How will #MeToo affect the midterms?

Something unusual has been going on in state governments around the country.

On March 2, 2018, Rep. Steve Lebsock (D) was expelled from the Colorado House of Representatives amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment.

The 52-9 vote came after a grueling public hearing in which Democrats voted  affirmative along party lines.  One said he would vote yes because his wife had been the victim of sexual assault when she was seventeen.  Alec Garnett (D) sobbed at the podium while revealing that he had been wearing a bulletproof vest for two weeks.  The implication was that Lebsock, a former Marine who had opposed his fellow Democrats on an anti-gun bill, might take a shot at him.  The last time the Colorado House expelled one of its members was in 1915.  That was for perjury in a bribery investigation.

One month before, on Feb. 2, 2018, a Tucson.com headline read: "Arizona Rep. Don Shooter stripped of his gun, then his House seat."  The ironically named Shooter was expelled for sexual harassment on a 56-3 vote.  Shooter is seeking $1.3 million in damages for the lack of due process.  The last expulsion in that body was in 1948, when two members were removed after a fistfight. 

How many more cases are there like these?  Can they be explained simply because of the Harvey Weinstein story, which broke on October 5, 2017, and the #MeToo movement that followed?  Why does the gun issue keep coming up seemingly out of nowhere?

According to a report dated May 29, 2018 at Ballotpedia.org, 18 states reported one or more sexual misconduct allegations since October 2017.  There are no reports for 2015-2016 or before.

Most of the men accused resigned without a fight. Rep. Dan Johnson (R) of Kentucky committed suicide on December 13, 2017 after he was accused of an incident of "inappropriate touching" in 2013.

After Hillary lost, Democrats were left without control of any branch of the federal government.  They're famous for top-down strategies.  Was there a nationwide directive to remake state governments without the pesky requirement of having to win elections first?  Whether it was deliberate or not, they've been doing exactly that since October.  If they can ensnare the biggest fish, Trump, the same way, so much the better.  The next letter after LGBTQ in their politically correct alphabet is W for woman.  The repeated theme of guns in these cases seems forced and out of place until we look at it in this context.

Republicans need to put conservative women out front to tackle the serious problems with the #MeToo movement:

  • Lack of discernment: All women are portrayed as victims, all men as perpetrators.  Serial rapist Bill Cosby is lumped together with the man at work who tells a woman at work she looks good in a skirt.  If she's interested, it's not sexual harassment.  If she isn't, he could lose his career, his livelihood, and his reputation.  The lack of discernment minimizes the crimes rape and sexual assault.
  • Lack of due process: The Colorado speaker called for Lebsock's resignation about four hours after the allegations were made public.  Then she appointed an investigator.  Lebsock tried to defend himself by paying for his own polygraph test and distributing his version of events to House members.  This was called "retaliation" and was used as further evidence of guilt.
  • Demonization of men: With slogans like "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle," the left has long encouraged women not to marry men, but to marry the government.  They already vote Democrat in greater numbers so they make the perfect new victim group and new voting bloc.  The masculine nature at its best sounds a lot like capitalism: competitiveness, persistence, resilience, and the need to protect and provide for his family.
  • 180 cultural reversal: Whatever happened to Helen Reddy's "I am woman, hear me roar"?  Now women are portrayed as hothouse flowers.  Contending with unwanted sexual attention is an important task of adult womanhood.  Most disturbing is that children are sexualized today more than ever, while adult women act ever more like children.  How can girls learn to stand up for themselves if they are unprotected and cannot learn these skills from their childlike mothers?

Conservative women will lead us out of this morass.  The 2018 midterms are here, and it's time to get started:

-We don't want to be characterized as victims.

-We don't expect to be believed or to garner votes simply because we are women. Accountability is one of the privileges of adulthood.

-We support due process for every case on its own merits.

-We love strong men.

How about this for our new hashtag?  #YEStosterone!

Karen Kataline (Karen@KarenKataline.com) is an author and commentator, Columbia University-trained social worker, and frequent guest host on AM talk radio.  She is the producer and host of Spouting Off, a live internet call-in talk show, heard Tuesdays at 4 P.M. E.T. at www.KarenKataline.com.

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