For a good portion of his life, Ted Kennedy was not so good to the women he knew. One woman ended up dead through her association with the lothario and at one point, the definition of roue had his picture next to it. I recall a breathless tribute to him that said: “now we know what a Kennedy looks like in winter.”
I thought: “Yes.”
Like Bill Clinton, however, Senator Kennedy was “good” on women’s issues, abortion, and so got a pass from the left-of-center press and women’s groups. Like family values groups with Trump, so the left protected “their guy” from the just charge that he was good for women in general, but very bad for women in particular.
Call it the “Ted Kennedy” exemption and it has not gone away.
Men like Bill Maher keep being icons of the left despite a horrific history with women. He is “right” on the key issues and any stories on him always talk, as Kennedy’s did, about his so-called growth. Contemporary atheism is roiled with sexism that goes underreported in the mainstream. Certain atheist leaders would hit on students every time they came to campus, but few in the atheist community cared and they remain (mostly) honored.
Of course, the church has done this as well as the media has (rightly) documented. I am not asking that the church or political conservatives get a pass, but that Hollywood secularism (when it makes moral pronouncements), not be given a pass.
Of course, a Kennedy exemption exists on the right where “pro-family” politicians are given a pass for their hypocrisy if they vote correctly. Senator Thurmond could exploit the “help” and live a double life without anyone complaining for decades. While there was a good argument to be made for voting for President Trump made by men like Hugh Hewitt that recognized his essential personal unfitness for office, other “pro-family” leaders become positive cheerleaders for the man.
This too is bad.
Still a man should be most critical of the sins he is most likely to commit and in the Trump Presidency, few academics are tempted to curry the favor of the White House. Our bias lies in the opposite direction. Even inside the church, the people we respect have tended to be “never Trump.” Our heroes are Senator Sasse and writers from the National Review.
So it is time for us to make sure that we do not develop our own Kennedy Exemption where opposition to the White House covers a multitude of sins. Nobody is perfect, but if you are a racist, you don’t get a pass on your personal racism, because you attack the Trump White House. It isn’t imperfections that are the problem or nobody could write about standards at all, but about pontificating on one thing and doing another.
When my news and social media feed* start being filled with people helping students see how bad Trump is to women when they themselves are bad to the women in their lives, one sees the Kennedy Effect coming into play. I want to make sure that I can be judged by the judgment by which I judge and that is hard.
At the very least, if I say: “turning women into objects is wrong” there should come the acknowledgement that, like many (but not all!) men, this is my struggle, too. Perhaps I should leave the certain lines of argument to others more fit for them . . . lest in my tricksy heart I am going for the Kennedy Effect and the “pass’ that comes with it.
Finally, one does not wish to fall into the trap of creating a world where every jollification, every issue, becomes political or is given the worst possible spin. Here is a good test: If Shakespeare enrages you with his earthy reality, then you have become too precious, whether you are on the left or the right.
God, help me.
The point is simple: if we sin, we should not pretend we do not. If we point out the cracks in someone else’s character, we should not pretend that there are not Grand Canyons in our own. Teachers (especially) should not use our President to insulate themselves from their own defects, by joining (a perceived) Team Virtue.
This is why we should (I have tried to do) point out the problems in our own communities before pointing out the problems on the “other side.” The Christian media and academic complex covers up plagiarism, ghostwriting gone amuck, pastors who make giant wages, heretics who sell well, and other problems. More importantly, my spiritual life should be focussed on my own problems
Yet in our society, the Christian media complex is dwarfed by the secular media complex. Christian academic problems (whether those in k-12 or college education) are dwarfed by sheer numbers by the secular establishment. Only in government are we on an equal plain in American culture. Eventually, if you live in this time, the hypocrisy that could shield a Bill Cosby and give him a pass impacts me more than the grifter who sells his multivitamins or sets up for-profits to milk his own non-profit.
It is a matter of degree and the fact that I can leave Pastor Grifter’s church but I cannot leave the established academy or media without leaving the culture altogether.
Let’s not try for the Kennedy Exemption!
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*Dear Friend,
This post is almost surely not all about you. I consume a great deal of news . . .and read extensively. This post was motivated by a prominent secularist Lothario that was pontificating about the President’s behavior.
John Mark
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