Consent: A Concept Apparently Unknown to Republicans
David Weigel and Kaili Joy Gray hove more on the excellent point Paul raised yesterday. Not only have a lot of Republicans and journalists conflated sexual harassment and consensual affairs into indistinguishable “sex scandals,” the former seem to think that the consensual conduct is actually worse. When the Cain story first broke, I saw multiple people bringing up John Edwards and Monica Lewinsky, exemplifying the same mistake. Consent matters, and while the battle to preserve any substantial privacy for public figures has been lost in my mind it’s also the line where gossip turns into something of actual significance to evaluating a candidate.
See also the inability of conservatives to understand the concept of consent when it comes to torture.
…see also Nona Willis Aronowitz.