Riffing off of **Gail Collins**' latest _New York Times_ [column](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/opinion/19collins.html?ref=opinion), **Steve Benen** wants to [know](http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_05/pondering_republicans_double_s029682.php) why Republicans are prone to crazy sex scandals: >[N]ot only do the Republican scandals seem worse in their scope and severity, but we’re talking about “the family-values party.” Indeed, except for Giuliani and maybe Schwarzenegger, all of the recent Republicans caught with their pants down have been sleazy and hypocritical. >It's generally wise to avoid double standards, but what about when a party invites one? For decades, Republican candidates at every level have emphasized the GOP's moral superiority on "family values." If you want to protect the "sanctity of marriage," the argument went, it's incumbent on you to vote Republican. There's a culture war underway, Americans have been told, and Democrats just aren't as reliable on these issues as the GOP. In addition to their asserted superiority on "family values," Republicans also bill themselves as arbiters of "traditional values," and their hypocrisy on sex makes a lot more sense when viewed in that light. Indeed, it isn't even hypocrisy. Typically, the traditional values agenda is defined by opposition to gay equality, abortion rights, and feminism. And while culture warriors offer different explanations for each issue, the core concern is deep opposition women's autonomy, and a belief in the right-ness of patriarchal rule. Affairs, even ones that result in children, flow naturally of this worldview. Women are objects to be dominated (and if possible, claimed), and men -- as the "natural" leaders -- are free to indulge every whim, including those forbidden to people of "lower status." Not every Republican holds to this belief system, but among the people we're talking about -- who, with the exception of the Governator, bill themselves as defenders of traditional values -- it's endemic. And understanding the sexist roots of this view goes a long way toward understand the behavior of its adherents.
