What Makes a Political Sex Scandal? – Truthdig
Scandal is measured by the damage resulting from an actual or apparent violation of propriety. With the exception of French presidents and, it seems, Donald Trump, a sex scandal usually sends a political career swirling down the drain.
Trump has admitted to indirectly paying off a porn star claiming to have had sex with him. Though he is the first American president to be linked with hush money meant to prevent a sexual encounter from becoming known to the voting public, there’s a fairly impressive list of American politicians who’ve done the same—one being Alexander Hamilton, who was blackmailed by an enterprising husband after the man discovered that his wife was having an affair with Hamilton.
The British are currently revisiting a political sex scandal of their own that took place in the 1970s and centered on affair 10 years earlier involving Jeremy Thorpe, former leader of the Liberal Party and a pillar of the establishment. The BBC is airing a brilliant TV dramatization about the shamed politician in a three-part series, “A Very English Scandal,” with Hugh Grant as Thorpe—which, it must be said, is an inspiring bit of casting. Grant can claim firsthand experience with a sex scandal: Some 20 years ago, he was arrested in Los Angeles for lewd behavior in a public space with a hooker.