A lot of people will tell you that republicans will abandon any of their moral principles for even the *chance* at just a little more power. This is simply not true. Take, for an example, the recent separation of republicans from Breitbart editor and professional Twitter Troll, Milo Yiannopoulos. Here is a person who has made a name for himself by leading targeted harassment campaigns. He was one of the key figures in “Gamergate,” where an “Alt-Right” coalition of racists and misogynists (who consider him a champion of sorts) rallied behind him to harass, intimidate, and threaten women and minorities in the video game industry. Along with women and minorities, Milo targets Muslims, foreign students, and people who are transgender–A group that is already nearly TEN TIMES more likely to attempt suicide–all while hiding behind the concept of “free speech.” He helped spearhead the racist campaign of hatred and harassment against Leslie Jones after she dared to take part in an all-female remake of Ghostbusters (which I wrote about HERE), and as a result of that (and other things), Twitter closed down his account. Think about that for a minute… TWITTER! Do you have any idea how many awful examples of humanity are posting things on Twitter? Imagine what kind of a special ass hole you have to be to get banned by Twitter. He is a genuinely despicable, objectively terrible human being who gets some sort of demented gratification out of attacking groups of people who are already at risk… And none of those things were enough to discourage the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) from inviting him to be a speaker for this year’s conference.
A celebration of depravity and cruelty… A republican hero.
These facts might lead you to suspect that the republican party has no moral compass whatsoever… That they have no sense of common decency or concept of right and wrong. Well, I’ve got some good news for you! They WILL separate themselves and disavow some people, even if that separation might alienate some of that person’s adoring fans. There IS a line they won’t cross. Here’s all it took: It took him condoning PEDOPHILIA. It took an actual video of him defending grown men having sex with 13 year old boys.
That’s it. That’s the line. That’s what it takes for you to be “too awful” to be embraced by today’s republican party–DEFENDING SEXUAL ABUSE AGAINST 13 YEAR OLD BOYS.
Appearing at a college and targeting a transgender student BY NAME? No big deal. Verbally attacking rape survivors? Meh. Claiming all those “rape stories” from college campuses that involve sex are “all frauds and hoaxes?” We’ve got bigger fish to fry, people. And (as you can see in the video below) it seems that a person stating he believes that grabbing a woman’s breasts is NOT sexual assault, and that men groping women is “not that big a deal” is ALSO not particularly disqualifying…
What are you gonna do about it?
I mean, I GET why some people night be tempted to think that republicans have no moral line they will not cross… That kind of thing is going to happen when CPAC has ALSO asked someone to speak who was caught on tape bragging about how being famous allows him to do whatever he wants to women… Including “grabbing them by the pussy.”
This might seem like a disaster to some–Especially for the party which so many Christians feel compelled to vote for–but I think it’s a good thing… You know? At least we have a line now. At least we know what is officially “out of bounds” for the party of “conservative values,” the “moral majority,” and evangelical voters: It’s defending and condoning the rape of middle schoolers.
Would this proposal include a certain orange narcissist?
As republican leadership has taken this brave stand against condoning pedophilia, we are already seeing other republicans start to distance themselves a bit from the former golden boy, Yiannopoulos. In Tennessee (where I live) a representative named Martin Daniel (click on his name for his contact information, if you happen to feel like calling him and letting him know what you think of him) was trying to pass “The Milo Bill” (created after protests kept Milo from speaking at Berkley) that supposedly “protects free speech” on college campuses. But now (after finding out Milo is a defender of pederasty), he has decided to add a few more names to the bill…
Yes, you read that right… He’s taking down the “Milo,” and adding the names of Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, and Martin Luther King, Jr. to the bill. I will now pause to give you time to deal with the vomit that is almost surely in your mouth…
But make no mistake: These people are are not interested in protecting ALL speech… They are interested in protecting speech that they agree with. If a Muslim with anti-American leanings wanted to speak at the University of Tennessee, and student protests made it clear that his voice was not welcome on campus, it would be a clear case of “The people have spoken.” But when a mouthpiece for Alt-Right hatred gets shouted down, all of a sudden it’s a “violation of that person’s right to free speech.” But listen–Just because you have the right to say something doesn’t mean that I have to lend you my megaphone. And Milo’s right to spout his hateful lies does not include the right to use any platform he desires.
For years, Steve Bannon’s “Breitbart” was celebrated as the number one platform for the Alt-Right. And–until this recent controversy forced him to resign and cost him a $250,000 book deal–Milo Yiannopoulos was a Breitbart Senior Editor and a pet project of Steve Bannon… A man who now sits as this current president’s Chief Strategist, as well as holding a seat on the National Security Council. Bannon’s white nationalist platform now has a front row seat at White House Press Conferences… A LITERAL front row seat, since Trump’s team only reserved one seat for a member of the press: Breitbart.
Milo to Hairdresser: “I’m looking for something that says ‘Hitler Youth.'”
There is no question of “Is this the right thing to do?” The morality of an issue is not a concern… Only the questions of “Will this bring us more power than we currently have?” and “Can we get away with it?” The GOP will GLADLY embrace white nationalists and avowed racists if it will give them more power. They are not bothered by Trump’s continued lies, they are not bothered by his philandering or his three marriages, they are not bothered by his wife’s nude photos (neither am I, but these same people seemed very disturbed by Michelle Obama showing her shoulders in a photograph), they are not bothered by his inflammatory hatred against Muslims, Mexicans, immigrants, and refugees, they are not bothered by his continued bullying, they are not bothered by his continued attacks on the American democratic process and the freedom of the press, and they are not bothered by his continued hypocrisy (as he attacked president Obama for playing too much golf, while going golfing SIX TIMES in his first month in office).
The closest thing today’s republican party has to a moral question is this: “How much will it cost?” The only criticism that seems to have any staying power with republicans right now is the criticism of how much all of his and his family’s travels are costing. In eight years, President Obama’s travel cost totaled $97 million… In one month, Donalds’s travel costs have already topped $10 million. In one month, Donald Trump has spent one tenth the cost of President Obama’s TOTAL travel costs for 96 months. At this rate, if Trump were in office for eight years (God forbid), the American people will have spent $960 MILLION on the Trump family’s excursions to Mar-a-Lago and his wife’s decision to stay in her gilded New York Tower. That’s over SIX TIMES the amount of the annual budget for the National Endowment for the Arts that republicans want to get rid of… But even now, it is grossing me out that I feel like this is the only criticism with any teeth. THERE IS MORE TO RIGHT AND WRONG THAN HOW MUCH THINGS COST!
So it turns out the republican party is NOT completely morally bankrupt. It might seem like none of their concern is with any issues of “right” or “wrong.” It might appear that they are concerned with one thing: More power. You might think they will abandon any moral compass they may have had for a chance at more power. I mean, sure… They don’t care about a lot: They don’t care about hypocrisy. They don’t care about attacking the character of rape survivors, or acting like all accusers of sexual assault are making it up. Here are just a few of Milo’s headlines from Brietbart:
- “Male Students: Do Not Go To Consent Classes” 10/16/15
- “Muslims Will Bring Lamb Chops, Yoghurt, and Gang Rape to America” 10/30/16
- “‘Slut’s Remorse’ Is My Rape Suspects Should Be Anonymised” 6/23/14
- “Islam Is The Real Rape Culture” 10/12/16
- “Even If You’re Acquitted Of Rape, Feminists Can Still Ruin Your Life” 10/7/16
They also don’t care about baseless and unfounded attacks on the legitimacy of our electoral process.They don’t care about attacking the legitimacy of our courts. They don’t care about saying that “feminism is cancer.” They don’t care about bragging about sexual assault. They don’t care about mocking disabled reporters. They don’t care about a man who claims to be a Christian who hasn’t sought forgiveness. They don’t care about choosing white nationalists to be part of the president’s cabinet. They don’t care about attacks on our most vulnerable citizens, and they don’t care about demonizing refugees and prohibiting entry for women and children fleeing war zones. They don’t care about a president who brags about grabbing pussies, and they don’t care about “journalist” who brags about being able to give such good head today because of the priest who forced him to as a child.
“Leaving it up to the states” to decide whether or not to protect trans kids is going to put lives in danger. It’s disgusting and shameful.
And as of yesterday, they don’t care about protecting the safety of transgender kids just trying to use the bathroom at school without getting harassed. They act like they care a *liiiiitle* bit about wasting money… Though they’ll waste ALL THE MONEY if it will keep them in power. But there’s one thing they WON’T stand for… There is a line they won’t cross… There is a character flaw in their leadership they won’t overlook… There is one thing that they will not sell out for… There is one value for which they will not abandon their moral center…. HERE IT IS: They won’t put up with people defending and condoning the rape of children. At least not on video. And at least not if people hear about it because that video gets shared a lot. Or unless that person says they are sorry for saying what they said… We’ll wait and see. AT LEAST THERE IS A LINE!
So that’s something… Right?
Right?
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