Quod licet bovi non licet Iovi - What politicians can learn from Borat a.k.a Sacha Baron Cohen

Sacha Baron Cohen is a comedian by profession and he seems to be able to earn his life by exercising it, at least one could guess so according to the reactions to his film "Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan".
As a global yard fool, he shows no respect for any religious or national sensitivities and apparently is spraying his sarcasm in a quite even way over the Jewish, the Christian and the Muslim communities.
Politicians must be able to play roles, sometimes even comic roles, in order to be elected, but in general, they cannot use the method of Sacha Baron because they would offend their own constituency doing so. The problem with politicians fooling around is that they are taken quite seriously by their own folks when they occasionally insult other parties or their front personnel, and that their adversaries react accordingly. The result is a buildup of verbal injuries that can easily turn violent, with the consequences that history has shown us in abundance.
An ancient latin proverb said: "Quod licet Iovi non licet bovi" (what is licit for
Jupiter (God) is inadmissible for an ox).
The recent row in Switzerland over Justice Minister Christoph Blocher's remarks in Turkey concerning Federal legislation against racism is a good illustration for the inadequacy of the latin proverb for our times. Sacha Baron Cohen, the comedian, the jester, is in the position of the ox and it is probably absolutely okay to let him
fool around. If racist and/or nationalist phrases are uttered at pubs by uneducated people who do not know better, this may be considered a variant of normal behaviour under the influence of alcohol.
But if the same type of rhetoric is used by politicians, it's effect will be what
German Law after World War II has defined as "Volksverhetzung" (incitement to hatred)in the Criminal Law Code (Strafgesetzbuch or StGB) § 130, a criminal offense prosecuted by law.
In Switzerland, this type of legislation was introduced only lately, in 1995,
in Art. 261bis 1 of the Criminal Law Code

An interesting detail for the slow pace of Swiss legislation on such subjects is the date of the ratification of the convention on the prevention of genocide of 1948

this convention was ratified by Switzerland in the year 2000.
If the Swiss are reluctant to restrict the freedom of thought and of speech through international conventions of little practical value (even Sudan, with it's notorious repression and genocidal activities against parts of it's population, has ratified the convention on the repression of genocide), it would be wise for our politicians to avoid fooling around and be aware that nowadays "quod licet bovi non licet Iovi", i.e. that political leaders should avoid to behave like brawlers in the pub.