Over the last five, maybe even ten, years, I’ve been reluctant to label myself Republican — mainly because I don’t think the term “conservative” holds much weight anymore. People often use the words “liberal” and “conservative” in a way that doesn’t apply, which can make people hesitant to join any one camp.
But the #MeToo era has drawn a line in the sand that makes Americans’ views, at least about sex, abundantly clear. It has served to divide us by gender, yes; but it has divided us by philosophy, or political party, even more. Specifically, it has divided us into two groups: those who understand male and female nature, and those who don’t.
We know that, generally speaking, Republicans are traditionalists and Democrats are progressive. And progressivism is all about change. Everything must always change, whether it needs changing or not. That’s because progressives don’t like America the way it is. They view anything that smacks of tradition as stifling and hurtful, particularly to women. Ergo, the Democrats’ view of men and women, and the sexual relationship between them, is decidedly different from Republicans’.
On average and for the most part, progressives, or Democrats, are feminist thinkers. They believe men are prone to oppress women and that male nature must therefore be squelched. Men need to become more like women, particularly since women have become more like men in the way they approach sex and marriage. In other words, now that women have changed so drastically, so must men. The old way was bad, and the new way forward — towards equality, or the interchangeability of the sexes, is good.
Progressives, or Democrats, also believe that women are inherently good and for the most part can do no wrong. Therefore, any interaction that takes place between a woman and a man is almost always a man’s fault.
Republicans don’t share these views. A great example is this recent CNN interview of Republican women about the Kavanaugh debacle. You will hear things from the women in this focus group — “I have no sympathy,” says Lourdes Castillo de la Pena about Christine Blasey Ford. “Perhaps maybe she had that moment she liked him. And maybe he didn’t pay attention to her afterwards and he went out with another girl, she got bigger, whatever the situation is. They’re kids” — you’d never hear in a Democratic focus group.
Democrats almost always side with the woman in question due to their feminist belief that women are victims and men are perpetrators. Republicans don’t view the sexes this way. They understand that human nature is complex and difficult, and they don’t believe either sex is inherently better or worse than the other. So when they hear about a sexual assault claim, they don’t assume the woman would never lie or distort the truth. They don’t assume she’s the victim.
She might be, but she just as easily might not be. The fault could lie with either party — or with both parties.
Unlike Democrats, Republicans don’t have a beef with human nature; and they aren’t fighting to eradicate gender roles in order to produce some faux version of equality. Republicans know that equality already exists since they respect equally the unique contributions men and women make, both in their relationships and in the marketplace. Most importantly, Republicans know that men and women are different. And they’re good with that.
It used to be that we’d find some traditionalists in the Democratic Party and some progressives in the Republican Party. That may still be true, but the excesses of #MeToo have made it abundantly clear that Democrats do not understand male and female nature. They do not appreciate that women can be just as culpable in a sexual interaction, which is why due process must always exist when a person makes a claim of sexual assault.
Instead, Democrats eschew due process and make unreasonable demands whenever a sexual assault claim is made — on the assumption that a woman has been wronged and that somewhere a man is to blame.
They don’t stop to think about what it would be like if the man accused were their son. Republicans are much more apt to do this.
Bottom line: #MeToo has divided Americans significantly more than we already were. I guess I’ll have to start calling myself Republican.
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