Sean Duffy was one of these people. Duffy was on Real World: Boston in 1997. Real World is a show made completely off drama and fights. Not really something people want to see in a leader. Fortunately his past decisions of dancing on a pool table in his underwear did not affect his election because he won his race. Duffy was asked about his past and was quoted by The Washington Post saying , “I never thought I would run for Congress. If you look back at a certain reality TV show, you know that.”
I know when we're growing up our parents tell us to think about how our decisions could affect our future and to not do anything that we wouldn't want coming back to haunt us. But why should the fun we have when we're younger come back and bite us in the a**? What we did then has no significance to what we are planning to do now. If anything we've learned from those mistakes and they have made us who we are now, a better person more capable and reliable for the job at hand. Why punish someone for a little bit of fun they had? You never know, they may be the person who could change the world but aren't able to because of some old photos that gave them bad press.
Krystal Ball, a congressional candidate for Virginia, had to explain why she was wearing a Santa cap wearing lacy hosiery and simulating sex acts on a toy when she was 22 years old. After she explained the situation, she argued that people should not be scared out of running for office because of what they did when they were younger. "I had a whole lot of people who were older than me saying they were feeling grateful that Facebook and digital cameras weren’t around when they were growing up," she said. "I am not the only person with stupid photos out there, and I would hate to have some young man or young woman think, 'I can’t run for office because I did something stupid at a party however long ago.' "
Personally, I don't understand why it's our business to go so in depth on the photos off Facebook. Those photos do not tell us who that person really is or their views on important issues. For example, Aaron Schock, a representative for Illinois, had to explain why he had a picture of him shirtless "with a skimpily clad woman" (aka girl in a bikini). I'll tell you why. He was at the pool! All guys are shirtless and all girls wear bikini's at pools. The girl wanted a picture and he was nice enough to take it with her. I don't see what he needs to explain there or why that is looked at negatively. I think it was very polite of him to take the picture with her.
Other examples are Blake Farenthold, a representative for Texas, and Christine O'Donnell. Both had to explain why they were wearing certain costumes. Farenthold wore pajamas with little yellow ducks all over them while standing next to a girl in black lingerie and O'Donnell wore a ladybug costume on Halloween. Again, what is there to explain? They were at costume parties! Everyone has costumes parties, even adults. It just shows they have a social life and enjoy their time with friends.
What do you think? Do you think candidates pasts should be brought up and analyzed or do you think that pictures from college are irrelevant to what they plan on doing for their state and country?
Let me know.
