The psychology of Weiner

Anthony Weiner is running for mayor of New York. I don’t care about the politics of this. Those idiots elected Bloomberg THREE TIMES. They clearly have no dignity or self respect, so I’m sure they’ll have no problem voting for a guy named Weiner who left office after sending photos of his privates to strangers on Twitter. He’s another horrible disgrace who will be elevated into a position of authority by dumb people. There. That’s my political analysis of the situation. That, in fact, is my accurate and astute political analysis of every political thing that takes place in this country.

It’s really just the psychology that fascinates me. This, again, is a man named Weiner who is world famous for Tweeting pictures of his genitals. He is a walking punch line. He’s a sixth grader’s sense of humor come to life. Even your grandmother can’t help but snicker whenever his name comes up. He humiliated himself in the worst possible way, given his namesake. Any normal human being in this circumstance would gladly fade away into obscurity. Any rational person would flee into the forest, grow a long beard, and live the rest of his days in a log cabin, far away from the cameras and the commentary. That would be the honorable and humble thing to do. But this guy, far from atoning for his sins by disowning himself from public life, has now jumped back into the fold in the most visible way possible. While anyone else who had turned himself into the laughingstock of the nation would mercifully leave the stage and never return, this dude is scrambling to get back onto the stage. He must know that for as long as he is either campaigning for office, or serving in office, the joke will never die. He will be laughed at forever, as long as he remains in the public light. So why does he want to be there? Why is he eagerly competing for the pleasure of being mocked by the whole universe again? The answer reveals everything we need to know about politicians.

They are obsessed with power. They are addicted to it. They can’t let it go. They will sacrifice anything for it: Respect, reputation, family, friends. Anything. This is where you can differentiate between admirable ambition and pathetic self obsession. An admirably ambitious man will work towards his goals, but he will not debase himself and bring shame to himself and his family just for the sake of gaining power over others. A pathetically self obsessed man will. We are a country run by the latter. Weiner is just one example of this. Sanford in South Carolina is another one. The guy brought misery and humiliation to his family when his affair with an Argentinian woman became a national headline. Only a few years later he desperately hopped back into politics, and is now once again a “distinguished” member of our ruling class. No decent man would put his family through that. No respectable man would try to claw back into the spotlight after all of that. Then again, no respectable man would betray his wife in the first place, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

When you look at these people, maybe you see well groomed statesmen in fancy suits. I see crackheads burrowing through dumpsters, looking for copper wire to sell in order to feed their habits. I see disgusting power hungry narcissists who entirely define themselves by their ability to control their fellow man. I see an oligarchy comprised of deviants, adulterers, perverts and sociopaths. You might see Washington DC, I see Sodom and Gomorrah.

But at least one of them is named Weiner, and that’s kind of funny.