A week ago, Eric Swalwell was a leading candidate in the California Governor\u2019s Race.\u00a0\u00a0The now former Congressman is well known as one of the \u201cstand-up\u201d Democrats during the first Trump Administration.\u00a0\u00a0He served as a manager in Trump\u2019s second impeachment (for January 6th<\/sup>).\u00a0\u00a0He even survived scandal.\u00a0\u00a0A woman named Fang Fang involved herself in Swalwell\u2019s political campaign in 2014.\u00a0\u00a0She arranged for an intern to work in his office.\u00a0\u00a0The FBI briefed Swalwell on Fang Fang\u2019s involvement as a spy for the Chinese Government.\u00a0\u00a0He cut ties with her, and the FBI absolved him of any wrong doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s such an old American political malady, it\u2019s memorialized in the Broadway musical\u00a0Hamilton.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>The title character sings; \u201cI don\u2019t know how to say no to this\u2026But my God, she looks so helpless. And her body’s saying, \u2018Hell, yes\u2019\u2026\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0Swalwell\u00a0\u00a0joins an \u201cillustrious\u201d club; American politicians who failed to say \u201cno\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even the founding fathers, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Franklin; were well known for their \u201cswordsmanship\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More recently, Warren Harding, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, and, of course, Bill Clinton are all Presidents rumored to have had affairs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are important differences between some of these men and Eric Swalwell.\u00a0\u00a0Jefferson\u2019s tristes were with a woman he enslaved, and the age and power differential between Clinton and Monica Lewinsky were extreme.\u00a0\u00a0The others, like Harding, just carried on affairs with or without the knowledge of their spouses. But, by today\u2019s standards, most, from Hamilton to Clinton, would have lost their careers over that behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.\u00a0\u00a0When reporters asked him about it, he literally challenged them to,\u00a0\u201cFollow 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0So they did, and documented the affair that ended his campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0In the Kennedy days, reporters knew what the President was doing.\u00a0\u00a0There was an \u201cinsider\u2019s deal\u201d not to report it.\u00a0\u00a0Since Gary Hart, those rules have changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So Swalwell is in a long line of politicians from both parties.\u00a0\u00a0The difference is the day. This day, our day, we hold them to a higher rule.\u00a0\u00a0Our 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.\u00a0\u00a0And that\u2019s where Eric Swalwell, a Congressman I once admired, fell from grace.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did Swalwell get a young staffer drunk, and then rape her?\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s for the Courts to decide.\u00a0\u00a0But did Swalwell take advantage of the \u201cpower differential\u201d between the two?\u00a0\u00a0His current actions: quitting the Governor\u2019s race and resigning from Congress, demonstrate the truth of those accusations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s an extreme psychological theory, the \u201crisk gene\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It\u00a0\u00a0tries to explain why otherwise brilliant and charismatic figures, particularly in politics, take obvious and ridiculous risks.\u00a0\u00a0Why do they claim it\u2019s genetics?\u00a0\u00a0The case study is the Kennedy family.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The patriarch, Joe Kennedy senior was well known for his \u201crisky\u201d business behaviors.\u00a0\u00a0Some of it was particularly adept, getting the family fortune out of the stock market months before Black Tuesday.\u00a0\u00a0Some of it was marginally criminal, dealing with bootleggers during Prohibition.\u00a0\u00a0And some of it was personal:\u00a0\u00a0Kennedy was a well-known philanderer, using his contacts with the entertainment industry to get what he wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His oldest son, Joe Junior, was a risk taker as well.\u00a0\u00a0He was, from birth, the \u201canointed one\u201d, destined for political glory.\u00a0\u00a0But young Joe was willing to risk his life in World War II, and ended up dying on a nearly-suicidal bombing mission over Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second son, Jack (John F), was more intellectual.\u00a0\u00a0But he too was a risk taker, a war hero himself, and as a politician.\u00a0Those risks paid off; Kennedy was so young when elected to the Senate, he had to \u201cprove\u201d to the Capitol Police he wasn\u2019t a page or staffer.\u00a0\u00a0 Kennedy was a sexual risk taker as well, even after his marriage to Jackie. And it wasn\u2019t just Marilyn Monroe, there were a series of women in and out of the White House during his administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the fourth son, Teddy (Edward) followed suit.\u00a0\u00a0He was a young, charismatic Senator with aspirations of being President himself.\u00a0\u00a0But 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.\u00a0\u00a0She died in the waters, he swam to shore, and managed to call his lawyer rather than the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0The \u201cgenetic theory\u201d goes onto follow the next generation.\u00a0\u00a0Jack\u2019s son John Junior died flying a private plane in poor weather conditions.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Two of Robert Kennedy\u2019s (the third brother) sons died tragically:\u00a0\u00a0David of drugs, and Michael in a skiing accident.\u00a0\u00a0And then there\u2019s the current Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert Junior, a former drug addict and known womanizer.\u00a0\u00a0His first wife, Mary, committed suicide allegedly after reading Robert\u2019s journal chronicling his affairs with thirty-seven other women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it really genetics, or is it a \u201clearned behavior\u201d, with the new generation learning from the last?\u00a0\u00a0Or, is trying to \u201cscience\u201d their actions just another \u201cbenefit\u201d of privilege?<\/p>\n\n\n\n So perhaps Eric Swalwell will use the \u201crisk gene\u201d as his excuse.\u00a0\u00a0But is it really a genetic disfunction, or is it just the unbridled behavior of men who find themselves with power, and think it\u2019s their entitlement?\u00a0\u00a0From the outside looking in, it seems like pure lunacy that politicians with the highest aspirations would be unable to control their personal urges.\u00a0\u00a0Somehow, they equate their constituents votes to personal gratification.\u00a0\u00a0Whatever the rules of the past, today, it does not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The price Swalwell will pay for that physical gratification is high.\u00a0\u00a0And so is the damage to his family.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But for California Democrats and the rest of those of us who admired him:\u00a0\u00a0good riddance, Swalwell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Power<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Insider Deal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Risk Genetics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Kennedy’s Sons<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Privilege<\/h2>\n\n\n\n