New Yorker: Too Much InfoTech (political sex scandals)

[teach1st]

New Yorker: Too Much InfoTech, by Hendrik Hertzberg (8/12/13 issue)

It’s been another political season of impressively gaudy sex scandals, further confounding America’s hard-won reputation as a nation of censorious puritans. The paradox isn’t so surprising, when you think about it: the broader the range of sex-related activities deemed immoral, unnatural, or icky, the greater the scope for righteous indignation; the freer the press, the looser the libel laws; and the more reflexive the general contempt for politicians as a class the greater the chance of public exposure of private misbehavior. Neither of our political parties is immune to sex scandals, of course, because both are composed of human beings, but once upon a time it was taken for granted that Democrats were more likely to fool around. (Republican turpitude, beginning with the Grant Administration, was thought to revolve around money.) Not anymore. Studies suggest that, over the past decade, the majority of political sex scandals, by a wide margin, have featured Republicans. True to the spirit of the age, none were bipartisan.

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2013/08/12/130812taco_talk_hertzberg