Why Are There So Many Pervs in Politics?
I’m seriously asking — what is it that draws such people to public life? One would think that a person with secrets would want to avoid the scrutiny that comes with elected office.
This isn’t just a GOP phenomenon, either. Though it’s usually a safe bet that any report of yet another pervy pol will involve the party of Eric Greitens, Roy Moore, Matt Gaetz et al — Wikipedia’s list of sex scandals involving federal office-holders skews heavily Republican (to be fair, a lot of them are just extramarital affairs) — but Democrats like Eliot Spitzer, John Edwards and Anthony Weiner show that it’s not a purely partisan phenomenon. Chris Coons would be so proud.
Is it simply a matter of a powerful position providing them the opportunity? An appetite for self-destruction? Do the Christian types think the scrutiny will give them greater incentive not to sin? Any explanation might suit an individual case, but I can’t come up with an answer to the question, “Why so many?”
Any help is appreciated.
Dang. I don’t have Vance Phillips email address.
I’ve often joked that many of the legislators who I encountered during my time in Dover had this odd combination of narcissism and insecurity.
Only, it wasn’t a joke.
Meh. There are lots of pervs in society. 25-30% of husbands and 10-15% of wives in America have at least had extramarital sex. 0.1% of people, mostly men, are pedophiles. 2% of men are rapists. You get 500+ federal politicians at once, in a group that’s mostly male, and you’re bound to come up with some sickos. I obviously have my criticisms of politicians (narcissism, corruption, and power hunger, excessive desire to fit in), but I’ve yet to see any empirical evidence that politicians writ large are bigger sexual scumbags than any random roughly 80% male group of people.
Understood. But given the penalties for being found out, one would therefore expect to find a lower rate among people whose lives are fodder for public gossip.
That’s my question: Why do people who have a lot to lose go into a field that makes them more likely to lose it?
The answer to your question IMO is arrogance and a sense of imperviousness. They think the loss is impossible.
In some cases, certainly. But consider Vance Phillips. Grooming a young girl like that and thinking you’ll live happily ever after is a couple of standard deviations beyond arrogance. It’s well into lunacy.
Agreed! Sometimes arrogance can spiral into lunacy. Look at Speaker Pete campaigning for a January 6th and Holocaust downplayer who was trying to unseat an incumbent in a Democratic primary in a district that’s under 40% white. When you’re arrogant enough to think your power is unlimited, you act no differently than a lunatic in an asylum who thinks he’s the Son of God.
The absolute pompousness of this comment shows exactly what the problem is: men who have the ego to talk out of their asses and assume no one is going to check them on their bullshit.
If you think men in positions of power are not more likely to abuse that power, I don’t know what to tell you.
Of course they are. But there are positions of power that would not expose them to public ridicule, so why are they drawn to this particular way of gaining power?
By the way, how exactly is your comment “checking me on my bullshit”? You’ve added nothing to this conversation, so you’re in no position to call bullshit on anything. I agreed with his comment — first word of my response — so you might want to work on your reading comprehension rather than your over-eager expression of anger.
My reply was directed to the original commenter, not your reply.
These damn comment threads make it easy to get mixed up. Sorry for the confusion.
I don’t think he’s wrong, necessarily. The behaviors exist everywhere, and there’s lots of evidence that, as you pointed out, access to power unlocks the behavior — they would have done it whenever they got the chance.
Something very interesting happens to our close relatives the gorillas. When a male assumes the alpha role in the group, he undergoes hormonal changes — that’s why the fur on their backs changes color and they become “silverback” gorillas.
To my knowledge nobody has ever checked humans to see if our endocrine system undergoes changes under similar circumstances, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we did. Why else would so many people’s behavior change, almost always for the worse, when they assume positions of power?
The explanation appeals to me because otherwise we have to assume that millions of people who gain power all just happen to turn into assholes.
Are men in power more likely to abuse that power, especially as it relates to say, covering up their perversion or using it to take advantage of people with less power in perverted ways? Sure. But I’m not sure how it’s absolutely pompous to ask for evidence that male politicians are more likely to be perverts than men as a whole. I grew up in one of Delaware’s lowest income ZIP codes and there was no shortage of sexual misconduct. If there’s a study that shows that men with political power are more likely to engage in such misconduct I’ll gladly change my mind—but calling someone pompous simply for asking for evidence to back up a claim frankly reeks of anti-intellectualism.
Unlike regular perversion, politician perversion is more likely to make the news. Their opponents will guarantee it and the media loves to sell it.
I don’t have any evidence that there’s a higher rate among politicians, but as I hope I clarified, I would think that the perverts would want to avoid a field that invites extra scrutiny.
I don’t think making your point was pompous, but I question why you felt moved to essentially try to shut down the topic.
Wasn’t replying to you, was replying to Margo. I didn’t mean to try to shut down the topic, just offer a fresh perspective that the apparent presence of lots of pervs in politics might be a simple reflection of greater media attention being given to politicians than to average Joes. As I said before, if there’s a study that contradicts my beliefs that anyone has, I’ll gladly change my opinion.
When you demand empirical studies as the only way to have your mind changed on an issue that does not primarily affect you, but rather marginalized people, and on which it would likely be impossible to conduct an empirical study at all, you are essentially ending the conversation before it can begin. Sometimes it helps to listen with curiosity without making immediate demands and engaging in debate chud behavior.
Point taken. While I’ve certainly experienced sexual harassment and even sexual assault from men more times than I could count, it’s probably happened to the vast majority of women more often than myself, so it’s not my place to comment on the issue. My intention wasn’t to downplay the issue of perverts in politics—it was to up-play the issue of perverts everywhere and answer Al’s question of “why so many perverts?” with “there are so many everywhere”. Still, I can see how it could come across the opposite way and give off an “all lives matter” vibe. I’ll not make any more comments for the rest of my life on sexual misconduct again except in vigorous opposition to men who have committed it having any place whatsoever in society. Sexual predators shouldn’t feel safe or comfortable even going to the grocery store.
Also, for everyone reading—- if any man in or endorsed by Delaware DSA is ever accused of sexual misconduct while I remain cochair, rest assured I will go through hell and high water to PERMANENTLY sever any and all relationship the chapter has with him, up to and including personal resignation from the org if such an effort were to fail. This would also include an effort to get the chapter to immediately demand any male candidate accused of sexual misconduct drop out and/or resign if they are a candidate/elected.
For some, politics is a thrill. I doubt its a specific gratification someone is looking for, and more about engaging in a taboo behavior. As teenagers we got our jollies going skinny dipping in a neighbors pool; so maybe that’s how Larry Craig felt when he adopted his wide stance in the airport men’s room.
You guys know other people can see this, right?
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Yeah, that was the whole point. I’m looking for input. Got anything to add?
It was the early 80’s, Reagan was president and nothing mattered. Pardon my youthful indiscretion
Pervs and power go hand in hand dont they? get some power, no matter how small of a pond it is in, and you feel you can be unaccountable for your miscreant deeds
Putting aside “sexual” perversion among the powerful for a moment, why are we not focusing on the obvious “perversion” that is epidemic among the politically powerful. I consider it to be a “perverse” act to subjugate fixed income retirees by forcing them into a “private” health care system which will deny them access to needed doctors, specialists, treatments, medication and tests that Delaware has unilaterally decided to impose on them with no other options. I consider it to be a “perverse” act to claim that these retirees must foot the bill for government mismanagement of taxpayer money. I consider it to be an act of “perversion” when this same government lead by Carney and Geisenberger try to construct a false-flag argument that the health care benefits arrearages are growing at an uncontrolled pace when they’ve failed, miserably, to ever attempt to set aside money to ease these obligations and instead choose to give away hundreds of millions of dollars to the richest corporations in the world.
Highmark Health reports $22 billion in revenue and $440 million in earnings1 through year-end 2021
https://www.highmarkhealth.org/hmk/newsroom/pr/2022/2022-03-22-Financials.shtml
I consider it to be an ultimate act of unforgiveable “perversion” for Delaware’s Governor and financial advisors, aided and abetted by the silence of the legislature, to ignore the reality that the latest DFAC report estimates a surplus over $250 million exceeding the 2022 budget and an additional $120 million in 2024 but still wants to charge fixed income retirees exorbitant fees for their health care access.
You must have a “perverted” moral compass to deliberately break a promise, betray a trust, and abuse the vulnerable.
Representative John Kowalko
For the most part, this seems like a conversation being had between men uninterested in genuine insight outside of their own spheres. You would do well to talk to women and people of marginalized genders in your own lives, and listen to what they have to say.
(Not you, REV and Rep Kowalko, stay killing it)
Very solid advice. Thanks for the comment.
What they have to say is of no greater use in answering the question than what anyone else has to say. Indeed, the people with the most insight into their motivations would be the men committing the acts.
What insight are you offering?
I can see Anarcho’s point, at least as far as women/non-binary people who have had to deal with political sex pests. They could have insight into what makes the scumbags tick.
I think Anarcho tried to lob an intersectional hand grenade that turned out to be a dud. They can save the meta-analysis for academia. This conversation has been above board and if Anarcho wants to provide insight on behalf of an oppressed group, they are more than welcome. I want to read other people’s responses about the topic at hand, not some empty commentary about the discourse.
That said, the transactional nature of politics is too attractive to all manner of sociopaths, and the system tends to reward the most sociopathic. So you end up with a positive feedback loop. I still hold that the “perversion” is not an end to itself, but an expression of power and rejection of cultural norms that seem to be co-morbid with sociopathic mindsets
I dunno. Do you think Matt Gaetz’s victims have some special insight into what makes him tick?
Also, I thought it awfully presumptive to assume that I hadn’t discussed this with anyone but men. But it’s a good object lesson that progressives have their own sets of prejudices.
Well, Gaetz’s victims probably know things about him that the general public doesn’t I’d think?
This one just came in today.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/arizona-gop-candidate-arrested-allegedly-masturbating-truck_n_635007e2e4b03e8038da457f