I think it reflects lots of superficial “norms” of politics, where war and colonialism are considered “part of the business” while superficial things such as whether or not one is married, has facial hair, certain genitals or skin color can be overwhelming deal-breakers. Much of it seems to obviously defy reason, and even explainable morality or ideology.
It seems to me the same sort of problem of being being easily conned with regards to hiring for regular jobs, where people get hung up over frivolous signifiers time and again over evidence of competence, no matter how easy it is to demonstrate the failures of that approach.
