America: Sex, Lies And Politicians

Once again, while facing catastrophic problems such as: floods, tornadoes running amok across the land, the second round of a recession which could make the 2008 crash look mild, a precipitous decline of the US dollar, a real estate market still in free fall and millions of Americans unemployed, America and its sad excuse for media is focusing mainly on sex scandals involving some of its politicians.

Across the board, the United States is a border line schizophrenic country living in delusion and lies. On policy issues, the US claims to support “freedom and democracy” while the real concerns are to secure resources, they transit routes and to maintain the empire by the use of either its military or economic power. The United States (especially in the Obama era) talks endlessly about its positive role in world affairs, while supporting repressive and authoritarian regimes worldwide. It was the case under dictator Ben Ali in Tunisia and Mubarak in Egypt before the Arab revolution. It is still the case, in a flagrant double standard, in Bahrain, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

On sexual matters, America’s pathological contradictions are just as acute. In many ways, America is still a puritan country which has been left behind the 1960s sexual revolution. But yet, America has an obsession for sexual topics when it comes to its celebrities and politicians, and quite often the distinction between the two has become blurry. A few weeks ago, former governor Schwarzenegger started a nightmarish journey of public humiliation and private hell when it was revealed that he had a “love child” with one of his staffer. Now, US news outlets are relentlessly headlining on the “rage” of his wife. She is apparently planning her revenge by ruining his life and allegedly wants to take away from him the bulk of his fortune.

On Friday, former presidential hopeful, John Edwards, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to his efforts to cover up the affair and child, which he had when his wife was fighting cancer. Edwards was allegedly using campaign donations to fund the cover up of the sex scandal. Another meaningless sex scandal Americans are dwelling on is the one concerning Congressman Anthony Weiner. The Weiner scandal -it is already called by some “Weinergate”-started last Friday when an underwear picture was allegedly sent from Representative Weiner’s tweeter account.

What is truly pathetic, in all this, is that what Americans call media and journalists are paying attention to side stories of this nature. Editors are putting all this meaningless non sense as headliners. There is one thing that the American press knows well: Americans can not get enough of sex scandals. The US has a housing market in the toilet, a job market collapsing, another major financial crisis on the horizon due to a more than 14 trillion national debt, yet most so called reporters and media organizations are talking and writing about underwear photos, John Edwards’ indictment and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s marriage on the rocks.