The commentators in the Times and all those in Washington and elsewhere who are following every detail of the sex scandal with baited breath generally belong to the most privileged layers of society. There are various sides to their fascination with the affair. Those who have accumulated vast wealth in the recent period are politically activated, almost exclusively, by discussions on taxes and spending and by the possibility of new measures to eliminate restrictions on their capacity to accumulate even greater wealth. They hope the removal of Clinton might make possible a further shift to the right and a new financial windfall. It would be to give sexuality a bad name to suggest that it was one of these.
Sex is here a weapon, a status symbol, an indication of power held or power lacking.
Their chief and abiding interest lies in the attainment of the trappings of wealth and power, and they impute those same strivings to the population at large. Anyone not apparently consumed by these desires is deemed to be content or dull and apathetic. Opportunism and political expediency also play a role. The liberal or formerly liberal sections of the ruling class and the petty bourgeoisie are determined not to be outflanked by the extreme right on the morality front. They want the world to know that they too take virtue and family values very seriously.