Many of us have read with revulsion of the charges, and legally they are only charges at this point- though from a public relations standpoint they are already lethal, against Rep. Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida.

If true, they read like a crash course in the most boorish behavior known to man. And if he is guilty as charged, especially of sexual trafficking, then that kind of judgment is not needed in the US House.

But Gaetz is far from the only member of Congress, or the other two branches of government, to get caught with his pants down. From Grover Cleveland to Bill Clinton, and before and after that, politicians think they can get away with personal misdeeds because our system of government encourages them in that perception.

DC politicians are supposed to be public servants. They haven’t been for a long time. Sometimes they enter office with a sense of service to their constituents. But then they are surrounded by people who will suck up to them because they want something. Be it a job, a contract, or a vote on a bill, the politician will be repeatedly told what a wonderful genius they are. Most of their characters aren’t well grounded enough to stand it and they succumb to the flattery, or as DC puts it, “They believe their own press releases.”

Thus they think the rules don’t apply to them because they have ascended into the nether regions of the elite where it is thought, since Voltaire and through Foucault, there is one acceptable public morality and one private morality only proper for our self-proclaimed intellectual and political betters. Case in point is Foucault himself. The darling of left wing pedants for decades, the academic driving force of campus leftism, he was widely known to go to North Africa on holiday and spend his time paying young boys for sex. But hey, it’s Foucault, said the left, so it’s okay. That basic rule applies in DC as well. All will be excused, you’re here now.

Two other factors also play into it. If you’re of a leftist ideology then you’ll be lionized by the press and pop culture. Thus they’re suddenly celebrities and that goes to their heads. If you’re a populist Republican, then the toothless throngs will proclaim you their savior, illustrate you standing next to Christ, and portray anything negative regarding you as a “Deep State New World Order Rothschild World Bank Illuminati” conspiracy. Facts like the sun coming up in the East will be called “fake news” and cult of personality will reign supreme.

Most politicians will go with the flow, accept the unwarranted adulation, and it will affect their attitudes accordingly. So if Gaetz falls shed no tears and remember, he is far from the only crude perv in Washington. Only the one that recently got caught.