Swalwell
A week ago, Eric Swalwell was a leading candidate in the California Governor’s Race. The now former Congressman is well known as one of the “stand-up” Democrats during the first Trump Administration. He served as a manager in Trump’s second impeachment (for January 6th). He even survived scandal. A woman named Fang Fang involved herself in Swalwell’s political campaign in 2014. She arranged for an intern to work in his office. The FBI briefed Swalwell on Fang Fang’s involvement as a spy for the Chinese Government. He cut ties with her, and the FBI absolved him of any wrong doing.
But we now find out that Swalwell was a womanizer, willing to use his authority and his obvious personality to get women in bed, seemingly without their consent. That’s such an old American political malady, it’s memorialized in the Broadway musical Hamilton. The title character sings; “I don’t know how to say no to this…But my God, she looks so helpless. And her body’s saying, ‘Hell, yes’…” Swalwell joins an “illustrious” club; American politicians who failed to say “no”. Even the founding fathers, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Franklin; were well known for their “swordsmanship”.
Power
More recently, Warren Harding, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, and, of course, Bill Clinton are all Presidents rumored to have had affairs.
There are important differences between some of these men and Eric Swalwell. Jefferson’s tristes were with a woman he enslaved, and the age and power differential between Clinton and Monica Lewinsky were extreme. The others, like Harding, just carried on affairs with or without the knowledge of their spouses. But, by today’s standards, most, from Hamilton to Clinton, would have lost their careers over that behavior.
The most blatant example was Colorado Senator Gary Hart, the Democratic front runner for the Presidential nomination in 1988. He was rumored to be having an affair while on the campaign trail. When reporters asked him about it, he literally challenged them to, “Follow me around, I don’t care. I’m serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’d be very bored.” So they did, and documented the affair that ended his campaign.
Insider Deal
In the Kennedy days, reporters knew what the President was doing. There was an “insider’s deal” not to report it. Since Gary Hart, those rules have changed.
So Swalwell is in a long line of politicians from both parties. The difference is the day. This day, our day, we hold them to a higher rule. Our current cultural standard is that, while most of what people do in bed is private, the one thing that must occur is an equal, knowing, and consensual relationship. And that’s where Eric Swalwell, a Congressman I once admired, fell from grace.
Did Swalwell get a young staffer drunk, and then rape her? That’s for the Courts to decide. But did Swalwell take advantage of the “power differential” between the two? His current actions: quitting the Governor’s race and resigning from Congress, demonstrate the truth of those accusations.
Risk Genetics
There’s an extreme psychological theory, the “risk gene”. It tries to explain why otherwise brilliant and charismatic figures, particularly in politics, take obvious and ridiculous risks. Why do they claim it’s genetics? The case study is the Kennedy family.
The patriarch, Joe Kennedy senior was well known for his “risky” business behaviors. Some of it was particularly adept, getting the family fortune out of the stock market months before Black Tuesday. Some of it was marginally criminal, dealing with bootleggers during Prohibition. And some of it was personal: Kennedy was a well-known philanderer, using his contacts with the entertainment industry to get what he wanted.
Kennedy’s Sons
His oldest son, Joe Junior, was a risk taker as well. He was, from birth, the “anointed one”, destined for political glory. But young Joe was willing to risk his life in World War II, and ended up dying on a nearly-suicidal bombing mission over Europe.
The second son, Jack (John F), was more intellectual. But he too was a risk taker, a war hero himself, and as a politician. Those risks paid off; Kennedy was so young when elected to the Senate, he had to “prove” to the Capitol Police he wasn’t a page or staffer. Kennedy was a sexual risk taker as well, even after his marriage to Jackie. And it wasn’t just Marilyn Monroe, there were a series of women in and out of the White House during his administration.
And the fourth son, Teddy (Edward) followed suit. He was a young, charismatic Senator with aspirations of being President himself. But his future was derailed by a tragic car accident, when, likely under the influence, he drove off a bridge with a young secretary in the passenger seat. She died in the waters, he swam to shore, and managed to call his lawyer rather than the police.
The “genetic theory” goes onto follow the next generation. Jack’s son John Junior died flying a private plane in poor weather conditions. Two of Robert Kennedy’s (the third brother) sons died tragically: David of drugs, and Michael in a skiing accident. And then there’s the current Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert Junior, a former drug addict and known womanizer. His first wife, Mary, committed suicide allegedly after reading Robert’s journal chronicling his affairs with thirty-seven other women.
Privilege
Is it really genetics, or is it a “learned behavior”, with the new generation learning from the last? Or, is trying to “science” their actions just another “benefit” of privilege?
So perhaps Eric Swalwell will use the “risk gene” as his excuse. But is it really a genetic disfunction, or is it just the unbridled behavior of men who find themselves with power, and think it’s their entitlement? From the outside looking in, it seems like pure lunacy that politicians with the highest aspirations would be unable to control their personal urges. Somehow, they equate their constituents votes to personal gratification. Whatever the rules of the past, today, it does not.
The price Swalwell will pay for that physical gratification is high. And so is the damage to his family. But for California Democrats and the rest of those of us who admired him: good riddance, Swalwell.
