{"id":1592,"date":"2010-02-11T07:57:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-11T11:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/02\/11\/thoughts-about-jenny-sanford\/"},"modified":"2010-02-11T07:57:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-11T11:57:00","slug":"thoughts-about-jenny-sanford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/02\/11\/thoughts-about-jenny-sanford\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts about Jenny Sanford"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jenny Sanford appeared on NPR’s On Point<\/a> yesterday, talking about the implosion of her marriage with South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. <\/p>\n

You can hear the conversation here.<\/p>\n

In the media tour that accompanied the release of her new book, Sanford comes across as a reasonable, sincere and sympathetic woman. <\/p>\n

She bats away most political questions, arguing that she’s just a mom now, a family woman, charged with rebuilding her life for herself and her sons, buoyed by her Christian faith.<\/p>\n

At risk of sounding callous, I’m not buying it. And here’s why.<\/p>\n

The Sanfords — like many conservative politicians — built their careers around the image of traditionalist virtue.<\/p>\n

The Republican Party established as a pillar of its success the notion that politics, religion and our private lives are all intertwined. <\/p>\n

Conservatives wrestle passionately with everything from contraception to sex education to same-sex marriage and abortion.<\/p>\n

Again and again, they insist that their vision of life and family and society is “normal.” <\/p>\n

Some traditionalists have even embraced the idea of “natural law,” arguing that the world was structured by God to re-enforce a traditionalist social model.<\/p>\n

But again and again when conservative leaders fail, they pivot away from this linkage.<\/p>\n

They insist on privacy, on being allowed to wrestle with their private demons outside the context of the political debate.<\/p>\n

But Ms. Sanford wasn’t a private citizen. She ran her husband’s political campaigns, helping to craft his (and her own) public image. <\/p>\n

As first lady of her state, her beliefs helped to shape the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.<\/p>\n

I’m not suggesting that the Sanfords are hypocrites, wealthy libertines masquerading as modest Christians. <\/p>\n

I’m suggesting that it’s necessary to not avert our gazes when their ideals — ideals the conservative movement hopes to enshrine in law — prove to be embarrassingly out of sync with reality.<\/p>\n

Ms. Sanford writes the following in her book:<\/p>\n

“I shiver when I think that while I was cleaning up after a delicious family meal \u2026 he was e-mailing his ‘soul mate’ with visions of her tan lines.”<\/p>\n

But I’m curious less about her private revelations and more about her civic ones.<\/p>\n

In light of her husband’s lies, what does she think about her movement and its certainty, its dogged conviction, that it knows the shape of human virtue?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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