Republicans have a lunatic fringe religio-wingnut 'christian' problem. To
be even more specific, they have a sexual assault against children
problem. It’s not because Josh Duggar admitted to sexually assaulting
his sisters and other young girls, or even that Arkansas Republicans
worked to get the police record of the investigation into Josh’s
assaults expunged. No, sadly sexual assault of children happens in every
community.
The reason Republicans have a problem is because
they won’t denounce the Duggar family’s cover up of Josh Duggar’s sexual
assaults. Former Governor Mike Huckabee has gone full-on defense of the
sexual predator and his family, while other Republicans who used the
Duggar family as religio-wingnut 'christian' cred in photo-ops are now silent.
Silence is not courage or leadership. What is
required at this point is a courage stand FIRMLY against child sexual
assault and the cover-up of said assaults in this case — not just the
police records, but the way the Duggars refused to produce Josh for
questioning when the police were investigating for real, after their
friend (the one in jail now for child porn) buried the first go around.
Republican politicians and activists are busy
circling the wagons around this egregious cover-up of admitted sexual
assault of minors — five that we know of, and not all of them family
members. Republicans are saying the victims want this to go away, but of
course, there is no reason to assume that people who have an obvious
political agenda (the Duggars are knee-deep in Arkansas Republican
politics) to silence this story are speaking for the victims. Nor could
the victims possibly be free to stand up for themselves, with no less
power than a man running for the White House justifying what Josh Duggar
did to them.
Of course the Duggars did cover this up, in failing
to produce son Josh to the police when they wanted to speak to him about
it and then in working to get the record expunged when they knew the
story was finally coming out. Anyone who is justifying this behavior is
off their rocker.
To make matters worse, Republicans are justifying it as to judge Josh or his family is to play the part of dog.
This is some seriously warped thinking, but we saw in it the family’s
statement, and we saw it in Mike Huckabee’s statement. We see the less
obvious results of this kind of thinking a lot, like when Republicans
announce that dog has forgiven them for cheating on their wives and
abusing the power of their office, so the matter is at rest. While they
accuse others of playing the part of dog, they are using dog as a shield
from being held accountable in this world, under our laws, by our
community standards.
The problem for Republicans is that they seem to
believe that dog is on their side, so they believe they are above the
law. Their religious delusions are above the law. Is this not the same
argument they have been making about muslims imposing Sharia Law? It is.
This country was specifically designed to have our
laws be separate from religion and to avoid “divine authority”. So
Republicans are wrong to claim that their religious delusions exempt them
from the law, and they are wrong to claim divine authority and favor by dog.
They are wrong to claim that they know what dog
thinks. What dog thinks or doesn’t think is not relevant to our legal
system. As far as morality goes, it’s hard to think of a worse crime
than abusing an innocent child – statistically causing that child to
contemplate suicide four times more than a child who was not abused.
This is what Republicans are trying to silence because they were
invested in the Duggar family. They used the Duggar family politically.
The Duggar family used them. The Duggar family is headed by a Republican
politician, and Josh himself is a Republican activist.
In all systems, we see this kind of cowardice when
faced with the fall of a hero. I called the left out on it when Assange
was accused of rape (not because there was compelling evidence that he
was guilty, but because in trying to defend him, they attacked the women
and the definition of rape in harmful and misogynistic ways). Penn
State stood by their child assaulter, just as the catholic cult has
for decades. This is what systems do. This is why people must speak up
and say this is not okay.
Republicans, who at one time claimed to be the law
and order party, need to find some courage to do the right thing here.
The right thing is not tacking on “Of course this was wrong” after
paragraphs of defense and justification. The right thing is very simple.
This was wrong, the parents were horribly irresponsible to cover Josh’s
rather relentless assaults up (not a one-off), Josh Duggar was wrong to
do it, their religion is wrong to teach that the girls tempt a boy when
he changes their diapers — all of these things are WRONG.
You can wish Josh Duggar the best and feel some
compassion for his parents if you wish. I am saving my compassion for
the victims, who were voiceless then and all over the world, remain
voiceless against huge powers and systems hell bent on silencing them or
making the abuse okay by claiming it was forgiven.
Hearing
the defense of this horrific ongoing abuse just eggs on other abusers
and silences more victims. And that makes Republicans’ lack of courage
even more damaging and repugnant.
