Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Mark Sanford: He Is Risen






There are no second acts in American lives.
                            --F. Scott Fitzgerald


One might argue Mark Sanford's election to his old House of Representatives seat is not a second act but just a continuation of the first.

One might argue this is simply the second act of "House of Cards."

Mad Dog would argue, Mr. Sanford's election is no surprise. The surprise would have been if he had been defeated.

What were his offenses? 
1. He cheated on his wife. No disqualification there: JFK, Clinton,Henry Hyde,  you name him.
2. He lied about cheating on his wife, about where he was when he was not on the Appalachian trial. Clinton lied about Monica Lewinsky.
3. He flew down to Argentina and to various assignations on  government money.
Now, that might matter, but the man is all about saving the government money, and about not being Nancy Pelosi or Barack Obama, so we can forgive him that youthful indiscretion.

The misperception of the Bible thumping voter is that he or she could never forgive a man who violates his sacred marriage vows, said before God, on the wedding alter. But the South Carolina voter is not the New England Puritan. The South Carolina voter knows he's a sinner. He's embraced a culture and a history of slavery. He's happy to sell tobacco to Asians.  He can forgive a lot. 

What he cannot forgive is being Barack Obama, being judged by sanctimonious Northerners and a federal government which wants to take his money, or tell him what he is doing is immoral, injurious or wrong.  

As that great South Carolina Representative to the Congress of the United States, Francis Underwood, once said, "What you have to understand about my people is that they are a noble people. Humility is their form of pride. It is their strength; it is their weakness. And if you can humble yourself before them they will do anything you ask. "

4 comments:

  1. And that is exactly what Stanford did. As he said on election day, having humbled himself before the Republican voters of his district, "it is in the hands of the good Lord now" - just to remind the voters of the kind of man he really is.

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  2. Well Mad Dog I'd say this was a big score for the God Of Second Chances... I don't have as dim a view of F. Scott Fitzgerald as you, but his "no second acts in American lives" was way off--these days it seems like there's someone rising from the ashes every couple of months....
    Maud

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  3. Maud,

    Or perhaps, a message from the children of a lesser God.

    Mad Dog

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  4. Oh, well said Mad Dog...
    Maud

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