The GOP has a history of trying to force personal beliefs on our country. While they are mostly known for trying to force their religious beliefs on Americans, they are guilty of others. The Grand Old Party has released its non-binding platform and shared their plans for the future. When putting this platform together they concluded that the health of this country is very important, and that there is currently “a public health crisis.” But they weren’t talking about heart disease, or obesity, or even prescription drug abuse. They were talking about porn. Yes, pornography. Apparently pornography is “a public menace that is destroying lives.” They go on to claim in this platform that millions of lives especially children’s lives are being destroyed by explicit material and should be banned.

The GOP seems to have a massive contradiction on their hands. While being a huge advocate for gun rights, they are anti-porn. A common talking point is, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” and well to that I say “porn doesn’t cause masturbation, people cause masturbation.” Joking aside, we have to ask, what exactly is porn doing to our country that is ruining lives? I can’t come to any other conclusion than to think that they are just trying to keep everyone’s hands out of their own pants. Which is none of their business.

Republicans, and especially the republican establishment always just seem very anti-sex. Because of their policy positions, I can’t help but believe this. They want everyone to be the same way and have sex the same way. But anyone who cares about reality will know that sex is a part of being human. Humans have sex, and some humans find entertainment in seeing sex. Explicit sexual material made by adults for adults is perfectly safe for the American public to produce and consume. There is no evidence that porn is remotely a public health crisis. It is outrageous that educated adults think this is what they should be spending time worrying about. These people are supposed to be representatives of our democracy, and in a time where there are lots of problems plaguing our nation, the GOP spent precious time plotting to get rid of porn.

If there is any politician who isn’t trying to do something about poverty, social injustices, or improving our deplorable foreign policy, then they are doing a great disservice to us all. We need policy makers who will spend time and therefore tax payer money on real issues. We as a nation cannot afford to allow politicians to spend time trying to ban things they have some strange personal problem with. Politicians cannot make up a public health crisis and be allowed to stay in office in the future. I implore everyone to not vote for these people. America has real problems and it is an embarrassment that some policy makers would waste our time like this. Pornography is not an issue, poverty is an issue, war is an issue, the racist justice system is an issue. Vote for people who care about making the country a better place for all people, not people who spend their time worrying about people watching porn in the privacy of their own homes.