I've gotten used to the breathless diary titles claiming that a rethug has been "destroyed" or that some rethug's political career has been demolished because of something said or done that the rest of the country will ignore or that some big story is "breaking". It seems people will do nearly anything to get their diaries read. And it sometimes doesn't take a lot to get recs.
However, I've seldom seen something that concerns me as much as the diary hitting the top of the rec list right now. Do we really want to take the sexual molestation of a four year old child and use it politically? It's bad enough that things like whether healthcare is a right or a privilege for the wealthy and whether a woman's right to decide how many and when she'll have children have become political footballs. Do we really want to go there when it comes to sexually abusing kids?
A Fox news reporter has been accused of sexually abusing a little girl. A poor little girl who deserves our sympathy, our empathy, our understanding, our support. She does not deserve the glee that is being expressed at the idea of a Fox personality being caught at something like this.
If this Fox news reporter abused this little girl, it has nothing to do with his being connected to Fox news and it has nothing to do with his being a conservative nutjob. It has to do with his being a perverted sick human being.
None of us know what those even closest to us are capable of or might be guilty of. None of us is responsible for the sick perverted behavior of those we're associated with unless we have some reason to know of their perversions and behavior.
Do we want people to be tempted to hide the perversions of those they're politically close to if they do discover them because they're afraid of how they will be covered with the same slime when they do? Do we really want to start chuckling over the preversions of some because they happen to be associated with the "opposite side"?
How about if we just don't make this a political issue at all? There are liberals and there are conservatives who are perverted and who will abuse children. Some on both sides will be caught from time to time. Is it really the appropriate thing to do to use that as some kind of proof or evidence that everyone else on that side is like that? Or even that the other side has a higher propensity for that? Or to forget the child that was seriously harmed because we're so gleeful about someone on the other side having been caught in such a disgusting act? Do we want to give anyone cause to have any kind of knee jerk desire to try to defend this kind of garbage because they feel they're being associated with it, just because of their political position?
Let's treat this situation as the sad and disgusting piece of news it is. But let's not treat it as political news. It's not. It has nothing to do with politicals.
This isn't a well written diary because I'm having a difficult time putting into words the terrible discomfort I feel in this way this has been handled here at Dkos. All I really want to say is let's keep a proper perspective and remember this is about kids and protecting them from sexual deviants. It's not about politics.