Rate Each of the US Presidents (who you have studied)

[pbrower2a]

(07-07-2022, 04:44 AM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(07-03-2022, 02:57 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Much as I disagree with Mike Pence on many things, I must consider adultery a destructive habit with little to gain from. If you want a healthy marital relationship and seek to avoid eliciting cynicism in your kids, you do not do adultery. Kennedy apparently diddled with someone with Mob connections, which could have become extremely compromising. Clinton was small stuff -- but I still say that Hillary Clinton deserved better. Harding slept with anyone willing. 

Trump of course is an extreme sexual predator, as shown in his behavior in beauty contests and having paid big money to silence a porn star. A porn star!

I disagree with Pence on this too. I think these things are matters of private choice, and opinions and feelings differ on such things as adultery. For many or most people adultery might be unwise, and your advice may or may not be good for someone with children, but for some it might be what they need, especially if the marriage is unhappy and someone happens to come along who is better. A healthy marriage cannot be assured for anyone, and might not be possible in some cases regardless of the couple's adherence to traditional values and practice of virtues or not. Yours might be good advice. But as for rating a president, I normally consider it highly irrelevant. Certainly not equivalent to abuse of power, financial misdeeds and other such scandals.

Adultery is a voluntary and lawful choice of behavior. That is not to say that it isn't foolish. It is a huge gamble with family life, especially if there are already children. I can understand someone thinking that a sexual fling could spice up a boring life, especially if one consumes a huge amount of pornography that suggests that sex seemingly without consequences other than fun is harmless. If one fling can break up a marriage, then there is not much of a marriage to break up. But it can unsettle a marriage shakier than one already has, and that is harmful. 

I will make a concession for people who find that they have a frigid spouse or whose spouse has become abusive (although any adultery in an abusive marriage would likely provoke even more abuse, whish is something to consider before taking that chance). Sometimes there is no sexual spark, which is likely to happen if someone has sexual hang-ups. Yes, some marriages are mistakes, and the sooner that such a mistake is ended the better things are for all. So get a divorce or annulment before there is much put into a futile effort and move on.     

It is a strong and defensible position that children thrive best in a stable, monogamous marriage.  Ultimately, extant children are more important than almost anything else from material success to self-discovery to sex. 

Quote:As for Clinton, his dalliance with Lewinsky I don't consider anyone's business but for the three of them, but Bill can be faulted for not being more careful, since he should have remembered it would be good fuel for the right-wing Republican culture-war and that they would use it against him. And he should have been more forthcoming early on. So it was most imprudent from that point of view, but I would rate the Republicans lower than Clinton because of this scandal, and it would not lower my estimate of his presidency by very much. His lie early on was what he was impeached for, technically, and it might lower his standing as a president a bit because it tampered with peoples' trust.

Yes, indeed. It was consensual. It did not result in a child. This is also when FoX News was becoming a vector for sleazy coverage, at least in politics in which Democrats could get away with nothing but Republicans could get away with anything, and FoX news established personality cults for two of our worst Presidents -- Dubya and Trump. FoX Propaganda Channel is an indelible part of the political environment.