Juanita Broaddrick and Social Conservatives

There are any number of conservatives who say that they believe Juanita Broaddrick's accusations of rape against Bill Clinton. I for one do not believe Juanita Broaddrick. I think that she is an opportunist who wants to get famous by telling a bunch of credible lies. The issue however does not end there.

 

 

I've seen the legal system – particularly in socially conservative areas – completely fail women who have been victims of real rape and real violence. In India, 40,000 women a year die from domestic violence. In Russia, whose population is one eight that of India, it's 14,000. In Afghanistan, young men protested against the new anti-rape laws with signs saying “We want to rape.” In Kenya, a large number of schoolgirls were raped and killed by their classmates, and the principle excused it with “Oh, these boys did not want to hurt the girls, they just wanted to rape.”

 

 

In America and Australia I have seen the system fail real victims many times likewise. I am talking about men who repeatedly raped the children being awarded full custody of the child, and the child denied a meaningful interaction with the parent who tried to protect them. I am talking having a woman who is an engineer living out of a truck because her entire paycheck has been garnished to pay child support to a man who beat her and her children. I am talking having a man who broke his wife's skull so badly that she needed 40 stitches being awarded full custody of the child.

 

 

Where are conservatives in all of these situations? Nowhere of course. They only care when the wrongdoing is alleged to be done by the other side. And to these people I say this. I will believe Juanita Broaddrick when you believe real victims.

 

 

I had a friend from India whose parents told her that if a woman gets raped it is her own fault. She was a feminist; so her mother and aunt wanted to arrange to get her raped so that she know the difference between men and women. All these, and more, are people who hide behind “family values” and “traditional values” to excuse their disgusting behavior. Once again, the conservatives are nowhere when this happens; but they are everywhere when an opportunist impugns Bill Clinton for much lesser crimes.

 

 

Social conservatives – in America and elsewhere - don't care if children or women get raped. They've proven that in many courts both inside and outside America. It's only when a wrongdoing is alleged to a Democrat that they have something to say. I see no reason at all why Juanita Broaddrick should get preferential treatment over the many millions of victims of real incest and family violence. Nor do I see why conservatives should talk about such things. Not only are they nowhere when a real victim needs help, but they do everything that they can to silence the real victims.

 

 

Even if Clinton had sex with Juanita Broaddrick, it is nothing compared to the daily hell in which millions of women and children in America – and outside of America – live. The banner of family values gets used to prevent victims of incest and family violence from confronting their perpetrators; and in this the concept of family values is profaned. A good father would not be raping or beating his children, and the father who hides behind family values to excuse such practices is a terrible father. Which means that the concept of “family values” serves bad people and nobody else.

 

 

It is utter hypocrisy to support Broaddrick's accusations against Bill Clinton while doing nothing to fight real abuse and real wrongdoing. Juanita Broaddrick is doing well enough; but the same cannot be said about many victims of incest and family violence. When conservatives start confronting these things in their communities for real, their claims would be more credible. Until then they are a bunch of hypocrites who would believe unsubstantiated claims of rape against Bill Clinton while doing nothing to fight much graver and much more damaging wrongs.