Some of us have experienced more family dysfunction than we would care to admit. The façade of the “perfect family” is one that’s carefully nurtured and preserved. Politicians, especially, strive to present such an image. President Barack Obama and Vice President Mike Pence represent the ideal persona of happily married family men. Unfortunately, right now, Washington DC politicians are awash in a sea of family dysfunction.
Starting last year with Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. He’s the one who got kicked out of the Navy. Nevertheless, he made millions for doing almost nothing in China and the Ukraine while his dad was VP. Then, he got some show girl pregnant and refused to assume responsibility for the daughter she bore him. She had to go to court and get a DNA test to prove paternity. But that’s all water over the dam. He was proudly scheduled as a speaker at the DNC convention.
Things got really juicy in July when Donald Trump’s angry, disgruntled niece-from-hell, wrote a tell-all book about the dysfunctional Trump family. OMG! Senior Trump was a tyrant, an abuser, and Lord knows what all. Granny Trump opted out of motherhood—it was just too much for her. And to top it all off, the oldest son was an alcoholic, and his kids didn’t get any more in the final Trump will than the other grandkids. Well, Mary Trump got even. She went so far as to stir up some sibling rivalry, secretly recording big sissy Mary Anne complaining about baby brother. I guess all of us rant and rave about our sibs at times, but we don’t expect it to be recorded for public consumption.
Back to Biden. We know he likes to smell women’s hair. That seems weird, but not exactly immoral. What we didn’t know, until now, is that he had an affair with his wife , Jill, while she was still married to someone else. Her ex husband is writing a tell all book to be released in October.
Speaking of affairs with a married person. Vice Presidential candidate, Kamala Harris was 29 when she started an affair with 60 year old Willie Brown. His being Speaker of the California State Assembly made up for the age difference, I guess. Trouble was, he had a wife and three children.
Next, we have the, most blatantly dysfunctional family imaginable with Trump advisor, Kellyanne Conway. Her husband started a Super Pack, called the Lincoln Project, to bash Trump. I guess they must have been living separately. We wondered where their four kids fit into all this, but last week, we found out. Their teenage daughter went online to accuse them both of being losers and abusers as parents. Consequently, both Kellyanne and her husband George quit their jobs and presumably are trying to salvage what’s left of their dysfunctional family.
Does it really matter to the voters? Bill Clinton had an affair with Monica Lewinsky and got impeached. He’s been seen at the secret hideaway of sex offender Epstein, but they still had him speaking at the DNC convention.
Reporters just love it all. It gives them something to rant and rave about. But after awhile, you wonder if politicians are a different breed. You’d have to have a hide like a rhinoceros to survive. Maybe all that family dysfunction toughened them up.
Remember the words of PT Barnum: “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”