I joined Daily Kos in September 2004. Over the last eight years, nothing I've seen here--not even the numerous outrages by the Bush administration and the tea party--has made me angrier than learning that Wisconsin Republican state rep Don Pridemore, cosponsor of state senator Glenn Grothman's idiotic bill that suggests single-parent households are a contributing factor in child abuse, seems to think that even abusive marriages don't have to end in divorce. See it for yourself from WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee:
Hearing this load of idiotic bullshit hit an extremely raw nerve with me, as I was in an emotionally abusive marriage from 2003 to 2006. My ex-wife yelled and cursed at me all the time whenever I did something wrong. On one occasion, her temper tantrums nearly got us arrested. She also sat on her hands while I was being threatened in my own house. And yet, Rep. Pridemore, you think I should have simply bitten my tongue and tried to work it out? Do you even KNOW what I or anyone else who's been in an abusive relationship had to endure, you self-absorbed assclown? Apparently not. I'd really like to know where Pridemore shops, because I don't know of anywhere in Wisconsin where you can buy cojones this big.
Whenever I made a mistake, nine times out of ten my ex would yell and curse at me. Anyone who's seen my posts over the years know I cuss (which tells you how latitudinarian I am). But when every other word you hear is an F-bomb, there's only so much you can take. Apparently Pridemore thinks that no one has a breaking point. I reached that point just a few weeks before Christmas 2004, when she refused to let Rent-a-Center come in to pick up a washer and dryer. I was on my way to get something from my dad, but I was forced to come home and let the Rent-a-Center people in rather than risk having the police come. I'd planned to leave after the start of 2005. The only reason I stayed was because she ended up in the hospital on Christmas Eve. Unlike Pridemore, I actually have some decency.
Later on, another family with whom we'd struck up a friendship briefly stayed with us before they were due to move to Florida. On at least two occasions, the guy threatened to beat me silly if I didn't "straighten up." And my wife just stood there and let it happen. Later on, her son moved in with us. She didn't bother to get his anger-management medication refilled, and as a result every other day he yelled at me that if I didn't act right, "I'm gonna knock your ass out!" She not only didn't do a thing about it, but actually goaded both him and a gal who was staying with us into beating me up. And Rep. Pridemore, you seriously expect someone in that situation to just refind the reasons he or she got married?
Pridemore represents a district northwest of Milwaukee that would vote for a comatose Republican. It's about the only remotely plausible reason I can think of that anyone could think he could get away with spitting in the face of everyone who has ever been in an abusive marriage.
As soon as I'm all the way calmed down and know I won't be cussing up a storm, I'm dropping this idiot an email at Rep.Pridemore at legis dot wisconsin dot gov (sorry, even cowards like him don't deserve to be spammed). Anyone else want to join in? If any state legislator in Wisconsin to have his Inbox crashed, it's him.