Friday, November 10, 2017

Another Day, Another Sex Scandal in America

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

After nearly a year of feeling certain that it would be the emerging Russian scandal that eventually freed America of Donald Trump, there is now at least a glimmer of hope that he may get washed away in the roaring tsunami of sexual allegations being leveled against powerful men by their long-silent victims.  There had been allegations made against Trump before last year's tragic election, and the candidate himself had been heard on audiotape bragging about sexually assaulting women, but post-morality Republicans and Bible-spouting Christians were able to justify voting for him anyway - apparently based on one fact - he wasn't Hillary.

Victims of sexual abuse who have long remained silent due to shame and a near-certain knowledge that they either would not be believed or suffer career-ending retaliation by their abusers are now coming forward with a sense of righteous ferocity.   Celebrities like Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and Louis C.K. are seeing their once prominent careers come crashing down around them, and politicians are also fearing the delayed retribution of people they perpetrated against.

Yesterday the story broke that Alabama Republican senate candidate, Roy Moore, has been accused by four women of sexually perping on them decades ago when he was a thirty-something assistant district attorney.  One of the women was only fourteen at the time that Moore, according to an account provided by her and her mother, forced his sexual attentions on her.  The age of consent in Alabama at the time was sixteen - and it still is.  Moore's actions would have constituted statutory rape - but the time window for prosecution has long since expired.

The woman's story is so detailed and convincing that the Washington Post printed it.  Moore, a devout Christian, says she is a liar, and he is refusing to abandon his senate campaign, opting instead to blame the story on a political plot hatched by the Clinton's and Obama.  Several prominent Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have expressed disgust at the content of the story and said that "if it is true" then Moore should withdraw from the race.  Today, in an inspired example of believing the victim (for a change), two sitting Republican senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Steve Danes on Montana, went so far as to withdraw their endorsements of Roy Moore.

Moore had been leading his Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, by ten points before this controversy broke.  Polls today show that they are now tied at forty-six percent each.

Roy Moore, the Christian jurist who was once removed from being Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court because he had a large monument to the Ten Commandments placed in the judicial center and refused to remove it, appears likely to have busted the commandments about committing adultery and bearing false witness - and likely to have bruised a few others as he scuttles around trying to obfuscate his detestable past.

That religious stuff is always so much easier when you are imposing it on others, isn't it Roy?

No comments: