re: #41 KGxvi

From the GOP side, it’s playing to perceptions… they see themselves as the party of “good christian family values”, so of course they’re going to forgive and work it out. They see Democrats at feminists in the “a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” archetype, so of course she’s failed if she doesn’t leave him. Personally, I think making political hay out of anyone’s infidelities (with very few exceptions, like Petraeus possibly divulging classified information to a mistress) is punching below the belt, but I occasionally have a conscious, which is why I’d probably not make a very good politician.

It’s a very patriarchal way of thinking that guides them in such circumstances. The whole “lady in the living room, whore in the bedroom” belief that says a woman’s job in the marriage is to keep hubby happy and if she’s failing that job then it’s on her and not him when he strays. That if he comes back to her and begs forgiveness, then she’s expected to forgive him and work to address her failure to satisfy him. But he keeps straying and she stands by him, then it reflects negatively on her because he’s not getting what he “needs” at home and is looking elsewhere. But, of course, since it’s a patriarchal thought process, the flip side is if she walks out on his ass for his cheating, then she’s responsible for the marriage’s failure because she’s supposed to stand by him “til death do them part.”