Sitting down to write this column, I was at a complete and utter loss for words.
I could think of nothing to say after the weekend’s events. The Washington Post published an audio recording of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump bragging to television personality Billy Bush about trying to have sex with a married woman and promoting sexual assault.
“When you’re a star, they let you do anything. Grab them by their pussy,” he said.
It’s not Trump’s comments alone that upset me. That doesn’t mean they’re any less horrible. They’re just unsurprising.
What makes me upset, disappointed, infuriated and ashamed are my friends, family, former teachers and peers and their comfortability defending Trump’s comments.
Their eagerness to extend Trump their grace and mercy for these unforgivable words and not do the same to the Clintons is deafeningly hypocritical.
They believe these phrases — “locker-room talk” or “guy talk” — are acceptable, and it’s as disappointing to learn that’s the quality of the men they associate with as it is insulting to realize they assume all men are that way.
I never want to hear the conservatives who have defended Trump to say a word about chivalry again.
You cannot ask us to be respectful of women in public while sexually assaulting them in private and then laughing about it. You must choose one, and your inability to condemn Trump has made your choice maddeningly clear.
I found myself at a loss to write this column because my job as an opinion columnist is to be persuasive, but I never imagined having to persuade people not to elect to the presidency a man who brags about sexual assault.
After reading the comments from a variety of conservatives online and briefly engaging in conversation with them, it’s apparent that there will be no persuading them — at least not by someone on the far left. I must ask, then, that you listen to your party. Republican leadership has abandoned Trump.
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, withdrew his support. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, have asked Trump to step aside and let Gov. Mike Pence lead the ticket.
Pence criticized Trump and canceled an appearance at a campaign event scheduled for Sunday.
Down-ballot Republicans in tight Senate races, like Joe Heck and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-New Hamsphire, are rushing to condemn him.
Conservatives, your ship is sinking.
I’m not asking you to jump. I’m simply asking you to go down with dignity and class so you may be able to say, “I didn’t vote for a rapist.”
For the Christians among you who say, “He’s not a rapist. Saying it and doing it aren’t the same thing,” let me remind you of the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus assures us they are.
For the secularists among you, let me be clear. I would never suggest arresting or otherwise legally punishing Trump for his words because I believe in the First Amendment. But the qualifications for president should be higher than the standard he has set.
I implore you not to participate in electing a man who promotes sexual assault. I beg of you to show us the Republican Party can be — and is — better than Donald J. Trump.
thshowal@indiana.edu
@TherinShowalter
