The hypocrisy and moral turpitude of the leaders of the Republican party is just one reason why only 21 percent of Americans identify themselves as Republicans.

There's more...

There's more...

First, if you haven't seen CNN's explosive interview with John McCain last night, where he talks about his first marriage, you should: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChIX-XHlZ Fw

Okay, fine, grannyhelen. You got me. Put "sex" in the title and have McCain squirm on CNN while trying to defend cheating on a sick woman who faithfully waited for him the entire time he was in Vietnam, and I'll take a peek.

But what does this have to do with policy?

Follow me, young grasshopper...

There's more...

I am glad John Edwards is not the Democratic nominee.

A few more thoughts on this story are after the jump.

There's more...

We've all heard hand-wringing over what will become of the facebook generation when their drunken college-age (And you don't have to go to college to do stupid crap at that age, which seems to be getting older all the time, if you know what I mean.) facebook pictures come up in middle age. People can even point to the would-be teacher, Stacy Snyder, who was denied a teaching credential by Dr. Jane Bray of Millersville University, because there was a tame picture of her on MySpace in costume holding an opaque cup and captioned "drunken pirate."

When the Dr. Brays of the world are replaced by Stacy Snyder's contemporaries, I bet that will happen ... very rarely. [I could perhaps have chosen a better example. Oh well.]

Anyway, that's my guess. That people who've grown up in more of a public fishbowl, without the fictional veneer of respectability, where it's shameful to admit nearly universal indulgences, will give less of a damn about stupid non-issues and have more room to worry about big crimes that affect us all. But we don't live in that future.

We live in a present where the Republicans ran three admitted adulterers, including John McCain, for the presidency - and no one cared. But a former Democratic contender's affair is revealed - big news.

Bush is rendered an unfit campaigner for his party successor not because of lies, torture, lawbreaking, economic havoc, an unjust war, the death of hundreds of thousands, the loss of an entire city - but because his poll numbers have tanked. Bill Clinton was rendered an unfit campaigner for his party successor, in spite of being very popular at home and overseas, presiding over an era of general peace and prosperity, winning a war - just because he did, in fact, have sex with that woman.

That's our media world. That's our reality. It's stupid and unfair. It's grossly immoral if your ethical compass includes a measure of the suffering caused by an action, and isn't solely predicated on whether the lapse in question touches you there.

Yet one of the main messages the blogosphere has been trying to drum into our representatives' heads is that while they're looking to build us all a better future, they need to operate in the media reality of today.

The Established Church

While the US doesn't have a state religion, it does have a state prudery somewhat based, still, on what it was acceptable to show on television during the "Leave it to Beaver" era. Like other authoritarian moralities, its allegiance is to the dominant power structure more than its alleged ideals, which is clear from the enforcement patterns.

Take something lots of people do, make it a 'crime'. Don't enforce it among the establishment. Use it as a stick to beat dissidents and potential dissidents with.

There's more...