[OminousWeapons]

Everyone has dirty laundry they would prefer not be aired, and if they don't then their friends, family, or partners do. I don't think we want to live in a world where absolute moral purity (as determined by the most vocal, biased critics of a given person) is required to hold public office.

[krapp]

>I don't think we want to live in a world where absolute moral purity (as determined by the most vocal, biased critics of a given person) is required to hold public office.

Don't worry, you live in a world where a man with a well documented decades-long laundry list of scandals and faux-pas can brag on tape about how he can get away with molesting young women because of how rich he is and still get elected President.

I'm actually wondering what you could effectively blackmail an American politician with, given how little Americans seem to care about the morality of their leaders. Maybe just the eponymous "dead girl or live boy," but then you have the Kennedys...

[bawolff]

A person with no reputation to lose is hard to blackmail. I don't think trump generalizes in this context.

[webmaven]

> I'm actually wondering what you could effectively blackmail an American politician with, given how little Americans seem to care about the morality of their leaders.

Well, in general anything that would get them prosecuted for a felony should be an effective stick. Add in a carrot and now they're on the hook for bribery too.

[snakeboy]

I don't think "eponymous" is the word you meant there.

[krapp]

You're probably right, but I'm too lazy to care.

[OneLeggedCat]

> I don't think we want to live in a world where absolute moral purity (as determined by the most vocal, biased critics of a given person) is required to hold public office.

Well lucky you, we have the exact 100% polar opposite of that system currently. I think it would be fine to move toward it a little.

[webmaven]

> Well lucky you, we have the exact 100% polar opposite of that system currently. I think it would be fine to move toward it a little.

I'm skeptical of the notion that outing public officials (when the blackmail material is personal in nature as posited by the GP) would move toward that goal.

I don't even think an exception should be made for material that would expose hypocrisy in policy-making (eg. 'pro-life' lawmakers that have had or facilitated an abortion).

Straight-up crimes though (bribery, corruption, theft, insider trading, etc.), sure.

[cwkoss]

Why?

[webmaven]

Why am I skeptical, or why no exception?

[kortilla]

Moral purity isn’t required, just some honesty. I don’t care if politicians cheat on their spouses or even if they rail coke out of hookers’ asses on the weekend. Just don’t pretend you don’t do someone has power over you if they find out you do.