Year of the Woman

Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse. It did. Supporters of Donald Trump, including disillusioned voters, as well as, Republican party leaders, could tolerate the verbal abuse of women, but new revelations of actual alleged sexual assault is apparently too much. Trump calling women “pigs” and “slobs”, and even the audio tape from 11 years ago of Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women was okay for a candidate for president of the United States. Now, leaders of the Republican Party, who have shown no guts or back bone in standing up to Trump, say we can’t support him. They can’t vote for him. Some, like Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, are not quite outraged enough to formally pull their endorsement of Trump. He will no longer campaign or appear with Trump, but will focus on preserving the Republican majority in Congress. In other words, save his job.

Now the presidential campaign is sounding like the Bill Cosby story. Women are breaking their silence and talking about their encounters with Trump who they say he can’t keep his hands, or his tongue, to himself. The women include, a women who says Trump groped her while sitting next to her on a plane, and a secretary who was working for a company in Trump Tower. She says when she introduced herself to Trump, he kissed her on the mouth. And even a reporter for People magazine, claims Trump pushed against a wall and started kissing her when she went to meet him for an interview. Since he owned the Miss Teen USA beauty pageant, one contestant claims Trump felt entitled to walk into the women’s dressing room while they undressed.  Remember, these were teenage girls. Trump claims all these stories are lies, and has even threatened to sue the New York Times for reporting some of these women’s stories. At the last debate, Trump invited three women who claim Bill Clinton sexually assaulted them to sit and watch the wife of the man they claim assaulted them, while Clinton himself sat nearby.

Bill Clinton, like Trump, and Cosby are all powerful men who have been accused of using their position to harass and assault women. All this comes in a year when a woman is the Democratic nominee for president, and has a very good chance of becoming the first female president. Hillary Clinton has many flaws and faults, including tolerating a husband accused of cheating on her. Many people will vote for her just because they can’t vote for Trump which isn’t a compelling reason to vote for someone. But, at least she hasn’t been accused of sexually assaulting someone. Just think about that. We are talking about candidates for president. This should be profoundly troubling to all of us.

While women have made great strides since the women’s liberation movement of the sixties and seventies, we can’t shake these deep seeded attitudes among many men that women can be thought of, talked about, or treated in this way. Trump, Bill Clinton, and Cosby grew up in male dominated world where this type of attitude and behavior was tolerated and laughed at as “boys being boys”. Or as Trump would characterize it, as “locker room talk.” This is a lack of basic human decency and respect. I don’t understand how any woman could vote for Trump, or any man who cares about women could vote for him. My wife grew up in a household with old fashion views of a woman’s place in the world. She didn’t get the educational opportunities her brothers got because it was assumed she would marry and her husband would take care of her. Well, she has grown into a strong woman with a nursing career. She also raised two fine young men who married two strong women. They each have two daughters. These are the women I think about when I hear this kind of talk coming from someone who wants “to make America great again.” Who do you think about?