Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
When we quarrel, how we wish we had been blameless.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1820-1872. Vol. 6, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911, p. 182.
The Senator had been illegally frequenting prostitutes and was a regular customer of an infamous DC Madam. The reason this quotation is noteworthy is that it is a stunning example of moral hypocrisy in politics. Vitter ran as a very conservative politician who placed traditional Christian and family values at the forefront of his political philosophy. When his behavior was made public there were calls for his resignation. He refused and instead gave this statement. However, he had been elected to replace Robert Livingston who had been the Speaker of the House but had resigned when he was caught frequenting prostitutes. Vitter’s hypocrisy was all the more hypocritical as he had demanded the resignation of President William Clinton who had engaged in adulterous sex while in office. When he was running for office and his opponent complained that Vitter had been frequenting prostitutes, Vitter said that the accusation was absolutely and completely untrue" and that it was "just crass Louisiana politics”. This reinforced the hypocrisy in that Vitter claimed that one of Clinton’s failings was that he lied about his adulterous affair, while Vitter not only lied, but did so the public for purposes of getting elected. And just a few months before this statement, Vitter proclaimed the importance of abstinence for teenagers and faithfulness for adults. See {625896}.
He was convicted of corruption having transferred millions of dollars of government money to his maid and chauffer (without their knowledge) to hide the money the had taken. He jumped bail and fled the country after his conviction and ran his Pheu Thai Party, from abroad. He then had his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, run in the next election and she was elected Prime Minister and so he continued to control much of the country but could not return last he be jailed.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.
