Monday, May 16, 2016

Election Season of Hate

By Jeff Simpson

Capital Times Reporter Jessie Opoien wrote an excellent piece lately about sexism in politics and what political women on both sides of the aisle have to deal with.  

 
Perpetrators of sexism and harassment frequently transcend party and gender lines. The hate comes from men, women, Republicans and Democrats alike.
“Because of the treatment women often receive in the media, and particularly on social media, that discourages women who want to protect their families and their children and even sometimes their own reputations and privacy,” said Republican Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch. “And that discouragement simply narrows the pool of people willing to throw their hats in the ring.”

Let's start out by saying there is no place for sexism in the world, in politics or in anyone's everyday life.  That being said, there is also no room for many things in our everyday lives. 

For instance, Ms. Kleefisch while dealing with unnecessary sexism in her life, she can not see the forest for the trees.  As hard as some anonymous trolls make life for her, she did the same to our LGBT friends and neighbors when she was running for office.  

Republican candidate for Wisconsin Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch compared same-sex marriage to marrying a clock during a radio interview.
“This is a slippery slope,” Kleefisch said. “In addition to that at what point are we going to be okay marrying inanimate objects? Can I marry this table or this, you know, clock? Can we marry dogs?
“This is ridiculous,” continued Kleefisch. “And biblically, again, I’m going to go right back to my fundamental Christian beliefs marriage is between one man and one woman.” 

Should we only treat women who live the life we feel they should live as equals?   How can one who deals with discrimination based on things out of her control everyday, go from dealing with it to dishing it out almost in the same breath?  

We could ask newly elected Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley the same:

Tweets mentioning Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley, the conservative candidate in the April judicial election, referred to her as a “worthless whore,” a “ho” and a “psycho bitch.”  

It could be worse than an Internet anonymous troll on twitter, it could have been someone signing their name to an oped.  


I would hate to be a member of the LGBT community in WI and have to argue in front of her in a life or death case.  

But wait there is more, there is always more.    

We have recently come to the end of the Republican race for their Presidential nominee and of the 17 men/women who ran - this guy won. 





So now one of the biggest sexist misogynists in the country will be the Republican nominee for President.   With his despicable past and current actions towards women, I am certain that the GOP will tell him that this behavior is unacceptable from him now right??? 

Or not: according to the head of the GOP Reince Priebus.  

After a week of make-up meetings with Donald Trump, Republican party leaders have arrived at a new strategy to accommodate their presumptive presidential nominee: ignore his problematic attitude to women, his tax issues and his fluctuating positions on trade, immigration, foreign relations and a host of other topics, and instead embrace the will of Republican voters.“We’ve been working on this primary for over a year,” he said. “People don’t care. The question is, who is going to bring an earthquake to Washington DC?”

So we should worry more about the anonymous internet trolls than one of two people who have a chance to President of the US?    Will the people who have to deal with sexism on a daily nasis also come out for Trump for President?  

Stay tuned!   

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