Through a glass, darkly

Why do we condemn the Bill Clintons, the John Edwards, the Tiger Woods of the world? Why do we Americans (prudish so) hold our celebrities so lofty in moral expectation?

For princes are the glass, the school, the book,
Where subjects' eyes do learn, do read, do look,

Velocius et citius nos
Corrumpunt vitiorum exempla domestica, magnis
Cum subeant animos auctoribus.
[Domestic examples of vice corrupt us more swiftly
and sooner, when in stirring our passions they
are backed by the example of the great.]

-Antigonus

Examples of the great
Are great enablers.