For the last forty years, we have let conservative Republicans set themselves up as moral exemplars. Again and again they have shown themselves to be the rankest h
ypocrites, belying their simplistic moralizing.
Over the weekend, we learned that governor Mark Sanford, the firmly conservative governor of South Carolina, had disappeared. We were told that he was “writing something,” was “taking some time off.” It was suggested he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, a manly and worthy pursuit for a red-meat right-winger. It turns out he was in Argentina, continuing an affair that had gone on for at least a year. He claimed that he spent the week crying, which suggests that Republican incompetence extends even to philandery.
For those of us watching the stimulus, Governor Sanford is a familiar figure. The Governor wanted the legislature to turn down the state’s share of federal stimulus money. He was motivated by the kind of knee-jerk anti-government sentiment that characterizes the Republican Right. Gov. Sanford was widely applauded for his stance, taken regardless of the great cost to the state’s citizens.
This incident highlights the hypocrisy that runs through the conservative mindset. Authoritarian-minded movement conservatives have built a worldview around a stunted vision of sexual life, blaming the poor for their plight, demonizing public life, and exalting corporate values as the apotheosis of human life and meaning.
Meanwhile, their crusaders are continually being caught failing to adhere to to the standards they demand from all of us. Even those receptive to their message have begun to view these missives with suspicion, and the more shrill the admonitions become, the less effective they are.
In recent months, states from Vermont to Iowa have legalized same-sex marriage, which seemed impossible less than a year ago. There have been suggestions to decriminalize marijuana from across the ideological spectrum. “Moral” issues that seemed permanent obstacles to dialogue on serious national issues have been stripped to policy debates, flipping overnight. The impossible looks more possible everyday.
Americans have finally discovered that the right-wing Emperor has no clothes, and we will all benefit.
