I’ve got to admit, the kerfluffle around Newt Gingrich’s ex-wife’s interview has me annoyed with just about everybody. I’m annoyed with conservatives for being giant hypocrites and not caring when, ahem, CLINTON. And I’m annoyed with just about everybody else for accepting that an open marriage is a punchline. So let’s take a moment to clarify the situation.
Newt Gingrich’s crime was not that he dared to ask his wife for an open marriage. In fact, I rather respect him for doing that. Deciding to engage in lifestyle that, as a prominent Republican, would potentially endanger his career rather than abandoning a wife and family about which he cared is a reputable choice. The solution, the desire, that was not the crime. Newt’s crime was one of timing.
Cheating is not okay. Breaking the rules you have established with somebody in order to get what you want is, at a minimum, disrespectful to the people with whom you’ve established those rules. Engaging in behavior that can harm or directly damage people you’ve committed to caring about, either through bringing home disease, acquiring the financial burden of a child, or shattering their trust in why you didn’t come home after work, is unacceptable behavior. I am adamantly, aggressively opposed to sleeping around behind the backs of the people you’re sleeping with.
Newt Gingrich’s crime was one of timing. He should have asked for an open marriage before living as if he had one. There’s nothing wrong with admitting that you want your wife and family, and another woman. Lying, cheating, and then asking to have the rules changed to accommodate you indicates a lack of character, foresight, and just plain decency that really ought to be the conversation, if we’re going to have one about Gingrich’s sex life at all.
Dude’s a douche, but let’s condemn him for the right reasons, okay?
Anaea Lay 