Politics ... Society ...
Being a citizen of the State of New Jersey, and being employed by a local government agency, I take interest in state politics. So I couldn’t help but notice the recent and rapid demise of our Governor, Jim McGreevey. For those of you who don’t share my interest in the politics of this great state (you may think I’m being facetious here), Jim McGreevey was elected Governor in 2001. After moving into the Governor’s mansion, he just couldn’t get it right. He inherited some tough breaks like sinking tax revenues and a couple of key state agencies in melt-down mode. But to make it all worse, he exhibited very poor political judgment in a wide variety of ways, and was thus rewarded with very low approval ratings in the media polls. Earlier this summer, though, it seemed as if he was finally getting some things done, and his poll numbers started heading north. But within three weeks, two of his key fundraisers were hit with federal indictments, and then came an extortion demand from a former homosexual lover (who for a while was on the State payroll at well over $100,000 per annum). So, with his parents and his wife and 3-year old daughter by his side, Governor McGreevey decided to ‘fess up and punch out. He will leave office on November 15.
I have three comments. First off, good riddance. Not that I disagreed with McGreevey’s policy directions, which were basically East Coast semi-liberal. It’s that he didn’t have any political spine; he tried to please everyone, and in the end he pleased no one and couldn’t get things done. I’m not surprised at the allegations and indictments coming out regarding his closest staff and supporters; in New Jersey, you’ve gotta have real guts to tell anyone with any political juice to play it straight. In Jersey, corruption is generally thought to be a Constitutional birthright. McGreevey not only lacked the guts to draw the line with his people, he set the tone himself by appointing his (alleged)boyfriend, Golan Cipel, as his homeland security chief, a position for which Mr. Cipel was obviously unqualified. (Once the press pointed that out, the Gov transferred Mr. Cipel to an even higher-paid, no-responsibility “adviser” position on the State payroll).
Second comment: the Cipel incident is a splendid example of the danger of tolerating patronage and corruption in government (which is so rampant here in the “Garden State”, the state where cash is crop). When a leader puts a friend or lover in a high place, he or she straps a time bomb to their belt. If that friend or lover decides to turn on the big cheese, they’ve got a lot more on him or her than some dumpy and grumpy old bureaucrat. Even when the threat isn’t as serious as pulling a crypto-gay leader out of the closet, an unhappy cronie can still cause a lot of disruption and distortion to the process of government. Whatever happened to the notion that working for the public was a sacred responsibility? I guess that idea just didn’t make the top ten virtues list here in the Sopranos State.
Third comment: and here my liberal side comes out … I regret the social stigmas and lack of acceptance that gays face, which causes stuff like this to happen. There have been various politicians who have come out of the closet, e.g. former Congressman Barney Franks. But this may be one of the few times where a “marriage of convenience” was exposed on the part of a gay politician. Jim McGreevey knew darn well that he probably wouldn’t have gone far in politics if he admitted a long time ago that he was gay and had thus avoided the devices of marriage (to a woman) and parenthood. It’s a shame that many gays feel they have to play games like this to win acceptance and achievement in our world. OK, McGreevey himself probably wasn’t governor material, but he was supposedly a good mayor and he might have made a decent Assemblyman or State Senator. It’s too bad that he couldn’t have been led to believe as a young man that he could still go far in life if his sexual orientation were known. Yea, our society is starting to loosen up a little on the homosexuality issue, but it still has a long way to go. There’s still a lot of hatred and prejudice and misunderstanding.
So, there are probably plenty of successful men (and women) out there who are married and seem perfectly normal, but when the lights go down …. Some may be bi-sexual, able to enjoy whatever comes their way, but I suspect that most such marriages are arrangements of convenience. From what I’ve read about the McGreevey incident, his true sexual orientation was a well-known secret for a long time. I strongly suspect that his wife knew and went along with it because she got something out of the arrangement, i.e. the status of sharing the limelight and being important.
How prevalent is this kind of thing? Well, in general, surveys show that about 1 in every 25 men and women are homosexual. If that holds up for successful politicians, then you’d expect that the US Congress, with 100 Senators and 435 Representatives, would have about 21 gay members. I can only think of one or two openly gay Congressmen or women right now, so somebody’s leading a double life. As for Governors, 4% of 50 equals 2; so who’s the other one? Only his or her hairdresser knows for sure.
Again, though, it’s too bad that our social mores and lingering anti-gay attitudes cause all of these distortions. It’s too bad that people can’t just be accepted for who they are and be allowed to develop and use their talents, including when those talents involve political leadership.