It’s easy to insist that family members should be off limits until they engage in political activity — say, when they stump for political causes or candidates. But. when a politician brings their family up on stage during a campaign, we have to ask, why are they there? What point is there to them being on display if it’s not a political one?
I’m still waiting for the politician who campaigns alone, and when asked why their family isn’t there says something like, “a political campaign is basically a job interview, and I don’t bring my family to job interviews. Like many Americans, I’ll do my job as best I can, whatever might be going on back at home.” That’s what it would mean to take the “compartmental” approach before it becomes a matter of desperate political convenience.
