CBS's The Good Wife: An Overdue View of Political Infidelities and Forgiveness

Even though television has dealt with the plot device of infidelity in political couples before, the corollary of said plot device almost always leads to the cheater getting dumped if not taken to the cleaners at divorce court. While your humble composer of this article considers himself to be a thoughtful male, I'm not afraid to admit that my fellow gender is usually to blame for the earlier mentioned infidelities. 2008 and '09 have been banner years for seeing evidence of cheating husbands in powerful American political couples. We've also seen undeniable evidence of it happening back to the earliest days of American politics--though with easier avenues to cover up before the age of internet. Then the Clinton/Lewinsky sex scandal changed everything...except for the brazenness of political husbands.

If there's anything thoughtful to learn about political husbands cheating on their wives it's that they seem to do it brazenly as a subtle call for help. Nobody can say NY Governor Eliot Spitzer or Sen. John Edwards didn't know they were going to get caught eventually with their mistresses in an age where media and cameras are everywhere. Then a new revelation developed: Their wives reluctantly deciding to stay by their side.

In a new CBS drama this fall called "The Good Wife", the thought might be that such a decision by a political wife only evolved to its more constant form in recent years. The truth is that it's been a continual resolution since the earliest days of America. Infidelities by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to JFK on down were all well-known by their wives, yet didn't precipitate a high-profile divorce. Consider some of those as part of a marriage of convenience if you go with that supposition.

"The Good Wife" is going to deal with one of those married and brazen male politicians (Chris Noth) who ultimately winds up in jail for a sex and corruption escapade. His wife (played by Julianna Margulies) has to deal with the aftermath of such a tragedy, which involves the logical direction of going back to her old job as an attorney. From all indications, there won't be an immediate divorce in the storyline--hence having an opportunity to look at all angles of why that is as fiction finally joins the line of reality without resorting to yet another reality show.

It's easy to assume that the idea for this show sprung from the lives of the Clintons and why Hillary continues to be married to Bill Clinton after more than one indiscretion if not unknowingly more. We've certainly seen the same trajectory with not only Hillary but also Elizabeth Edwards of delving into their busy personal work to get their minds off the quandaries of dealing with their cheating husbands. Then we have to look at the wives of NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer or South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford who didn't necessarily bury themselves in distractions. They seemingly worked with their husbands to assuage the problems in their marriage or just left after trying.

Reportedly, Sanford's wife, Jenny, has officially separated from her husband as of this writing after trying to repair her marriage.

But why have the others stuck by their husbands all this time? The obvious answer always seems to be that it's via the process of marriage of convenience and political power. When that convenience of politics goes away, though, the mystery thickens when there's a capitulation to keep things together.
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When it's for the sake of kids, of course, the decision-making might become more complicated. In "The Good Wife", we'll see the Florricks as a high-profile political couple with two kids. When the father, Peter, gets jailed for his affair and other issues, the mother (Alicia) has to look out for her two kids and basically rebuild her life by going back to practicing law. It's a situation we haven't necessarily seen yet in reality through a high-profile political couple and makes for potentially interesting television if probable early cancellation because of that.

Its plot, though, seems to be the alternate universe of what could have happened to Hillary Clinton had she been in a situation of Alicia Florricks. This isn't to say that the show is depicting a divorce, but rather the wife having to provide for the kids through the hell of repairing a prior positive reputation. Such a situation isn't one desirable for any political wife and probably won't help make any decisions for current or future political wives if they find themselves in the same situation.

The real alternate reality here, however, is the male in the political couple going to jail for his indiscretions. Most cases we've seen so far have the high-profile male politician skirting any jail time. In those scenarios, a whole other universe exists that "The Good Wife" won't necessarily explore other than Alicia Florricks conferring with her husband behind bars. It's this latter universe of trying to pick up the pieces with a philandering husband who will still be around home (but without his prior job) that might be the ultimate nightmare, yet one that political wives are accepting.

Any answer to be found here might be in the political wife in real life not wanting to choose any universe where she has to be solely responsible for repairing her husband's reputation. Yes, from the outset, it might look like Elizabeth Edwards and Hillary Clinton are capitulating to adultery and keeping their marriages going for political reasons. What they may be really doing is taking it too a superior psychological level where the disgraced husband is forced to atone for his sins on his own publicly rather than drag the truly good wife into the situation solely on her own.

That might give CBS's "The Good Wife" and its writers something to ponder if it makes it through the season. Nevertheless, you can be sure the show will display atonement from Peter Florrick in some capacity while presenting an overdue strong female lead character on television again. It'll be a show we'd wish to see Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Edwards watch while we ponder what thoughts it would conjure...

Source:

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/the_good_wife/