Grover Cleveland's Illegitimate Child Scanal - Essay Example

Hunter was a film-making staffer in his office. A comparison between the handling of the Cleveland’s case and the latter two cases reveals the significant transformation of America from a classical society that attempted to suppress such scandals to an open one in which guilty perpetrators are willing to admit their past mistakes publicly and show a sense of responsibility. This paper explores the impacts Cleveland’s illegitimate child scandal and the public response to such cases. Challenges of fighting sex scandals The US is better off in terms of surviving such scandals among political leaders (Wiid, Pitt and Engstrom 138).

This is partly because the women, particularly those whose husbands have been caught up in these lies, are living testimonies of the historical female abuse in marriage relationships. In light of the long-standing challenges facing women, most of them tend to see child scandals as normal. As such, the problem has become so widespread among the political elite that surviving them is relatively easy; especially once the media has directed extensive media coverage to other important issues affecting the society (Feschuk 85).

Chotiner (5) has pointed out that prominent politicians have been at the forefront of these scandals, people who command huge following and admiration from the public. In light of this, these scandals have been misconstrued to mean private life events that have very little, if any bearing on the quality of services that the public is entitled to. This lack of concern on the part of the American public not only shows hypocrisy, it has resulted in repeated cases of child scandals by key leaders in the country (Berinsky et al 177).

The repetitiveness of such cases affecting elected leaders has earned them some level of acceptance within the public domain, since forcing such leaders out of office has not been as easy as handling the conduct of the bureaucracy within government circles. Part of the issues that have aggravated such scandals by making the American public have a less serious approach to weeding out the perpetrators from public service is the effectiveness of some of the individuals in discharging their mandate (Chotiner 6).

Most Americans would rather have an honest, apologetic political leader whose name has been tarnished by a child scandal, with an exemplary performance record to remain in office for the rest of his or her term than spend more time and resources replacing him. America survived Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, partly on this reasoning (Greenberg 52). Barring guilty would-be leaders from office Despite the virtual failure to bring all pre-existing holders of political offices to book over sex and illegitimate child scandals, most of the guilty would-be leaders have been successfully barred from holding public office.

Senator John Edwards was a potential candidate for the vice-President of the United States five years ago, but was forced to abandon the race (Wiid, Pitt, and Engstrom 141). The leader’s ‘love child’ affair dented his image and leadership qualities when he misled his wife, and the country about the issue. Former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford was forced to call it quits in 2011 over a similar scandal. His vocations in Argentina, it later emerged, were a scandal in which he admitted to using public funds to entertain his mistress.

However, he has