I’m thinking about two stories this morning — and in some sense they’re the same story.
One story is President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter, which continues to be the media’s obsession. The other story is one that won’t get the attention it deserves: Amanda Marcotte’s report on Pete Hegseth’s church. Marcotte reports that in the late 2010s, Hegseth
became deeply involved with the Association of Classical Christian Schools (ACCS), moving to Tennessee to enroll his children in a branch of this fundamentalist organization. He also joined the associated denomination, the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. Both are led by Doug Wilson, an untrained and self-proclaimed pastor who advocates for Christian nationalism and has become famous for his trollish promotion of his far-right political views.
But Wilson isn’t just a wingnut Christian nationalist.
At the center of Wilson’s philosophy is a misogyny so overt that it’s sometimes hard to believe he’s serious….
In one famous passage from his book on marriage, Wilson suggests that sexual violence is women’s fault for not being submissive enough. “[T]he sexual act cannot be made into an egalitarian pleasuring party,” he writes. “A man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.” The alleged failure of women to submit, he continues, leads men to “dream of being rapists,” deprived of the “erotic necessity” found in women’s submission….
Hegseth has blamed sexual assault in the military on “equality,” claiming that the issue was “exacerbated” by letting women enlist in the first place. This aligns with CREC teachings that male sexuality is ravenous and the tendency to blame victims for “immodesty” when sexual violence happens.
Hegseth paid off a woman who once accused him of rape, and his own mother called him “an abuser of women,” so it seems fitting that he chose a church whose leader believes that women are responsible for male sexual violence.
But in a non-sexual way, the mainstream reaction to President Biden’s pardon of Hunter resembles Hegseth and Wilson’s response to male sexual violence. Hegseth and Wilson believe it’s unnatural to deny men’s natural rampant sexuality. The political world believes that norm-breaking and corruption are essential elements of Donald Trump’s nature, so when Trump corruptly gave pardons or clemency in his first term to Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Dinesh D’Souza, and Charles Kushner, among others, the executive actions were one-day stories at best. “Trump is just being Trump” is the political equivalent of “boys will be boys.”
And just as Hegseth and Wilson blame women for male sexual violence, the political world is prepared to blame Biden for corrupt pardons in Trump’s second term, even though Trump has been loudly telegraphing his intent to use the justice system in a corrupt way for years. In particular, Trump has talked about pardoning the January 6 insurrectionists since early 2022.
The Washington Post‘s editorial board writes:
To be clear: Mr. Biden had an unquestionable legal right to pardon his son Hunter. But in so doing on Sunday, he maligned the Justice Department and invited Mr. Trump to draw equivalence between the Hunter Biden pardon and any future moves Mr. Trump might take against the impartial administration of justice.
Michigan senator Gary Peters, a Democrat, says:
This was an improper use of power, it erodes trust in our government, and it emboldens others to bend justice to suit their interests.
And:
“With this decision, Biden has now made it easier for Trump to abuse the clemency power again,” Jeffrey Crouch, a legal expert from American University, told CBS…. “If presidents from both political parties feel free to abuse clemency without consequence, the pardon power becomes less a tool of grace and more of a political instrument.”
Let me say it again: In a second term, Trump was always going to “feel free to abuse clemency without consequence.” Jonathan Last is right:
Will pardoning Hunter “embolden” Trump to break more norms? LOL no.
Will pardoning Hunter make it “easier” for Trump’s defenders?
They are having an easy time already. They defend everything Trump says/does. Because Hunter was pardoned, they will include this in their daily litanies. Had Hunter not been pardoned, the litanies would include something else.
Back in 1991, Chris Matthews called the Democratic Party “the Mommy party,” writing:
There’s an accepted division of chores in American politics. Republicans protect us with strong national defense; Democrats nourish us with Social Security and Medicare. Republicans worry about our business affairs; Democrats look after our health, nutrition and welfare. Republicans control the White House; Democrats provide a warm, caring presence on Capitol Hill.
The paradigm for this snug arrangement is familiar. It’s the traditional American family. “Daddy” locks the doors at night and brings home the bacon. “Mommy” worries when the kids are sick and makes sure each one gets treated fairly. This partition of authority and duty may seem an anachronism from the “Leave it to Beaver” era, but it’s an apt model for today’s political household.
Now Republicans win the male vote by double digits, while Democrats win the female vote. Republicans openly brag about their toxic masculinity — they’re the frat party, not the Daddy party.
We conclude that we can’t expect them to go against their essential fratty nature, or hold them accountable if they do harm as a result. So we blame the female party for male failings, as nature and God apparently intended.
Republished from No More Mister Nice Blog.
