Too Many Steps Too Far
These opinions will almost certainly be distorted and tortured into something they’re not. They are not defenses of things that ought not to be defended, or an attempt to discourage the airing of legitimate grievances and issues. They are merely an attempt to regain a balance in judging interpersonal relations essential to human interaction and to divorce the merely political from the socially necessary.
So, how ridiculous has the politicization of sexuality become? Not assault which is different, whether sexual or otherwise, but anything that touches on sexuality.
This morning Congressmen Trent Franks resigned because of allegations he had asked staff members whether or not they might be willing to participate as surrogate parents for a child his wife could not bear. They declined but another surrogate was obtained and successfully conceived, for which the Congressman, now former Congressman and his wife will be eternally grateful, see “Arizona Rep. Trent Franks quits after asking female staffers about surrogacy”. If the facts are as described by the “former” Congressman, this example is ludicrous, as is the case of the GOP Congressman whose consensual exchange of intimate photographs with a partner while he was separated albeit still married was leaked and abused by the mainstream media. In most contexts, had he been a woman, he would have been identified as the victim, see “Rep. Joe Barton, embarrassed by nude photo online, to retire”.
Al Franken’s case is equally ludicrous from another context , see “Al Franken’s graceless exit”. He is resigning, strangely, at some future date, while denying the allegations from six different women of sexual assault, albeit relatively minor, which makes him either a liar or a coward. If he is innocent, then he should not have stepped down but rather, as in the case of GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore, stuck it out and defended himself. In both cases real assault ought to be punished but politicized false allegations need to be defended against. If Judge Moore is innocent, he is doing the right thing. If he is not, then he is a horrible hypocrite and his entire legal, judicial and political careers, given his conservative postures, have been a total fraud.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media, which generates the allegations (in some cases, through extensive politicized search and destroy missions), has lost all credibility for most of us, making truth even more elusive than justice or decent governance; and democracy needs truth, complete and accurate truth, in order for “We the People” to fulfill our electoral roles.
We need rationality.
Assault is evil, unacceptable and criminal, whether sexual or otherwise. Mere social interaction of a sexual nature is not necessarily so. Consensually dating much younger partners of legal age is no one’s business but the participants and their families. Sexual activities with underage individuals, even if not children and not technically involving pedophilia, is illegal and should be treated as such but is utterly different than legal dating not approved of by third parties. That latter concept is comparable to social attitudes by those that disapprove of interracial dating or dating partners of the same sex or engaging in alternative lifestyles.
“Sexual harassment” has become a term so vague as to become useful only for political manipulation akin to the old witch hunting Puritan adventures. There is abuse of power for predatory purposes which ought not to be tolerated, and there are courting rituals between coworkers which, while uncomfortable if not reciprocated, are not inappropriate if rejection is accepted without retaliation.
As in virtually everything today, the mainstream media and Clinton — Obama Democrats addicted to Identity Politics distort too many things for political purposes doing society and each of its members frequently irreparable harm.
They need to go the way of the old witch hunters, and decent people, real decent people, not hypocritical political operatives, need to send them where we once sent Senator Joe McCarthy.
It’s our responsibility.
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© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2017; all rights reserved. Please feel free to share with appropriate attribution.
Guillermo Calvo Mahé (a sometime poet) is a writer, political commentator and academic currently residing in the Republic of Colombia although he has primarily lived in the United States of America (of which he is a citizen). Until recently he chaired the political science, government and international relations programs at the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales. He has academic degrees in political science (the Citadel), law (St. John’s University), international legal studies (New York University) and translation studies (the University of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies). He can be contacted at wacalvo3@autonoma.edu.co or guillermo.calvo.mahe@gmail.com and much of his writing is available through his blog at www.guillermocalvo.com.
