No I did not plan on having a part 2 to my last blog. Then Anthony Wiener happened. Now what can this sorry episode add to my general point. I did not think he added much until I heard the hot dog say "I am taking full responsibility for my actions."
Really hot dog? Full responsibility would have been to come clean as soon as information started to come out. Full responsibility would have been not to blame conservative media for his trouble when he knew he was guilty. Full responsibility would not have dragged his wife though this mess by getting help when he saw he had a problem. The way hot dog handled this is anything but full responsibility.
Now why did not hot dog take full responsibility. The answer is simple. He thought he had a chance to get away with it. Put yourself in his position. You have seen politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, have sex scandals and get away with it by blaming their political enemies. So you can either come clean and pay the consequences of your actions. Or you can use the tried and true method of shifting blame onto others and maybe get away with it. You know shifting blame may work because people from your party want to blame their political opponents and may overlook evidence that you are guilty. Come on and be honest. Which choice would you make?
Hot dog made his choice because he reasonably thought he had a chance to get away with it. What if he knew he would not get any support from his fellow Democrats for lying? That his they would be suspicious from the very beginning and would have demanded that he have an external investigation of his "hacked" account. He would have had an incentive to been honest in the first place. (By the way this is not an attack on the Democrats. I have no doubt that Republicans would have initially covered for their own in the same manner).
We live in a society where people do not always react with their better angels and so we need social sanctions that go beyond merely defending the interest of our social groups. Just like we need Democrats to not merely blame Republicans at their first opportunity, but to hold their own accountable, we need to be aggressive in challenging those in our own groups. I like to see a culture where we are driven more by larger principles of honest and fairness rather than tribal loyalty. Such tribal loyalty encourages members of our own group to use our prejudices and stereotypes so that they can engage in immoral deeds and then manipulate us to get away with it.
Sincerely,
Trouble-Maker
Thursday, June 9, 2011
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