So by now, I'm sure you're all familiar with the story of Barack Obama's minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who has, for apparently many years, made speeches and sermons regarding the status of race relations and America's role in the world government that could be seen, at the very least, as in poor taste, but by some as un-American and very racial themselves. Of course, Obama himself has not supported or agreed with any of these comments, and can certainly not be held responsible for the words of another, but it is troubling to many how he could have looked up to someone with these thoughts for so many years, and have described him as a mentor and a close friend.
And I'm sure you have all been kept up to date on the aftermath of the Spitzer affair (pun intended). His successor, David Patterson, admitted yesterday that he and his wife both had extra-marital affairs during a rough patch in their marriage. While this type of admission has certainly been big news in the past, this story seemed to lack a certain pizazz factor.
Personally, in both the cases of Obama and Patterson, I don't think the issues brought to light have much to do with their ability to govern (to be honest, Spitzer's actions only really irritated me due to his blatant hypocrisy and his failure to live up to the highest standard he wanted everyone else to live up to). We've all had rough times in our life, and I think it's unfair to judge us by those we associate with and our past mistakes. We've all had friends or relatives who have done very controversial things, and our association with them shouldn't necessarily harm us if we haven't had any concrete ties to these actions. The problem is that Obama has been waving the issue away for months now, and only once recordings of the speeches became public did he actually try to deal with the issue. Now it just seems like he had something to hide.
Patterson had a similar issue to deal with, but his handling of the situation could make all the difference. In the wake of a sex scandal, he decided to come clean about his past affairs (and his wife) in the interest of full disclosure and being honest with the people of New York. While it might not be the most pleasant ideal for a governor, it made the affairs seem like a mistake by two hurt people, and applied a rational and adult-like light onto the situation, and immediately removed all of the steamy, clandestine and secretive angles the press would have used if they had found the story themselves. Unlike Obama, Patterson dealt with the issue up front, and yes, gave up the slight chance that no one would have ever found out - but immediately countered most of the damage from the admission by doing it on his own terms.
The problem that the vast majority of people face is understanding the fact that politicians, like regular people, sometimes have skeletons hidden in the closet. Maybe it has to do with the fact that we hold our Founding Fathers in such high regard that we expect our politicians to uphold some high moral standard. Of course it's ideal, but if this is the America that allows the common man to rise from nowhere to succeed in life, wouldn't it also stand to reason that the common man's faults would travel with him? Of course. As Patterson showed, it's better to throw the door open and air it out on one's own terms then allow someone to force their way in and create the story on their own.
I think why people get so angry about these issues, especially in these instances, is that each of these people was seen as someone different. Barack Obama was supposed to be a great uniting force among people, and now we find out he has followed a minister with very divisive ideas for decades. Eliot Spitzer was a champion who forced major corporations to follow the rules, but now we see he didn't think they applied to his own behavior. And David Patterson was hailed in the last week for being well respected, someone who could work with any member of government from any party, and now we see he had troubles with his own life. If these men who we had so much hope in can let us down, who can we trust?
The hardest, but most necessary lesson to learn here, is that, like us, politicians have their faults. It's extremely naive to think that Barack Obama is the only Senator with friends who have radical ideas, that Eliot Spitzer is the only governor to have ever hired a prostitute, and that David Patterson is the first official to have an affair. Indeed, without any stats or proof to back me up, I'd say the vast majority of our elected officials could say they're done two out of the three. What we need to do as an educated public is to continue to hold our politicians to a high standard, but to also hold ourselves to them as well - and more importantly, to realize that these are not the true issues at hand.
We cannot continue to allow ourselves to be distracted by non-issues. We might not like that a governor had an affair, or that a congressman made a shady business deal ten years ago. However, we're at an extremely crucial time in our nation's history right now, and we need to focus on the real issues - the economy, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, health care, education, etc. If the neighbor down the street has an affair, does it affect you in any way? No, even if you are interested. But if he's stealing your lawnmower while you're gossiping on the phone, THAT'S a problem. And that's what's happening in America. We're all so focused on the nonsense that our nation, our lifestyle, might be slipping away while we worry about the behavior of our politicians in their personal lives and not in the government offices.
I'm not condoning any of these actions, and I wish we did have someone we could see as a savior figure that would restore morality to our government. I'm just saying that none of them are perfect (not even the Founding Fathers, as history has shown), and that the quicker we come to terms with that, the quicker we can get to the real issues and put this nation back on the right track.
