CONTACT: Diane Zucker
PHONE: 914-437-7404
EMAIL: [email protected]
SEX SCANDALS AND THE WHITE HOUSE: WHY THE AMERICAN PUBLIC HAS BEEN SO OBSESSED WITH PRESIDENTIAL SEX SCANDALS
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. Jan. 30, 1998 -- Why has the American public been so obsessed with presidential sex scandals?
"Throughout U.S. history, when ever such affairs have surfaced, Democrats have been the alleged malefactors," says Rebecca B. Edwards, Ph.D., associate professor of history at Vassar College. "This has less to do with the individuals involved than with the larger patterns of partisan beliefs. Evangelical Christianity has been a consistent strain in Republican ideology since the party's emergence in the 1850s."
"Of course a wide range of Americans place a high value on marital fidelity and proper sexual conduct," says Edwards. "But it is evangelicals who consider such matters overtly political. The desire to have 'good Christian men' in office, has, for Republicans, implied that we should set a premium on electing family men, good husbands and fathers, devoted to duty rather than pleasure. Though Republican politicians have been guilty of sexual misconduct, Democrats have historically not seen this as an important issue. Their party's tendency (not unlike the prevalent view in some Christian countries, such as France) has been to see such indiscretions as a private matter, to be judged by God, and perhaps one's wife, but not by the public, who elected the leader but didn't marry the man."
In this as in many matters, the uniqueness of American politics rests on the crucial role of evangelicalism as an engine of partisan ideology, and of the nation's larger image of itself as a unique, providentially endowed City on the Hill, she says.
Pundits are already calling Clinton's troubles, "Zippergate," a nickname that marks the shortness of our collective attention span. The proper precedent is not Watergate (which was a crime of a different order) but sexual scandals stretching back to the nineteenth century, from accusations that Andrew Jackson was a bigamist to the furor over Grover Cleveland's illegitimate son - and to the Gary Hart scandal of a decade ago.
"Evangelicals have been active in politics since at least the 1830s, but their views of government has undergone a radical transformation in the past century. In the 1800s, the most powerful, politically active Christians believed in building up federal powers; today they seek to break it down. Regardless of the truths or untruths behind the Lewinsky-Clinton scandal, the public furor is instructive," says Edwards. "What has changed is not the sexual dalliances of powerful men, but the lessons we draw about the proper domain of government - which in the long run is a far more important affair."
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Professor Edwards can be reached directly at (914) 437-7517 or (914) 473-3929.
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