Sex and Race in Presidential Election Campaigns
Neoliberalism benefits, then, from a sensationalistic media that reduces historic political campaigns to a “horse race” and displaces in-depth coverage of economic inequality and social injustice in favor of sex scandals. Responding to a truly unique American popular culture that amalgamates evangelical pop culture, rugged individualism, and deference to the capitalist market, the mainstream media offers us an apocalyptic menu of pending moral disaster that is well-suited to an audience of uneasy consumers who are seeking reassurance and escape.
Of course, the sensationalist sex scandal stories themselves are not mere distractions that are empty of all significant content; given their important role in reflecting and shaping popular opinions about gender and sexuality, they themselves deserve to be closely scrutinized from a feminist perspective. Former Senator John Edwards (D-NC) was forced to admit that he had had an extramarital affair with a campaign worker during his pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination in August 2008. For days on end, key issues like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, poverty in the U.S. and global inequality, the redevelopment of New Orleans after the Katrina hurricane, the dramatic rise of housing foreclosures, global warming, and America’s dependence upon fossil fuels were set aside to make room for the latest angle on the story.
By August, the Democratic Party had already chosen Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) as its candidate for the 2008 presidential election. Even though Edwards somehow escaped the revelation of his affair during the nomination campaign, it is nevertheless the case that he was struck by a different kind of sex scandal. As an anti-poverty populist, Edwards had collected a lot of enemies on the right, and the right made its distaste for his campaign crystal clear. He was ridiculed for hiring a Beverley Hills celebrity stylist and two other exclusive salons to do his hair and television makeup while he was on the campaign trail. In spite of the fact that he is married to a woman and has four children, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter openly tarred him with the homophobic slur that still strikes fear in every American male’s heart.
As for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the presidential candidate for the Republican Party, one has to wonder about the free pass that he received on his own extra-marital affairs. Only hours after McCain announced that Governor Palin would be his running mate, news leaked out that she had an unwed teenage daughter who was pregnant. The Palins quickly announced that their daughter would marry the young father and that she intended to carry her pregnancy to term. The McCain-Palin campaign, in one of its most deft moments, turned what might have been a deeply embarrassing moment into an opportunity to trumpet the Republicans’ fidelity to patriarchal family values.
