The video is priceless. Picture this: a staged interview with Indiana Republican Representative Mark Souder, about the importance of teaching sexual abstinence. Tracy Jackson, the young female aid doing the interview smiles coyly as her hand nervously slides up and down her pen. The tape was created for a Christian radio station. But the inside story is this: That Republican rep, a married father and grandfather and self-proclaimed evangelical Christian resigned today after it was discovered that he was NOT abstaining from having sex — with his aid, Miss Tracy Jackson!
Yep. Another cheating politician. And this time, one who campaigns for sexual restraint. Why can’t some politicians keep in their pants? And what does it say about us as a country when so many of our leaders are LYING CHEATERS?
The answers are simple. We have become a country that has undergone a no-rules relationship revolution in our media. Granted, marriage vows still have deep meaning for some and when the going gets rough (read: sexually boring) many married couples remember their intellectual commitments. Long after the sexual hormones have done their work of creating a bond and a nuclear family, many smart folks simply choose to focus sexual energy on the task at hand, that is, raising healthy children in a crazy world. One recent article in Psychology Today said that 80% of married couples are happy with their sex lives but they are probably happy with less. And that’s normal.
So, what about the other 20%? Have they bought the media falsehoods that sex is free from consequences and that more sex means more happiness? By the way, I’ve never seen any study that connects promiscuity with general feelings of happiness. And they also seem to have no guilt when it comes to lying. The only defense I can make for those who sexually betray their partner is that they fell victim to a tried-and-true rule of sexual behavior — sex with an obstacle is always more exciting than completely safe and permissive sex. The more risk, the more arousal.
One other nifty thing about the huge explosion of sexual content in the media (this blog included) is that it is really difficult for married celebrities or public servants to keep their affairs under wraps, because sexy stories bring eyeballs to news programs. So, on one hand, the media glorifies sex without boundaries and on the other hand it acts as a watch dog.
Sorry, Representative Souder. Your video came back to bite you. In a news conference in Fort Wayne, the beleaguered rep said, “I am so ashamed to have hurt the ones I love. I am sorry to have let so many friends down, people who have worked so hard for me.” His resignation is effective Friday.
Tags: cheaters, infidelity