the revelations that the congressman was not telling the truth, those efforts to defend him proved well-intentioned embarrassments. And that gets to the story behind the story. Whether one wanted the congressman destroyed or vindicated, that his personal life became a major media event was yet another example of what is so wrong with both our political system and our mass media.
Anthony Weiner's personal life is not our business. Those now feeling betrayed because "he lied to us" need ask themselves why they felt justified in wanting to know about his personal life in the first place. Certainly, Weiner handled the story as poorly as can be imagined, but there too what matters is not the facts of his personal behavior but that his personal behavior became a story. As the story continues to play out it becomes even more clear that Weiner's best response to the initial reports would have been to tell reporters that his personal life is personal, and that other than his wife nobody has any right to ask or know anything about it. Even had the allegations been false, his best response would have been to tell reporters that his personal life is personal, and that other than his wife nobody has any right to ask or know anything about it. More than a decade after the national disgrace that was the impeachment of a president for lying about his personal behavior, the politics of personal destruction continues to thrive on both sides of the aisle, by supporters of both sides of the aisle. Indeed, even as Weiner's stereotypical public confession was still echoing around the shrill mass media, some progressives already were excitedly promoting allegations about the personal behavior of a leading Republican, as if two wallows in the mire make one clean.
We cannot change the behavior of public officials. We cannot make any immediate impact on the behavior of the corporatist media. We cannot stop right-wing assholes from being assholes. We can change our own behavior. The mud must stop here. It seems easy to feel happy when right-wing demagogues are hoist on their own political petards, but it shouldn't be. Every time it happens, innocent people get hurt. Relatives. Friends. Spouses. Children. Some claim that it's the hypocrisy that matters, but it isn't. Right-wing attempts to suppress and repress the personal behavior of all manner of innocents are not wrong because they are hypocritical, they are wrong because they are about suppression and repression, and often also about bigotry. The hypocrisy argument is a distraction. Right-wing bigots and scolds are no worse for being proved hypocrites. Right-wing bigots and scolds who are not hypocrites are no better than their hypocritical brethren. Revelations about the personal behavior of various right-wing hypocrites have had no impact on the repressive, suppressive and bigoted right-wing political agenda. Revelations about the personal behavior of various right-wing hypocrites have in no way advanced the causes of equality and justice and individual freedom. It's better to face and take the bigotry and repression and suppression head on, for what it is, and not get side-tracked by the personal behavior of individual bigots or agents of repression and suppression. When no laws are being broken, the privacy of the personal behavior of consenting adults should be sacrosanct. Even for Republicans. Even for assholes. Even for bigots.
That public officials will behave in ways that are legal but hurtful to those by whom they are loved never should be a surprise. It happens so often that one would think the emotional nerve endings of the public no longer would respond. Any time a Democrat or progressive laughs or mocks or gloats at the travails of a Republican or conservative whose personal behavior unwittingly made public results in public humiliation and/or scorn, it should be kept in mind that inevitably, by the laws of politics and human nature, the Republicans and conservatives soon enough will have equal chance to laugh or mock or gloat at the travails of a Democrat or progressive who is suffering from the exact same public humiliation and/or scorn. One doesn't make the other better. One doesn't excuse the other. Right-wing assholes will be right-wing assholes, but progressives don't have to sink to their level. It's a choice. No one who is not personally involved in the personal life of Anthony Weiner had any business knowing about his personal life. No one who is not personally involved in the personal life of Anthony Weiner suffered from anything in which they did not choose to involve themselves.
The question, as always, has to begin with ourselves. In the case of the personal behavior of public officials, it has to begin with asking ourselves what kind of people we want to be. It has to begin with asking ourselves what type of politics we want to promote and perpetuate. It has to begin with asking ourselves what type of politics will best invite and inspire the best political participants. The politics of personal destruction justifiably dissuades many from seeking public office. The politics of personal destruction destroys the nature of politics itself. It can truthfully be claimed that this is the way it has been since elective politics was invented. That doesn't make it right, but we can begin to make it right by ourselves doing right. That begins by not involving ourselves in the next media event that revolves around a public official's personal life, particularly if that public official is a Republican or other manner of conservative. We can participate or we can refuse. We can choose to refine ourselves by confining our criticism of Republicans to their political ideas, politics and tactics, and what they say about their values, or we can play the game the same way they play it. We expect the worst from Republicans. We can only prove we are better by being better.