Personal politics

Personal lives and politics often prove to be a bad mix. Just ask former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. He was overheard making flirtatious comments to women at a TV awards dinner last week. His wife of 20 years, Veronica Berlusconi said he told a woman "if I wasn't already married I would marry you right away." He was also quoted as telling TV presenter Aida Yespica, "I would go anywhere with you."\nWhen the scorned Mrs. Berlusconi found that an apology was not coming, she took her grievances to the media. She submitted a letter demanding an apology to an Italian newspaper traditionally critical of her husband, La Repubblica. \nBacked into a corner, Berlusconi responded with a letter of apology explaining his actions and begging for forgiveness.\nBut Mrs. Berlusconi was not merely in it for the personal vindication. She was out to teach everyone a lesson. She was quoted in the BBC as saying "today for my female children, already adults, the example of a woman defending her own dignity in her relationships with men takes on a particularly significant importance" and that she hopes the incident will remind her son "to never forget to keep among his fundamental values respect for women."\nThough she was addressing her children, her message is one meant for society's ears in general. \nI could say with a reasonable degree of certainty, that there are married men all over the world who do more than just flirt with other women. There are husbands who will sleep with one or multiple other women and even have children with such mistresses. \nHowever, the nature of this issue changes greatly when the offending spouse is someone in the public eye, a role model so to speak. \nWhen the average Joe or Jane sees people who are elevated to highly powerful and responsible positions in society act in poor moral taste, it gives the impression that it's OK to engage in questionable behavior. \nWe have long turned a blind eye to the personal transgressions of those deemed to be great leaders. John F. Kennedy, widely hailed as a great statesman, was known to be involved with an unknown number of women. There's an anecdote that someone brought up Lenin's love life at a White House dinner and was looked upon disapprovingly by Kennedy, who believed a leader's public and private life had no relation to each other. \nBill Clinton is deemed by many to have been a great president -- minus the Monica Lewinsky scandal of course. \nThe upside to the stories of these two former presidents is that they demonstrate society's increasing tendency to hold men of power to the same standards as the rest of us. Whereas Kennedy's multiple moral misconducts barely made a blip on the public's radar, Clinton was held publicly accountable for his tryst with White House intern Lewinsky. \nThe story of Mr. and Mrs. Berlusconi seems to be another part of the trend toward holding highly visible members of society responsible for their actions in highly visible ways. \nHopefully this trend will continue its ascent upward.