I'm just old enough to remember how a group of Republicans who hollered about "family values" would bash Bill Clinton for corruption and immorality. A group of Republicans who considered themselves champions for victims of sexual assault, and blasted the Democrats for electing a sexual predator.
I'm old enough to remember a group of Republicans who, after Romney's defeat, swore they would improve outreach to minorities and of course, to women. And then these same Republicans nominated and defended a man who sexually assaulted and harassed women and laughed about it. A man whose only defense is "I didn't mess with that one, she's too ugly."
These same Republicans who defend Donald Trump are saying the women who accused him of harassment must be lying. I mean, he admitted to sexual assault, but surely these women are lying! Surely they're just delighted to have their names dragged through the mud by disgusting far-right pundits.
And now I'm finding it hard to defend the charge against Republicans not caring about women. A year or even a month ago, I would've said that left-leaning feminists were lying when they said Republicans don't care about women's issues. But I can think of no defense for people who say "But Bill! But Hillary!" when they hear about Trump assaulting women. Or who say "but how were those women dressed? Women who drink and dress provocatively are going to get raped; it's just what happens; we live in a rape culture; it's just how it is"
If we're going to have a national conversation about sexual assault (and we clearly need to) then certain Republicans need to change the way they talk about women who are assaulted. Instead of asking "Why did these women wait till now to come forward," we should be asking "why is the justice system so skewed in favor of rich people like Trump?" Instead of saying "not all men brag about assault," we should be doing everything we can to stop this man who DID from becoming president. Instead of saying "they're just words" or "what Bill did was so much worse" we need to acknowledge what our nominee did (because he was talking about actual experience, they weren't just hypothetical words) and condemn it.
Conservative women have gone viral condemning Trump and his sycophants over the past week. And they've faced backlash from other conservatives. A certain type of person wants to pretend sexual assault is some crazy, radical, liberal, feministic issue. A certain type of person will defend actual assault because they're so used to crazy liberals like Amy Schumer who think compliments = rape. But conservatives need to put aside their disdain for liberals and acknowledge the problem of sexual assault in this country. Conservatives have to be vocal about women's issues and our screwed-up justice system that lets rich people get away with rape. Otherwise we have no credibility against the charge that conservatism is sexist.
