Posted by BY J E SOLOMON
When it comes to politics and public scrutiny, Africa is the safest place to be as a politician. If you are a male politician in America and you have hyperactive sex hormones, either you quit politics, or you try to stay clean. A partial list of sex scandalized American male politicians below will explain it all.
In the US, there is so much scrutiny of politicians and public office holders such that their private and public lives never seem to have a dividing line.
For any male politician, very potent and profoundly virile, life in the US can be very challenging, especially if they’re blessed with excessive hormonal fluid that could cause them to misbehave. With the power, glamour and influence that come with being a high profile citizen, there will be many including women who will try to be friends with them. Such exposures could likely create chances for relationships that will stir up wanton desires of the flesh.
A thoughtless, reckless touching of a presumed friendly female could be dangerous and costly. The lure of money and instant fame could drive such a female to see an attorney for being wrongfully touched. And the legal interpretations of such touching may vary from groping, battery, assault and even attempted rape. Any of these can cause the offending male politician not only his exulted position, but sometimes his adorable wife of many, many years.
Should there be more than just a mere touching, and perhaps a consensual sex occurred, that could also cause the male politician the loss of his job, a possible indictment and jail time. Even if the affair had been protected for many years, it still could be costly once it comes to light.
In Africa, West Africa to be precise, a politician’s illicit affair is nobody’s business. The politician will still have his job. Who cares if he has a love-child? The wife may feel cheated though, but to consider a divorce over his infidelity will certainly not be an option. It is less likely that the wife will even get the support of her own parents and family members if she decides to seek divorce, unless the politician happens to be too arrogant and rude toward the wife and her family, otherwise the cheating is no big deal.
The society has a unique way of handling such bad behaviors. The husband is required to appease his wife materially and financially. The wife determines the fee and what she wants as compensation. This is open to bargaining. Such settlement is normally peaceful and without any legal wrangling.
It can be argued that, African societies are more lenient toward men for their bad behaviors than Western societies. From time immemorial, the people have recognized that men are quite different from women and that, as a result of some radical steroid hormones Nature planted somewhere between their legs, men are inclined to be naughty and sometimes out of control once these hormones are triggered. Sympathy, inspired by a sense of understanding, is what men often get, except in extreme cases of rape of underage girls by freakish adults. Such defilement of minors is highly resented and condemned. Still, some people in the society might even blame the raped victim for her woes if she never shouted or screamed for help.
Three American politicians have been in the news lately as a result of their past “bad behaviors.” John Edwards, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Anthony Weiner already have their names recorded among previous “bad boys” before them:
- Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington, was involved in an illicit affair in 1797 with 23-year-old Maria Reynolds that lasted over three years.
- The only “Bachelor President” of the US, James Buchanan, 15th President, for many years lived with Senator William Rufus King (D-NC, later the 13th Vice-President) with whom he had a gay relationship. An affair that earned America the unsavory description of “one nation under sex.”
- President Warren Harding (R) – Two sex scandals involving Carrie Phillips and Nan Britton (1923)
- Neil Goldschmidt (D-OR) The ex-governor had an affair with underage female (1970s)
- Fred Richmond (D-NY) was charged with soliciting sex from a 16-year-old boy (1978)
- Robert Bauman (R-MD) was charged with attempting to solicit sex from a 16-year-old male prostitute (1980)
- John G. Schmitz (R-CA) had extramarital affair resulting in a love-child (1982)
- Ernie L. Konnyu (R-CA) –sexual harassment complaints by two female staffers (1987)
- Brock Adams (D-WA) eight women accused Adams of committing various acts of sexual misconduct, ranging from sexual harassment to rape (1988)
- Donald “Buz” Lukens (R-OH) was accused of having sexual relations with a 16-year- old girl (1989) and was accused of fondling a woman in an elevator (1990)
- Mel Reynolds (D-IL) was indicted for sexual assault and criminal sexual abuse for a relationship with a 16-year-old campaign volunteer (1994) and was convicted of 12 counts of sexual assault, obstruction of justice and solicitation of child pornography (1995)
- President Bill Clinton (D-AR) – The Monica Lewinsky sex scandal (1998)
- Jim McGreevey (D-NJ) – The Governor confessed to a homosexual extramarital affair (2004)
- Eliot Spitzer (D-NY) – The NY Governor patronized a prostitution service called Emperors Club VIP (2008)
- John Edwards (D-NC) – Senator Edwards is currently on indictment charges over a scandal plagued extramarital affair that resulted in a love-child.
- Anthony Weiner (D-NY) – The Congressman confessed to sending lewd photos of himself and text messages to women online. He resigned on June 16, 2011 as a result.
I hate marital infidelity and will not condone it, but considering that the shame of being found and exposed isn’t deterring American politicians from cheating and misbehaving, I think it’s about time the media stopped making big deals out of such sex scandals. It may help the nation better if the media take it upon themselves to liaise with Congress to find ways of curbing bad behaviors among intelligent and hardworking politicians.