American electors are about to give their answer to one of the classic questions of democratic politics. Is character what matters most? Or is it policy? And where does sexual misconduct, by word or deed, fit in? The choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for the next President of the United States will require more than the usual amount of soul-searching. Those who have supported Mr Trump so far have to deal with the disgust they must feel at unguarded remarks he made 11 years ago, which depicted women as mere sexual prey and himself as a sexual bully or worse.

Does it matter if such a man sits in the White House – where, as Mr Trump has reminded Americans, sexual shenanigans were not absent during the years of Bill Clinton’s presidency? These issues are as old as politics itself. David Lloyd George not only led the British in wartime but was simultaneously and vigorously unfaithful to his wife with various mistresses. Power is said to be an aphrodisiac and he exploited its potential.