My final topic is sexual control. American political culture is in a condition of generalized adolescent panic with regard to sex, brought on by a sudden overthrow of puritanism without a concomitant development of worldliness. This is manifest in the constant intrusions of sexual prurience into electoral politics. When the Miami Herald staked out Gary Hart, and the rest of the press and television promptly joined in hooting him off the political stage, I could hardly believe it. If every American citizen who had ever committed adultery had sent him a dollar, he would have been the best financed politician in the country. Since then things have only got worse, and we are subjected to a chronic fever of journalistic hypocrisy that shows no sign of slowing down.

(Thomas Nagel, “Personal Rights and Public Space,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 24 [spring 1995]: 83-107, at 99)