The GOP presidential field's sex problem

America is getting ever kinkier, says Tracy Clark-Flory at Salon. So why are Republican politicians such prudes?

Rick Santorum leads the Republican pack in prudence, says Tracy Clark-Flory at Salon, but the rest are not far behind.
(Image credit: Rainier Ehrhardt/Getty Images)

"The Republican primaries have been a decidedly unsexy affair," says Tracy Clark-Flory at Salon. "Candidates have passionately spouted rhetoric against premarital sex, gay sex — even non-procreative sex within marriage." Michele Bachmann, the race's recent dropout, pledged to ban pornography. But Rick Santorum may win the prize for suggesting that states should be able to outlaw birth control because contraception offers "a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be." Polls show a majority of Americans are pro-abortion rights (with reservations) and pro-gay marriage. In their private lives, Americans continue to get kinkier and kinkier. So why are the Republican presidential candidates "such prudes"? Here, an excerpt:

Republican voters, especially evangelicals, have been trained to listen for candidates' "dog whistles" — language that goes over the heads of those who aren't listening for it. They're especially attuned to code words. "People read Republican policy statements metaphorically," says Marty Klein, a sex therapist and author of America's War on Sex. ...

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