“You’re fascinated with sex,” Newt Gingrich charged at Megyn Kelly on her Fox New Show. “You know what, Mr. Speaker? I am not fascinated by sex.”
And so went one of the truly bizarre cable TV exchanges occasioned by the most foul presidential election in modern American politics.
{mosads}What, pray tell, is wrong with being fascinated by sex? Aren’t we all? But the reason that Kelly became so defensive at the accusation hurled by Gingrich was that under Trump and Clinton, sex has become not something beautiful but dirty. Not something loving but tawdry. Not something that draws husbands and wives closer together but something that drives men and women apart.
Welcome to the sex election.
We all thought that immigration, Syria, taxation, or free trade were going to be the issues dominating the election. What no one could have imagined was that groping, allegations of sexual assault, illicit sex, and past sexual encounters in the Oval Office would become the dominant themes of this election.
That the selection of the most powerful man or woman on earth and leader of the free world has come to this beggars belief and soils the imagination.
Trump’s comments about women, caught on the Access Hollywood cameras, were positively revolting. They were disgusting in a way that was cringe-worthy. Who talks like that? And to impress Billy Bush? Seriously? You’re one of the richest men in America, your name is plastered on buildings from here to Katmandu, but you’re trying to impress some low-level entertainment correspondent? He’s your bragging buddy?
If you and Putin were both out shirtless riding Bengal tigers then maybe. But Billy Bush in an RV?
Come on man. Get a grip. You’re a success. Stop trying so hard, especially at the expense of a woman’s dignity and your own self-respect.
Even if Trump’s comments had not been classified as bragging about sexual improprieties, they could scarcely have been more demeaning to women. They were rancid, putrid, foul, and disturbing.
Bill Clinton’s actions in the Oval Office were arguably worse. No, he’s not on the ballot, and therefore Trump, at this point in time, is obviously more accountable, his comments much more relevant. But Trump bragged about what Clinton essentially did. And Clinton did it in the very locus of American prestige and power, opening himself and the United States to the possibility of serious blackmail.
Bill Clinton is not running for office. But Hillary Clinton is, and there are serious allegations against her smearing her husband’s accusers when really someone needed to get Bill help when he was out of control. Aside from cynically betraying his marriage, he abused his position to gain influence over an intern who was his subordinate.
When it comes to treatment and objectification of women, both Trump and Bill Clinton are obviously unacceptable role models for men. They represent the mindset of those guys who are trained to see women as the means to their own ends, as women having been primarily created to satisfy men’s libidinous desires.
And they represent a view of sex that is not about intimacy but dominance. Not about equality but subordination. Not about oneness by about selfishness.
No wonder, as a result of this campaign people are running from any accusation of being fascinated by sex.
Normally that would be a compliment.
I am a child of divorce. My parents separated when I was 8 and I have spent my life trying to figure out the secret of what makes a man and woman live happy under the same roof for the duration of their lives. I’ve written more than a dozen books on relationships alone.
Don’t discount how important a healthy sex life is in achieving a happy marriage. Sex is the glue that keeps a man and a woman leaning in toward each other, desiring one another, being erotically satisfied and emotionally electrified with each other. If things don’t work well in the bedroom, they won’t work well in the living room.
That’s why this presidential campaign is positively tragic not just for how men treat women, but for the institution of marriage and the sanctity of sex. It’s become positively shameful.
While Trump deserves the presumption of innocence against the army of women who have now forward and accused him of groping them, he cannot escape that it is own words that have given credibility to his accusers. Is this the campaign he thought he’d have to run?
Trump should have never given those embarrassing interviews to Howard Stern about leering at naked contestants of Miss Universe. Seriously? Now you were trying to impress Howard Stern?
What gives?
At what point, Mr. Trump, do you accept that you’re a huuuugely successful man and you don’t have to live to impress other guys about your winning ways with women.
And before this election is out, it’s not too late for you to speak sincerely from the heart and say you regret that nasty words — and to mean it.
But with Trump openly bragging about such behavior, it has lent credibility to the accusations that have forced him to spend the last few weeks of his campaign addressing.
I’m assuming that Newt Gingrich, whom I respect as a phenomenal friend of Israel and whom our organization honored last year as a Champion of the Jewish state, is just as fascinated by sex as Megyn Kelly. I sure hope so. Those who aren’t fascinated by sex are usually repressed in some way. And I wrote Kosher Sex in 1998 to celebrate sexuality as something holy and hot.
But so long as we continue to degrade sex in a culture that openly exploits women as a merely a means to men’s prurient needs, we will continue to demean sex as something that brings out the beast rather than expresses our humanity.
I kind of feel bad for Bill Clinton. Just when he thought it was safe to go back into the water, now return all the allegations of his sordid and inexcusable past sexual sins.
But perhaps that’s the lesson. You can be the most powerful man on Earth. You can have a strong economy on your watch. But if you’re a man, and you treat women like crap, it’s going to come back to bite you.
The American people are far from perfect. But they value the sanctity of marriage. They value women. And they’re getting increasingly turned off by men who don’t share their values.
Boteach, “America’s Rabbi,” whom The Washington Post calls “the most famous Rabbi in America” is the international best-selling author of 31 books including his most recent, “The Israel Warrior’s Handbook.” Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.
The views expressed by Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill