Point Blank: Politicians, Sex and the Voters: Which Business to Mind?

Patrick Sikana

By Patrick Sikana

First it was Miles Sampa (Deputy Minister – Commerce), then Daniel Chisenga (Lusaka Mayor) and now Francois Hollande (French President) embroidered in some steamy sex revelations. Of course there was one Bill Clinton and a King Solomon before these three. What’s with politicians, sex and the voters?

Sex is a very touchy subject for voters. The Bible teaches that sex is only allowed in the context of virgin marriage monogamy and so we want our leaders to be “moral” people. However, let’s admit some things here: We are the descendants of 3 billion years  or 6000 years of sexual activity (depending on whether you are an evolutionist Christian) . Every living creature down to plant life wants to get laid.

Among male politicians, males who have the drive, strength, leadership, and confidence to rise above the herd are usually very sexually active men. Throughout history, kings and other great men have usually had many lovers. Women are biologically attracted to men of power and authority. And men of power and authority have a hard time resisting the temptations of large numbers of (beautiful) women wanting to have sex. So the politician is faced with having to lie about sex to get elected or stay in office.

Bill Clinton is an example of this. In 1992 Jennifer Flowers came forward in an attempt to ruin Clinton’s chances to become president and squealed on him. Clinton admitted to “wrongdoing” and then lied about Flowers. If Clinton hadn’t lied about Flowers America might have ended up with 4 more years of Bush and an 800 billion dollar a year deficit. The public wanted Clinton to fix the sluggish economy, but they didn’t want a promiscuous president. The President, after all, had to set the “moral standard” because he was on a “pedestal”. The public wanted Clinton to not be the way Clinton was. So Clinton told the voters what they wanted to hear. Since American society can’t face the reality of sex, politicians are required to lie about it. If a politician were to tell the truth about sex, most television stations would censor it.

What should we expect from our politicians? Should we expect moral perfection? Or should we expect them to do the job they were hired to do? Back in ancient times kings were considered Gods. People didn’t have books, television, and the Internet. The kings had absolute power and control over who lives and who dies. Virgins were tossed into volcanoes. These people knew how to party!

Things have changed since then. We live in a world where democracy is idealised. We elect people to do a job. Our “leaders” really aren’t leaders as much as public servants. They work for us. They are our employees. And we need to keep reminding them of that to keep them in their place, but that’s a subject for another day. They don’t wear a crown, they wear a double breasted suit and get paid to do a job, and that job is to wisely spend the taxpayer’s money, reduce poverty, and to pass laws to keep the good order of society.

I think that we need to judge a politician on the basis of how good of a job he does doing what we hired him to do. If we hire a painter to paint our house, we don’t care what his sex life is as long as he’s getting his work done. Don’t get me wrong. There is a place for morality in our leaders but the voter has neither capacity nor moral authority to police that. I think it’s time to chop down the pedestal and put these people to work on taxes and budgets and leave the great moral questions to our “perfect” religious leaders like Jimmy Swaggart and some Priests!