John Edwards Was Right...
There Are Two Americas
August 12, 2008

I feel sorry for John Edwards. I know we all feel like enveloping his cancer-stricken wife Elizabeth in a warm blanket of sympathy, now that her "devoted” husband has been outed as not being so devoted after all. I feel empathy for the hurt Mrs. Edwards must be experiencing. Yet, I feel a strange sense of pity for her philandering husband.

But I’m not ready to throw him a "pity party” because it is not only Elizabeth he disappointed. He has also been unfaithful to "we the people.” At least one strategist has already declared his affair a "private matter.” Not really. When a politician flaunts his "family values” in our face and wraps a run for the presidency around his "father of the year” image (and award), then it becomes the business of those of us in the "other America.” He brought us into the bedroom.

For all I know, Senator Edwards could be humming a verse of "Don’t cry for me Argentina, America.” He’ll probably be given a sympathetic "mea culpa” interview, with the silent approval of the "sainted” Elizabeth. He’ll bite his lower lip at appropriate pauses in the conversation to indicate remorse. In a step towards his rehabilitation, we will hear that he’s going to work towards destroying the barriers between the haves and the have-nots, whom he identified as "Two Americas.” The Habitat for Humanity program is already taken, so could there soon be a Deconstruct the Barriers Campaign – "destroy the barriers, resurrect the reputation”? The inhabitants of the other America will forgive him, right? Not so fast!

Why should "we the people” be hurt and outraged by the story of yet another politician who preaches one thing and does another? Why aren’t we ready to jump in that "forgive and forget limo?” We are hurt and enraged because here is example #999 of a politician who feels he is entitled to illicit affairs of the heart (and the wallet) and has done nothing wrong...unless he is caught!

We should be outraged and hurt because the bar for politicians’ behavior, instead of being raised, is being lowered. Their behavior becomes more and more outrageous because they have callously calculated that we the people have been "dumbed and numbed” to their excesses. They flaunt their affairs and outrageous behavior in our faces, and we accept that they are "just doing what politicians do,” to borrow a phrase from Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

But not all of us are dumb or numb or buying what is being peddled. We want real reform. Sure we know that many times "Joe six-pack” is out there cheating on his wife, whether she is well or ill. But Joe six-pack is not running around telling his neighbors how to run their lives, while indulging in a clandestine affair. Joe is keeping a really low profile and hoping that Mrs. Six-pack doesn’t find out!

Senator-cum-presidential-candidate John Edwards was out there exemplifying one type of behavior and indulging in the exact opposite. I may be old-fashioned, but what is moral for America’s regular folks should also be moral for America’s elite!

We are hurt and outraged because we are witnessing another episode of "Politicians Gone Wild.” One literally did go wild recently when the Mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kirkpatrick, allegedly "handled” two police deputies in a less than gentle manner. Just recently, another politician, Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York, was really into the "I don’t practice what I preach” lifestyle. In his former role, Spitzer was prosecuting perps by day and apparently "perping” after hours with a young lady who earned her money on the night shift. Some $80,000 later, his double life, and his career, came to an abrupt end.

Then there is former Congresswoman Ms. Cynthia McKinney who allegedly used her purse to land a thundering uppercut on a House police deputy when he dared ask for her identification. And who can forget Senator Larry Craig, who pleaded guilty to being in a public bathroom and using a "wide stance” to play footsie with an undercover police officer? He must have thought he was on a baseball diamond.

The most famous example of politicians gone wild could be the self-described "first black President” Bill Clinton. He was doing "laundry” in the Oval Office with an intern. I am assuming that they were doing laundry because there was talk of a stained blue dress. He at first tried to lie his way out of this revelation, using his quivering lower lip defense. When that tactic faltered, he taught the nation a lesson in semantics. We learned that the word "is” doesn’t always mean "is.” Many bought it. Teachers are now teaching kids that the word "is,” when used by everyone else, is inflexible in its meaning, but has great flexibility when Bill Clinton uses it. That contribution to the English language could be Bill Clinton’s true legacy.

I know that there is at least one nation "hurt” by the timing of Edwards’ mea culpa. The rulers of China must be wishing that their security police could extend their reach to Both Americas and teach John Edwards a lesson! How dare he use this "anointed” day of 08-08-08 as the day to confess that he forgot, for at least two months, that he had a 30-something-year marriage to his wife? This was supposed to be the day when most of the world would be focused on China, in all of its glory, showcasing that nation’s cocktail of communism and capitalism.

Two-Americas John Edwards almost spoiled that. His "serious error in judgment” succeeded in throwing China out of the day’s news headlines, especially here in America. China should not feel too put out. The thirst for another politician’s screw up is even pushing the apparent "invasion” of Georgia by Russia off the radar. Today, 08-08-08, has been a strange brew of communism and copulation.

On the day that Senator Edwards admitted, "I did have relations with that woman, but did not father her child,” there was at least one positive story. Fox News Channel showed a short interview with Keela Carr who walked 2,700 miles across country, from California to Arlington, Virginia, to thank our troops. She sold her belongings to finance her trip. She gave up her stuff so that she could thank our troops for showing their stuff...protecting us! My heart swelled with pride as I witnessed a grateful citizen, who with self-sacrifice, fortitude, and gratitude, counterbalanced the usual disdain shown towards our troops by too many politicians "gone wild.”

But as uplifting as Ms. Carr’s venture was, it did not distract me into allowing philandering politicians with wandering eyes and pants on fire off the hook! I am heartened that Senator Edwards used two words, "egocentric” and "narcissistic,” to very precisely describe his behavior. He will find no disagreement from me. As of this day, I want all politicians to begin to adhere to the "Caesar’s wife” principle. They must not only be above suspicion, but they must also appear to be above suspicion.

Leave the philandering, lying, cheating, and all of the other vices and miscreant behavior to those in "another America” – the America we hope constitutes a really, really small minority. Cheating on the person to whom you promised to "love, cherish and obey” is never acceptable, no matter which America you inhabit.

This nation has too rich a tradition of "goodness” to tolerate such doltish behavior, especially from those who seek to exalt themselves to leadership positions. To quote a real leader, who goes by the name of Jesus: "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Woe to you also, you lawyers! For you load men with burdens too hard to bear, and you yourself do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.”