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OP-ED - There’s a war going on that involves the Defense Secretary. But instead of a foreign enemy, this conflict entails a battle against the U.S. Constitution and its provisions for Americans’ equality.
Sec. Pete Hegseth, the wannabe Ken doll who made taxpayers foot the bill for a makeup studio he installed at his Pentagon office, is back in the headlines for his backward views on women and girls.
Hegseth slathered praise on his pastor Doug Wilson, leader of a right-wing church in Idaho that, like vaccine denial and misogyny, has recently metastasized into Washington, D.C.
Wilson makes creepy statements likening women to hollow vessels unsuitable to exercise autonomy. “Women are the kind of people that people come out of,” Wilson said. “No, it doesn't take any talent to simply reproduce.“
Wilson has called for repeal of the 19th Amendment, ratified by the states in 1920, that extended the right to vote in federal elections to women in the U.S. He asserts women should hold no positions that “involve exercising authority over men.”
CNN interviewer Pamela Brown reacts to unhinged remarks by Doug Wilson, the right-wing extremist pastor who called for repealing the 19th Amendment, which in 1920 extended the right to vote in federal elections to women in the U.S.
Wilson found a rival this week as Prime Minister of Creepiness. It’s the lead suspect in what appear to be chauvinistic attacks mid-game on women pro basketball players.
Last week, someone at a Sparks game in L.A. threw a sex toy onto the court. It landed near Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham. Sparks player Kelsey Plum kicked it away, into the crowd.
On Monday, police in New York City released a photo of the suspect in a similar incident that occurred during a New York Liberty game. There the sex toy struck a 12-year-old girl watching the game. The Prince Charming sought in the case is wearing a red hat (what else?!) and a T-shirt emblazoned with the farcically backward and awkward teen boy duo from 1990s television “Beavis and Butt-head.”
Suspect in New York, wearing red hat and “Beavis and Butt-head” shirt, sought in connection with throwing sex toy that struck 12-year-old girl watching WNBA game.
No word yet on whether Doug Wilson called dibs on intellectual property for the sex-toy stunt. Might he offer the suspect further spiritual guidance?
Mockery of the buffoonish Trump cult is an important and effective strategy. But its traction only goes so far.
Prize-winning journalist Rachel Maddow makes a searing insight in her stellar recent book “Prequel,” about Nazis’ work to sabotage Americans’ democracy leading up to World War II. Maddow shows beyond dispute that the scope of sedition and conspiracy and the severity of domestic threat posed by coordinated fascist agents within the U.S. were constantly minimized, to the point of being nearly buried and obscured in recent history.
What may be creepiest about Trump’s goon squad of Proud Boys, his amen-corner of misogynists, and the depraved ranks of trolls promoting the subjugation of women and girls is that they’re blabbering, legislating, and issuing rulings in plain sight. Their hatred and panic are undisguised at the growing achievements by women and girls, and LGBGT+ people as well, in every sector of American society.
But their primal fear of equality is also why the Republican War on Women, like white supremacy with which it is deeply entangled, is a delusional lost cause that may likely doom the right wing to defeat.
(Hans Johnson is a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, environmental justice, and public education. His columns have appeared in USA Today and leading newspapers across more than 20 states. Based in Eagle Rock, he serves as president of East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), California’s largest grassroots Democratic club with over 1,100 members. Hans brings decades of organizing and policy experience to his work, advancing equity and accountability in local and national politics.)
