There have been rants lately in some places saying that it’s hypocritical for gay men or lesbians to tap-dance on Sen. Craig’s political grave (couldn’t resist). Let me try to explain why I don’t believe it is.
The basis of the contract between constituents and their representatives is trust. We elect people whom we then trust to be honest and act in all our interests. Now we know that in fact most representatives are slaves of the special interests and only pay lip service to their constituents when this conflicts with their obligations to the big money people who help them get re-elected. However, being consistent and honest in one’s private life and one’s public life is all-important. If, for example, a senator who has large investments in oil and gas development then votes for legislation that would increase his or her own investment worth, this is not honest and creates a conflict. In practice, nowadays representatives put investments in a blind trust and only get income from it, without knowing what investments his or her trustees have chosen.
Senator Craig voted consistently for legislation that limited lesbian and gay rights. At the same time, he was (according to reports) tap-tap-tapping at the stall doors of many public conveniences. Now the question as to why he denies he’s gay (“men-who-have-sex-with-men” or MSMs often do) is not something I’d care to get into. But it shows a disconnection between the Senator and the truth. In one fundamental area of his life, he does not perceive activities that his family, friends, and the general public would see as homosexual acts to be so. The cognitive dissonance, the interior conflict between what he does and how he votes and what he believes, creates quite a bit of stress and tension, I am certain. On a personal level, this is not conducive to mental balance. On a political level, reasoned debate goes out the window when people do not vote as they act. The religious corollary to this is the Church of England priest who preaches faithfulness within marriage but who is also having an affair with the verger, or the Ted Haggard who preaches against sodomites but who happily pokes his butt in the air for his rentboys to plow.
I suggest that this cognitive dissonance, rather than his MSMness or homosexuality, is what disqualifies him for office.
The question of entrapment is also an interesting one. Did Senator McWidestance commit a crime in the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport? No, he did not. Was the policeman justified in charging him with a crime, judging from what he did? No, he was not. Did the end justify the means? Well, a senator who has difficulties with his own psychological makeup and who votes against his own interests certainly needs to consider his or her position, and that’s exactly what he did.
I believe that Sen. Craig voted to convict Bill Clinton of impeachment for lying about his sexual activities with Monica Lewinsky. Is it stretching a point if we were to say that that is exactly what Sen. Craig has been doing for years? Why would President Clinton (on the one hand) be a criminal for doing something that Sen. Craig is doing (lying about his sexual activities)?
So, even though Sen. McWidestance did not commit a crime (in my opinion) in Minneapolis, his entire mode of life and his conduct bring into question his fitness for office. The other two closeted senators of whom I’m aware (both of whom are Republicans), one of whom is in high office in the Senate, will do all they can to ensure that Sen. McWidestance holds to his previous intention and resigns, since his continued presence in public life will threaten to shed light on their own unsavoury activities.
As the Republicans have more seats to defend in 2008 than the Democrats do, it’s likely that some of them will lose and the current precarious Democratic control of the Senate will become less so.
Oh, and if a Democratic politician were to be exposed as a closeted gay man or lesbian but his/her voting record were consonant with his/her sexuality, I would be quite a bit less likely to think that s/he should resign. No cognitive dissonance! However, if s/he voted as the homophobes do, out with him/her! And the only openly-gay Republican in the House of Representatives has a good voting record on lesbian and gay issues and I have no problem with him (other than the fact that he should really be a Democrat).
The consequence of the closet is death to the soul, and sometimes the end of a political career.
post_ecdysis says: