Judge Not That Ye Be Not Judged

July 14, 2009 · Filed Under Opinion, Republicans

Just two weeks ago, almost no one knew who Mark Sanford (R-South Carolina) was. Now everyone does. Normally that would be a good thing for a politician. Unfortunately for Sanford, he is infamous instead of famous.

There has been almost nonstop coverage of every last, tawdry detail of Sanford’s affair with his mistress in Argentina. A South Carolina newspaper even posted the e-mails that went back and forth between Sanford and the Argentine.

No doubt, Sanford has brought much of this on himself. He cheated on his wife, left his job without telling anyone where he was, and flew to another continent, all he tells us, because he needed to cry. His argument for why he shouldn’t resign was plain wacky. Said Sanford, “what I find interesting is the story of David, and the way in which he fell mightily, he fell in very very significant ways. But then [he] picked up the pieces and built from there.”

Translation: David had an affair with Bathsheba and didn’t resign, so why should I? Fair enough, but David also slew Goliath and was ordained by God to be king of Israel. Comparing himself to David hardly projects an image of humility that would be helpful for him. And certainly, he could have done without providing us every last detail of his extra-marital activities as he did in his ill-conceived press conference.

Still, this whole saga raises useful questions. Should we force Sanford and politicians who have similarly sinned to resign? How harshly should we judge them? I’ve come to the conclusion that we are often too quick and too harsh in our judgment of politicians in these instances. Many observers claim that politicians who have strayed in their marriages are unfit for public office.

A lot of people then, are unfit for their jobs. Infidelity is hardly limited to politicians. Plenty of law firm partners, hedge fund managers, teachers, and police officers commit adultery. Moreover, traditional morality is eroding in society-at-large, and not just in Congress. About half of all new marriages end in divorce. Premarital sex, cohabitation, and having children out-of-wedlock have become accepted behaviors. So perhaps we should take the log out of our eyes so we can see clearly to take the speck out of Mark Sanford’s.

Essentially, many critics of Sanford argue that we should hold politicians to a higher standard than we hold ourselves. They’re supposed to be role models for society. If we can’t trust a politician to be faithful in his marriage, how can we trust him to conduct public affairs well? Besides being unfair, that attitude could deprive of us of the service of a lot of talented politicians. People who can write a good tax code or create an efficient health care scheme would be kicked to the curb because they weren’t perfect.

Politicians today aren’t any worse than they were fifty years ago. FDR, JFK, and LBJ all had extramarital affairs. The only difference between them and Mark Sanford is that Sanford got caught, largely because the media has no respect for privacy anymore. Despite their misdeeds, you’ll find no pundits bloviating about how we shouldn’t have trusted Kennedy or Roosevelt.

As for the bit about role models, I doubt that seeing Mark Sanford committing adultery will cause someone else to also have an affair. The sad truth is that they are more likely to think such behavior is acceptable from seeing all the adults they know personally engage in it. They think of divorce as normal not because some politicians got divorced, but because their parents did. Instead of outsourcing the responsibility to be good role models to politicians who already have difficult tasks, we should take it upon ourselves.

-Marcus Gadson

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