It must by now be obvious that people in politics have sex, outside of the conventional and sometimes puritanical values presented to the voters. Any list of political love affairs, casual affairs, paid sex, risky or kinky sex, flirtations, same gender sex and multiple marriages would be long, and relatively uncorrelated to political parties or ideologies. It should also be obvious that political figures lie about their sex lives. These lies are told for all sorts of reasons, some self serving, some out of consideration to third parties whose lives are also impacted by candor, and some lies that simply try to establish some boundaries to the public's "right to know."
There is no evidence that the best leaders have the most monogamous or boring sex lives, nor can one argue the reverse.
It is both unrealistic and stupid to insist that politicians "tell the truth" about their sex lives. People lie about sex, and often this is a positive, not a negative. Do you really want to know everything about the sex lives of your parents, your children, their school teachers, the manager of the local Safeway, or your car pool buddies? Why would you want to know everything about the sex lives of members of Congress, judges or Governors?
The best outcome might be to tell politicians to keep their sex lives to themselves. Don't make your happy marriage the center piece of your campaign. Don't volunteer to be interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN about your sexting habits. Don't call excessive attention to your sex life, or lack of a sex life. Don't go on television to condemn someone else's messy sex scandal. But mostly, don't feel obligated to tell the truth, about your sex life. This is not the same as promising to take positions on real policy issues, to get elected, and then immediately changing or abandoning positions, once in office. This is not the same as lying about your resume, lying about the constant trading of special interest legislation for campaign contributions, or lying about matters of war and peace, or the public's civil rights. This is not the same as lying about the countless things that really do impact our lives, and which political figures are given real responsibility and trust.
In short, feel somewhat free to lie about your sex lives. But less free to lie about everything else associated with your job as an elected official.
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Both sexes have libidos. Just ask any woman in her late thirties or older. Men, unfortunately, taper off in their twenties and need extra features to excite them the way any stimulus did as a late teen. Speaking from my seventh decade I can attest that quality supplants quantity along the way but sex remains the only objective proof of intelligent design (maybe chocolate too).
Human existence without sexuality would be drab indeed. It gives that "Christmas is coming" sense of anticipation, and if properly expressed, is a joy unique to life. It has no limitation in its expression (between consenting adults). It is celebrated every ten minutes on television with commercials hustling drugs for male performance. Yet the FDA has refused to approve low dose testosterone as an enhancement for female libido. It thus epitomizes all the the contradictions and hypocricies of modern culture.
If God created mankind in his image He was one funny dude. When asked what he would like more than anything else, 80 year-old Grouch Marx said, "An erection."
of citizens is highly undesireable.
It's also a matter of too many politicians telling everyone else how to behave - they want to control what we do in our bedrooms, who we may marry, when and how we breed - but then it all proves to be "do what I say, not what I do".
Dishonesty and hypocrisy are the problems here.
Imagine if a married female politician sent pictures of,
lets say, her breasts (not even sexual in some cultures)
to a hot 20-something stud. Same response from the author ? Sure . . .
but if you do, then you have become a slave to your sexuality.
Some of us realize that, and realize that sexual honesty is important.
Finally! A short to-the-point article!
Thank you!