A DisHartened Country

GARY HART'S sudden political demise calls for some serious self-examination not simply on Mr Hart's part, but on the part of the American public as well.

Some of us have already expressed reservations about our reactions to the Hart sex scandal. Why, we ask, should Hart be any more capable of keeping his pants on than the rest of married America? Perhaps public officials are held to higher standards than the citizen body at large, but it still is not apparent why we need a president who is a model of libidinal restraint.

At the same time, we wonder about the ethics of covering the scandal. Is there not something offensive and invasive--not to mention unprofessional--about camping out in Miami bushes in order to determine whether 29-year-old models have missed their curfews?

But these questions, while not wholly irrelevant, miss the point. Hypocrisy is nothing new for Americans, and, like it or not, many think that marital fidelity is an important campaign issue. Also, the press is somewhat vindicated by Hart's invitation to follow him. As most political pundits have been quick to note, anyone who is dumb enough to ask for camouflaged reporters deserves to get them.

THE MOST disturbing thing about the Hart scandal is not that Americans want a monogamous president or that the Miami Herald chose to print its story. Instead it is this country's preoccupation with the details of Hart's personal life, details that go way beyond the particulars of the current scandal. The press has been eager to chronicle Hart's rate of intercourse since he hit puberty, and the American public has lapped up each tidbit of gossip with unyielding fervor.

It is clear that we are interested in much more than an evening of pleasure off of Bimini. What was Gary Hart doing with Warren Beatty back in the McGovern campaign, we ask. What about his talk of "reform marriage" and his carousals with leading members of Hollywood's den of iniquity?

The questions themselves are not enough for us: we want explanations as well. Taking on the guise of armchair psychologists, we point to Hart's puritanical mother. Perhaps his childhood of repression was the key to his adulthood of lechery. When we are at loss for answers we turn to "experts" such as former Hart pollster Pat Caddell who, in the most ominous of tones, confides to us that Hart has had a long-standing political death wish.

It never has been clearer why The National Enquirer has one of the largest circulations in America. Most Americans would prefer to read about Elvis Presley's ghost than about South Africa or Nicaragua, and those who feel uncomfortable indulging in such nonsense are overjoyed at the arrival of a respectable scandal, at the opportunity to turn The New York Times into a hotbed of gossip.

IN SOME sense our reaction is expectable. There is nothing more exhilirating than knowing that mighty politicians are mortals of flesh, that Gary Hart lusts after women just like the guy next door. Moreover, adultery touches our lives in a way that raping and pillaging does not. We know what it means to have a lover or spouse, and we must constantly confront the question of sexual fidelity. Not too many of us need to worry about guerilla warfare, on the other hand.

Yet the respectable is not necessarily the healthy. It is bad enough that Hart's personal life has captured our attention in the way that it has. It is far worse that nothing else can concern us in the same way. Richard Secord's joking reminder to the committee investigating the Iran-Contra scandal that at least he was not on Bimini is a sad indication of our citizenry's misplaced priorities. It reminds us that most Americans would prefer a president who supports the endless murder of the innocent to a president who commits adultery.

One hundred and fifty years ago Tocqueville warned the world that Americans were in danger of becoming too preoccupied with their personal affairs at the expense of commitment to civil and political causes. The Hart scandal presents a cruel twist on Tocqueville's prescient forecast. It seems now that the only political issues that concern us are those that relate to our personal lives. If it can't happen to us, if we don't see it on the daytime soaps, then it simply doesn't matter. We truly have reached a sad state of affairs when we adopt so narrow a world-view.