Transcript for the Piece Audio version of A Double Standard

You heard that the governor of South Carolina went to Argentina to “recharge.” I feel sorry for him and his wife and his kids and his friend. I also empathize with the millions of people to whom similar things have happened. Although we read that David, Solomon, and Muhammad had several wives, human nature has inexplicably changed and this thing called love is now an exclusive property of matrimony.

Can you remember seeing a weeklong nightly-news series about some huge company’s president who is having an affair with his secretary? Powerful, rich men always have a bevy of nice-looking young girls under each wing. Can you believe that they never avail themselves of this fecund menagerie? Yet, you probably don’t regret not hearing their marital indiscretions recounted on the nightly news.

Do you believe that having extra marital affairs with secretaries would get the CEO of a Fortune 500 company fired for incompetence? After all, does what now passes for morality have anything to do with a person’s ability to excel in his profession?

On the other hand, the worst president the United States ever had was faithful to his wife… as far as we know.

Do you believe that having extra marital affairs with actresses means that a movie director is not capable of crafting great movies? Does the world’s best skier or boxer or swimmer automatically lose his ability to be the best in his field when he cheats on his wife? If the world’s greatest neurosurgeon were about to remove a tumor from your brain, would you quickly dismiss her if you heard she had committed adultery?

Yes, I agree with you: philandering is not nice. But why do we hold even excellent politicians to a different standard?