As a general rule, I firmly hold that the private, victimless affairs of individuals are their own and no one has the right to know the details of the lives of others. But once such incidents are introduced into the public arena by the parties thereto, not only is it a matter of public interest, it becomes a matter on which others may express their judgments and hold the parties to account. Why? Be cause contrary to the dreamy hopes of Frankfurt School socialists (Foucault, Marcuse, Derrida, Chomsky, et.al.), there are objective standards of “right and wrong” and “good and bad.” Our ability to recognize same, is the single greatest characteristic which distinguishes conscious-driven human beings from sociopaths.
Yet despite this, there are in fact two glaring reasons why Weiner should have resigned immediately.
Weiner and the American Left have established the rule that a politician accused of illicit and/or aberrant behavior is unfit for public office. At least this is the rule which they apply to their political enemies/opponents on the Right. Republicans are routinely forced from office or at least set upon for same, by the Left for failing to live up to certain standards of rectitude. Therefore, it is only reasonable then that a Democrat who is proven to have so behaved, must be invited to leave his post by same said Leftists. It is shameful (were they capable of shame) that they vacillated on this issue for so long before pressuring him to do the right thing for his constituents and the American people in general.
There is however, a greater matter of concern as regards Weiner’s behavior vis-à-vis his responsibilities as a public official and the authority which he and his ilk have arrogated to themselves.
These supposedly well-intended men and women of the Left have anointed themselves our moral arbiters. They believe that we the governed are so morally and ethically bankrupt, that if left to our own devices and initiative, the entire universe would become a veritable wasteland. Therefore they and they alone must assume control over our lives so as to protect us from ourselves. We simply cannot be trusted with the responsibility of making decisions about our lives. It is Weiner and his ilk who must tell us the kind of car we should drive, the kinds of light bulbs we should use, the kinds of healthcare we are permitted to have, the manner in which we are allowed to raise and educate our children, the proper temperature of the Earth and the list goes on ad nauseum.
Allow me to turn to, Frederic Bastiat:
The claims of these organizers of humanity raise another question which I have often asked them and which, so far as I know, they have never answered: If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind? The organizers maintain that society, when left undirected, rushes headlong to its inevitable destruction because the instincts of the people are so perverse. The legislators claim to stop this suicidal course and to give it a saner direction. Apparently, then, the legislators and the organizers have received from Heaven an intelligence and virtue that place them beyond and above mankind; if so, let them show their titles to this superiority.So long as Weiner and his colleagues hold themselves out as somehow more moral than I, possessing a prescience that is truly god-like, it is only fair that I should hold them to standards of rectitude which exceed the expectations of fallible human beings. When Leftists give up their “right” to control my life, accepting that they are no more deified than I, I will gladly permit them the privilege of error and forgiveness. Until then let us all hold these gods-among-men to the standards expected of gods and permit them no room for human indiscretion.
They would be the shepherds over us, their sheep. Certainly such an arrangement presupposes that they are naturally superior to the rest of us. And certainly we are fully justified in demanding from the legislators and organizers proof of this natural superiority. – The Law (1850)