Mark Sanford

July 26, 2009

So Mark Sanford, Republican governor of South Carolina, literally gets up and leaves town for a week to visit his Argentine mistress. An accomplished career politician is somehow compelled to completely abandon his post and the constituency who elected him to fly down to Argentina for a sex romp?! If nothing else, this episode is a testament to the beauty of Argentina’s women!
I already know the answer to this question but I’m going to ask it anyway. Can we be done with this superior moral stance that Republicans love to take when it comes to “sanctity” of the family? Time and time again we see Republicans get elected to office on a platform of family values, only to be embarrassed when they are caught in some sort of hypocritical scandal (at least this time the third party is a woman). And I understand that Democrats do this sort of thing too, but they spend a lot less time preaching (and attempting to legislate) morality.
And this all comes from a man who endorsed displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools?! Can’t we be done having these frauds tell us how to live? How to raise our children? And here’s the real question: do any of these people really believe in it all anyway?
For a man who loudly proclaims his “Christian” status, he sure has a funny interpretation of the 7th Commandment (or the 6th, depending on denomination). I don’t think these people really believe any of this Biblical nonsense. They’ve just figured out that they can use religion to herd enough sheep into one pen to win an election. If Mark Sanford really thought he was committing a sin that could relegate him to the depths of hell in the afterlife, I don’t think he would have carried on an adulterous affair, no matter how hot this Argentine woman is. Mark Sanford and his hypocritical ilk-- men like Larry Craig and Ted Haggard—are not really Christians, and I doubt they believe at all. The same goes for most people I’ve met who check the Christian box on surveys. Most don’t follow a path that remotely resembles anything Christian.
So please, politicians and commoners—can you all just quit pretending you believe in these fairy tales? Because I’ve seen how you all behave at the bars when your spouses aren’t around, and you don’t seem too worried about the “wrath of God”.