Straw Man #1 by Peter Wood, writing in the National Review -- the White House is waging a war on men. Straw Man #2 -- If a woman alleges sexual harassment, she is always telling the truth.
It is really interesting how the National Review can be so soft on crime when it suits their purposes. But in reality, the people who are raising concerns about rape and sexual harassment on college campuses are simply calling for common sense. Keep everything G-rated. No means no. Silence does not mean "yes." It might be a good idea to ask permission before kissing a girl you don't know very well. Someone who is drunk is not capable of consent.
I am sure all of us would share Mr. Wood's concerns about due process for men. However, if Mr. Wood would read the news about what is happening, especially Al-Jazeera, which has extensively covered this issue, he would find that victims are not even being heard at all. The problem is that the Republican Party has it all backwards -- imprison non-violent drug offenders, while letting the real criminals get away. After all, in Todd Akin's world, if it is a legitimate rape, the woman has ways of shutting that down.
In reality, as is being reported in the news, women who go to the university are having their cases universally swept under the rug by people who have no law enforcement or prosecutorial training whatsoever. The notorious Penn State rape case that brought down Joe Paterno is the tip of the iceberg pointing to a much larger problem. There is a culture within too many of our universities where people value protecting the institution over making sure that our system works for all. In the worst-case scenario, the university tells women who were raped that they will protect their confidentiality, only to turn around and tell all their friends, who turn around and harass the woman who came forward and made the complaint. And then they wonder why most rapes don't get reported.
I am sure that most of the writers at the National Review are pro-life. However, when it comes to actually doing something about stopping abortions in this country by protecting women against rape and the rape culture, they oppose it. And then they wonder why so many women are still going and getting abortions. This is the sort of reflexive partisan politics that the Founding Fathers warned against when they first founded this country. After all, they are against Obama's initiatives to combat rape on campus because he is a Democrat.
No less an authority than Ronald Reagan said:
Many of you have written to me how afraid you are to walk the streets alone at night. We must make America safe again, especially for women and elderly who face so many moments of fear. You have every right to be concerned. We live in the midst of a crime epidemic that took the lives of more than 22,000 people last year and has touched nearly one-third of American households, costing them about $8.8 billion per year in financial losses.
During the past decade alone, violent crime rose by nearly 60 percent. Study after study shows that most serious crimes are the work of a relatively small group of hardened criminals. Let me give you an example-subway crime in New York City. Transit police there estimate that only 500 habitual criminal offenders are responsible for nearly half the crimes in New York's subways last year.
It's time to get these hardened criminals off the street and into jail. The primary responsibility for dealing with these career criminals must, of course, rest with local and State authorities. But I want you to know that this administration, even as it has been battling our economic problems, is taking important action on the Federal level to fight crime.
As Attorney General Smith pointed out recently, an important part of the problem is that Americans are losing faith in our courts and our entire legal system. Nine out of 10 Americans believe that the courts in their home areas aren't tough enough on criminals. Another 8 out of 10 Americans believe that our criminal justice system does not deter crime. And these figures have gone up drastically in the last 10 or 15 years.
It is a sorry state of affairs that these problems are still plaguing our college campuses even though we have made some headway against crime overall and that many women are afraid to walk home safe at night. And it is sad that many of the people who are claiming to carry on Reagan's legacy are opposing steps the government is taking to help victims of these horrible crimes.
The GOP is in a profound state of moral decay given that they refuse to listen to the cries of crime victims pleading for help from the justice system, from anyone who is willing to listen. One in four college women will be sexually assaulted at some point during their college career. Those of us who follow politics closely remember all too well the notorious Willie Horton ads back in 1988. Unfortunately, the reality is that too many people in the Republican Party are only tough on crime when it suits their purposes.
And it is really telling that the Republican Party, which didn't care at all about due process or basic Constitutional rights during the Bush administration all of a sudden shows concern when it is expedient.