Politicians are not known for being model citizens. Left or right, if you go into a room full of them, after shaking a few hands, you’re likely to really want to find a restroom to wash yours. Even a casual history buff knows that going back 250 years to the nation’s founding, the stereotype of the sleazy elected official is older than the Constitution itself.
So, this isn’t an issue of good vs. bad. It’s an issue of maturity. Twenty years ago, if you caught a politician with his pants down, literally, he was shamed out of Congress.
In 1987, Democrat presidential contender Gary Hart, a U.S. senator from Colorado, saw his political aspirations go up in smoke when the Miami Herald broke the news that Hart had a “womanizing” problem. The scandal became known as the “Donna Rice affair,” which effectively ended his candidacy and his Senate career.
When all of this became known, Hart did what you’d expect at the time. He quietly took steps to exit the public stage and maintain a lower profile for the rest of his life until today. He’s still with us at 89 years old, by the way.
History is not without its colorful characters. Wilbur Mills was a congressman from Arkansas in 1974 when the U.S. Park Police pulled his car over because it was 2 a.m., and he didn’t have his headlights on. The officer found that Mills was drunk with injuries to his face from a little brawl he had with a Washington, D.C., stripper whose stage name was Fanne Fox.
She was in Mills’ car at the time of the traffic stop. And so, when police approached the car, she did what any self-respecting stripper would do when sitting in a car driven by a drunken congressman who had just been pulled over. She jumped out of the car and into the nearby reservoir that sits in front of the Jefferson Memorial, better known as the Tidal Basin.
The press had a field day with this, and Fox now had a new name – “The Tidal Basin Bombshell.” As polarizing as politics can be, Democrats and Republicans alike saw the story for what it was. An embarrassing scandal that eventually took Mills down and ended his career.
Had this happened today, the Democrats would have painted Mills as almost saintly in his efforts to provide support to a “sex worker.” They would dox the cop who pulled him over, and somewhere along the way, they would have found a way to blame President Donald Trump.
Believe it or not, Mills survived this incident and was re-elected after it, but he lost his clout. His errant ways soon caught up with him, and he faded away in disgrace.
The point is, for better or worse, for Hart and Mills, and other politicians of the era, bad behaviors had consequences, and they paid them like adults. Keep in mind, these were the more extreme cases of political controversy.
Your everyday congressional rep or senator had to actually do something to earn news, not just spontaneously do a selfie video and vomit what was on their minds at the time.
Contrast that to today, when if you look at your phone at any time of day, you’re likely to be treated to theater kids in politics who talk to you via their phone as though you’re their therapist, you’re their digital army, or if you’re a conservative, they’ll describe you like you’re Hitler himself.
It doesn’t matter the issue. It doesn’t need to be a scandal. All that matters now is that the politician lives and acts on emotion. The politician is good; anyone who disagrees with him or her is bad. And if you don’t do what they want, you’re killing people, and it’s all your fault. That’s the sum total of their content.
This level of immaturity is the hallmark of people who throw tantrums as part of the job description, it seems. And if you ever win an argument with them, you are mean, you’re a bully, and you make them a victim.
Here are some examples. This is Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski, who’s in a panic because she never saw hail before, I guess.
Wisconsin’s Democrat Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski says hail is a sign of climate change pic.twitter.com/AlYgcq7nn3
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 15, 2026
This is everyone’s favorite theater kid, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who uses her smartphone the way every middle schooler in your town uses it – constantly. Only she has nearly 13 million followers on the X platform. You’d think she’d at least sit down beforehand and map out in her mind what she wants to say to that many people, but clearly she does not. It’s all juvenile stream-of-consciousness.
AOC on Trump: “A judge said he has in fact raped a woman. The president is a rapist. The president is implicated in the Epstein Files. He is convicted in court of 34 counts of fraud, felony fraud” pic.twitter.com/6lByZQAKcD
— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) April 14, 2026
Jasmine Crockett. Enough said.
Jasmine Crockett basically gave up her seat to run for Senate... And she just LOST the Democrat Senate Primary
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 4, 2026
Lmfaoooooo 🤣🤣🤣
Bye Bye pic.twitter.com/C9OR5K1TLn
Now, let’s go to an appointed public official, but a politician, no less. Her childishness is evidenced in her refusal to answer a question any six-year-old can take a stab at. In her confirmation hearings, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson would not answer the question, “What is a woman?”
One thing this sitting Supreme Court justice could do, however, was tap the inner theater child in her to appear on Broadway. Anything for attention, right? That’s the middle school way.
NEW: Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson makes Broadway debut in “& Juliet,” a queer twist on Romeo and Juliet.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 16, 2024
The play features ‘May,’ Juliet’s he/she/they best friend.
Jackson previously said it was her life goal to perform on a Broadway stage.
“I, a Miami girl… pic.twitter.com/FauTkn0uBJ
Kinda makes me long for the days of Wilbur Mills and the Tidal Basin Bombshell. At least their 15 minutes of fame were an adult 15 minutes.
If you were wondering if I let Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) off the hook, I did not. This is Gov. “Happy Hands” in his comfort zone at the Pride parade.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and his wife Gwen wave to crowds as they march during the Minneapolis Pride parade.
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) June 30, 2025
pic.twitter.com/wNZqq48Jx6
Napoleon Dynamite did it better.
Speaking of happy hands, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is the champ of childish upper-body theatrics. Watch this one with the sound off to fully appreciate the immaturity that is today’s Democrat.
HOLY SH*T!
— HustleBitch (@HustleBitch_) September 15, 2025
Gavin Newsom can't stop moving his hands weirdly and touching his nose while talking about "dust".
Be honest, what do you think is causing this? pic.twitter.com/7e9lK76tId
Remember when you were in school, and you didn’t study for a test, perhaps? This is what it might look like if you had no clue what the answer might be, even if you had a binder full of answers right in front of you. This is Joe Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre.
WATCH: White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is stumped when confronted on Biden's hidden inflation tax. pic.twitter.com/LHArNBrT96
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 21, 2021
By extension, KJP is a politician. And like so many other people on her side of the camera, they carry themselves like children, complete with deer-in-the-headlights reactions, childish outbursts, and they’ll even do this, whatever this is.
This dude is running for Governor in California…
— SaltyGoat (@SaltyGoat17) April 14, 2026
I think that’s about all that needs to be said.
pic.twitter.com/LIz1OTGXJY
I never thought I’d miss a time when a political story ended with the politician at the center of it leaving in shame. Instead, we now live in the era of the shameless politician, who needs to be pushed out the door before he gets the hint. We live in a time when all a political figure needs to do is feel like they’re right in order for them to declare that they are indeed right, even if all of the evidence reveals they couldn’t be more wrong.
When did we quit electing adults to public office?
Editor's note: A previous version of this column mistakenly identified Gary Hart as a senator from Kansas. We apologize to our readers for this error.
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