The double standard in politics drives me nuts; it’s the main reason I literally hate and would not feel one way or another if horrible things happened to the clowns over at MSNBC. If you aren’t willing to treat everyone equally and hold everyone to the same standards, then you are a scumbag, plain and simple. Treating someone differently because of their skin color is the definition of racism: gender, political ideology, etc. It’s bigotry, obviously, but their blatant hypocrisy is what turns it up to 11 for me.
This week, we learned about two “scandals” involving sex in politics. Well, one actually involves sex, and the other allegedly involves sex. Neither involved a national politician, but both made news in two very different ways.
First, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was accused of having a years-long affair with an advisor, Corey Lewandowski. Did it happen? I have no idea. But neither does anyone reporting on the story or quoted in it. All the quotes, by the way, are anonymous, so these eunuchs could easily have an ax to grind.
Let me say a couple of things at the start: First, Noem is beautiful, so rumors of this sort are, sadly, common in politics. Second, I couldn’t care less if the story is true. Noem isn’t on a ballot anywhere, at least at this point, and I don’t have a vote for Pope, nor am I married to her. I would vote for literally any Republican over every Democrat. I won’t be moralized by the Bill Clinton or Joe Biden party and their history of handsy sexual assaults and rape. Sorry, I'm not interested.
Having worked in DC for two decades, I can assure you that the political world is filled with horrible people everywhere. The way I describe it is it's a high school with paychecks. The paychecks, oftentimes, are very large, which only enables the high school part even more. Imagine all the d-bags in your high school making six- and seven-figure salaries – how awful would they have been then?
If you read the stories about Noem from the Daily Mail or the New York Post, no proof whatsoever is missing. Also missing is anyone willing to go on record, just political operatives saying they were together at various political events over time. So has literally everyone anonymously quoted in the story, everyone who “reported” on it or edited it, and 95 percent of DC. Well, Noem hired Lewandowski as a consultant, presumably to raise her profile on the national stage. This isn’t weird. Name another Governor South Dakota ever had. Montana? Wyoming? Damn, near any state you’ve never lived in?
See why someone might hire a person like Corey if you have any ambitions beyond Governor? Corey knows the players on the national stage, and it’s a smart move. It would also explain why they went to events across the country together, wouldn’t it?
Now, if you were another ambitious Politico person that presents an opportunity to spread rumors, doesn’t it? High school with paychecks.
Remember when Mike Pence caught hell for saying he wouldn’t do a closed-door meeting alone with a woman? See why now? If you have two lunch meetings in a month with someone of the opposite sex in DC, there will be people talking about how you must be hooking up. I’m not one to cry any kind of “ism” ever, but for attractive women like Noem, this does smell of sexism.
Again, I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I’ve seen the scenario play out more times than I can count. And when one subject of a rumor is being speculated about as being a possible VP choice, the knives that come out are even longer. Everyone has a dog in that hunt, and when you can't make a case for yourself on merit – either because you’re a horrible person or a horrible candidate who lost their race to elevate their own profile – you take this path. It’s easier to knock someone else down with anonymous stories than it is to build yourself up with accomplishments.
Again, just saying…
On the other side of the aisle, look how the scandal of Democrat Virginia State Senate candidate Susanna Gibson is being covered. She isn’t accused of having an affair, at least as far as we know, but she is accused of moral depravity, at least on par with it, maybe even worse because she and her husband did it for money. And she’s the victim, somehow.
Gibson and her husband live-streamed their sex lives for money, likely because they’re exhibitionists and scumbags. Honestly, who else would do that?
It’s their sex life; they can do with it what they want, and I’m allowed to judge it in anyway I want. It’s not illegal; it’s just gross. It not only calls into question their integrity, it makes you question their intelligence. What kind of morons think they can do this, and it does not come out eventually? The Internet is Pepperidge Farm – it remembers forever. If her husband were my lawyer, or she my nurse, I’d question their intelligence to the point that I’d find new people for those jobs.
But the story around this isn’t how stupid or gross they are, nor is it about shame; it’s about shamelessness. Gibson spent the week nailing herself to the cross, claiming victim status. If she’s a victim, she’s also the perp. No one “leaked” these videos; she put them online herself... for money. They aren’t hard to find; it took me of half a minute to find images and one video. I probably could have found more, but one was enough. Two words, Susanna: tan lines.
The video was gross, with the two of them moving the camera around, talking to it, and offering to do things more popular in porn and prison than in real life, but only if the people watching pay them. I never saw a live sex show in Amsterdam, but I imagine it’s very similar. Would you call those “performers” prostitutes? I don’t know since they aren’t taking on just anyone, but it’s about as close to the right word as you can get until we come up with a new one. So, what do you call the Gibsons?
Rather than reporting honestly about facts, not rumors, the stories the media wrote about this include headlines like, “Virginia candidate who live-streamed sex videos draws support from women and a leading Democrat” and “So What if a Candidate Livestreamed Sex Acts with Her Husband?”
How is Kristi Noem a “whore” over a rumor, but the Gibson family are heroes for, at a minimum, traumatizing their kids in a way that will never go away? I’m not moralizing here; I don’t care about either because I’m not involved with anyone involved. However, as an observer, I have no idea how anyone can come to both conclusions simultaneously the way the left has. One has no proof, and the other has evidence that the participants literally sold to the world, yet the conclusions are the opposite of what would’ve been seen as usual just a few years ago.
I wrote in my book a few years back about how we, as a society, obliterated the line between “famous” and “infamous” – being famous was good, being infamous was terrible. With that line gone, it’s now just about getting attention. The reason for that attention doesn’t matter. Accomplish something important or strip naked and stand in an intersection screaming at people; both will land you a bunch of social media followers and endorsement deals, albeit for different companies.
This tale of two “scandals” is garbage, so it’s only natural it’s being perpetuated by garbage people. If you’re surprised Democrats would do this, you haven’t been paying attention. As the hilarious late screenwriter and newspaper columnist Burt Prelutsky famously said, “If liberals didn't have double standards, they wouldn't have any standards at all.”
Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and author of the book Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.