The premise of this diary is that child abuse and conservatism usually go hand in hand. Of course not all conservatives are child abusers and not all non-conservatives are not child abusers. However there can be no denying the empirical evidence that child abuse and conservatism go hand in hand. The genesis lies in the values and upbringing of conservatives. We will evaluate those values in due course.
Consider the following child rearing philosophy espoused by Conservative Christian Ronald E Williams.
http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com/...
Sadly this is considered the norm in Christian fundamentalist circles.
"My wife and I have a general goal of making sure that each of our children has his will broken by the time he reaches the age of one year. To do this, a child must receive correction when he is a small infant. Every parent recognizes that this self-will begins early as he has witnessed his child stiffen his back and boldly demonstrate his rebellion and self-will even though he has been fed, diapered, and cared for in every other physical
way.
On what occasions should a child be corrected? Whenever a child directly disobeys authority or shows disrespect and rebellion toward authority, that child should receive correction. Lesser infractions of course would receive lesser forms of correction with the rod being reserved for the more serious infractions."
The idea that we should be beating the crap out of a six month old is appalling. Consider influential Christian conservative is James Dobson. Dobson advocates what is known as a strict father model of parenting. Here are the first 4 sick rules that Dobson claims parents should follow. http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/...
1. Children are inherently sinful and defiant.
2. Only punishment and reward will train children away from defiance and pursuing their sinful desires.
3. The only way a child can be raised properly is for a father to demand absolute obedience to his authority. Any questioning of authority requires swift and painful punishment.
4. Obedience can be taught only through painful corporal punishment-by whipping with belts or beating with switches or paddles. Continued disobedience requires greater beating.
Yet this should come as no surprise considering James Dobson's upbringing.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/...
As it turns out, Dobson's parents physically and mentally abused him as a child, and he once got beaten up in school by a kid even Dobson admits was widely acknowledged to be a "sissy."
Dobson household there were "a million rules...regulations and prohibitions for almost every imaginable situation." Dobson recalls being "chewed out for using the expression 'Hot dog!'
That's much different from believing that all children are inherently good, that children should be encouraged to grow and develop, that civil dialogue is to be encouraged even if the child has a different opinion, and that positivity combined with fair rules works best in raising a child. Dobson's "obedience" is simply code for abuse. One does not need "painful corporal punishment" to get a child to listen. A child will listen if you treat the child positively and respectfully while making it clear what the rules of the house are.
It is widely known that many prominent conservative politicians are basically people who grew up as unloved children in abused homes. In these homes children are chattel not people. Thus they adopt a political philosophy which basically says "Screw the world, I hope everybody suffers. I was abused and unloved so now I want everybody else to experience what I experienced." And conservative policies flow from this mindset. When they start wars, harm the environment, deny people health care, or create economic policies that lead to poverty, this is why.
The abusing of children by conservatives is a worldwide epidemic. The unreported story of the widespread scandals involving the Catholic Church and the millions of children abused worldwide is that these abuses were occurring in the conservative sects of Catholicism and not the progressive or liberal sects. So we must ask ourselves:
1) Why is it that child abuse almost always occurs in the conservative sects of a religion and not the liberal or progressive sects? http://en.wikipedia.org/... http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/...
2) Why is it that religious right wingers systematically seek to cover up that abuse or oppose legislative action to reporter abusers in the clergy?
http://www.thejewishweek.com/...
If you google search child molesters, you will be hard pressed to find even one example of an elected or well known liberal who has abused children. But if you google conservative child molesters, you will find dozens. I've alphabetized the abridged list. It speaks for itself.
* Republican mayor Thomas Adams of Illinois charged with 11 counts of disseminating child pornography and two counts of possession of child pornography.
* Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.
Republican activist Randal David Ankeney pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child.
* Republican County Commissioner Merrill Robert Barter pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy.
* Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.
* Republican activist Parker J. Bena pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000.
* Republican preacher Hewart Lee Bennett arrested for soliciting sex from 16 year old boys while claiming that he did so to gain their trust and then teach them the love of Jesus.
* Republican Christian Coalition chair Louis Beres investigated for molesting three female family members as teens.
* Clifton Bennett, 18, son of Arizona republican state senator Ken Bennett plead guilty to assaulting 3 boys, aged 11-15 with broomsticks up their rectal areas.
* Republican legislative aide Howard L. Brooks was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.
* Republican golden boy and GOP employee Theodore Bundy executed for murdering over two dozen women.
* Republican politician Andrew Buhr was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.
* Republican anti-abortion activist John Allen Burt was charged with sexual misconduct involving a 15-year old girl.
* Republican activist John Butler was charged with criminal sexual assault on a teenage girl.
* Republican judge and Nixon Supreme Court nominee Harrold Carswell charged with making a pass at an undercover male cop in a public bathroom.
* Republican County Councilman Keola Childs pleaded guilty to molesting a male child.
* Republican election board official Kevin Coan was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the internet from a 14-year old girl.
* Republican councilman John Collins pleads guilty to sexually molesting a 13 + 14 year old girls.
* Republican advertising consultant Carey Lee Cramer, who appeared in an ad blasting Al gore, convicted of molesting 9 yr old girl stepdaughter* Republican Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.
* Republican Committeeman John Curtain charged with molesting a teenage boy.
* Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, Richard A.Dasen Sr., was charged with rape for allegedly paying a 15-year old girl for sex. Dasen, 62, who is married with grown children and several grandchildren, has allegedly told police that over the past decade he paid more than $1 million to have sex with a large number of young women.
* Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found guilty of child porn charges and paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos
* Republican legislator Peter Dibble pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-yr-old girl.
* Republican activist and Focus on the Family Founder Pat Dobson advocates that fathers should show their penises to their sons while in the shower with them.
* Republican spokesman Brian Doyle arrested for trying to seduce a 14 year old girl over the Internet.
* Republican director of the "Young Republican Federation" Nicholas Elizondo molested his 6-year old daughter and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Republican constable Larry Dale Floyd of Denton arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex from an 8 yr old girl.
* Republican Councilman and former Marine Jack W. Gardner was convicted of molesting a 13-year old girl.
* Republican candidate Richard Gardner admitted to molesting his two daughters.
* Republican Mayor Philip Giordano of Waterbury Connecticut is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls
* Republican activist Matthew Glavin was caught masturbating in public and fondling an undercover park ranger.
* Republican activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a. "Republican Marty"), convicted in Florida on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.
* Republican Mayor John Gosek sentenced to jail for soliciting sex from two 15 year old girls.
* Republican activist Mark A. Grethen convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.
* Republican businessman Jon Grunseth withdrew his candidacy for Minnesota governor after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter.
* Republican President of NYC Housing Development Russell Harding pleads guilty to possession of child pornography on his computer.
* Republican city councilman Mark Harris, who is described as a "good military man" and "church goer," was convicted of repeatedly having sex with an 11-year-old girl and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
* Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.
* Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.
* Republican pastor Mike Hintz, whom George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign, surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile.
* Republican activist Neal Horsley admits to having had sex with a mule.
* Republican Party leader Paul Ingram pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.
* Republican anti-gay activist Earl "Butch" Kimmerling was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.
* Republican activist Lawrence E. King, Jr. organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.
* Republican judge Ronald Kline was placed under house arrest for child molestation.
* Republican Congressman Donald "Buz" Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail
* Republican talk show host Jon Matthews pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals to an 11 year old girl.
* Republican Douglas County election official Pat McPherson arrested for fondling a 17 yr old girl.
* Republican anti-abortion activist Nicholas Morency pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor..
* Republican state rep Brent Parker arrested for soliciting sex from undercover officer posing as male prostitute.
* Republican Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.
* Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.
* Republican boy scout leader and zoning supervisor Dennis L Rader pleaded guilty for performing a sexual act on an 11 year old girl he murdered.
* Republican petition leader Tom Randall pleads guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 14.
* Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader Beverly Russell admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter Susan Smith.
Republican senator Rick Man on Dog Santorum and his wife forced their three children, all under the age of six, to play with a dead fetus in the crib of their home.
* Republican ex congressman Peter Schmitt of Orange County, California's Republican daughter Mary Kay Lotorneau convicted of raping a 6th grader and bearing his two children.
* Republican congressman Ed Shrock resigned from Congress after found seeking sex on hotlines for homosexuals.
* Republican parole board officer and former Colorado state representative, Larry Jack Schwarz, was fired after child pornography was found in his possession.
* Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger allegedly had sex with a 16 year old girl when he was 28.
* Republican campaign worker Mark Seidensticker is a convicted child molester.
* Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl.
* Republican City Councilman Fred C. Smeltzer, Jr. pleaded no contest to raping a 15 year-old girl and served 6-months in prison.
* Republican lobbyist Craig J. Spence organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.
Republican party leader Bobby Stumbo arrested for having sex with a five year old boy.
* Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
* Republican County Chairman Armando Tebano arrested for sexually molesting a 14 yr old girl.
* Republican racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond raped a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.
* Republican strategist and Citadel Military College graduate Robin Vanderwall was convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex from boys and girls over the internet.
* Spokane Republican homophobic mayor Jim West recalled after evidence surfaced that he molested little boys.
* Republican politician Keith Westmoreland was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children).
* Republican preacher Stephen White, who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced to jail after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.
* Republican activist and James Dobson protege Steve Wilsey convicted of sexual assault after being charged with molesting an 8 year old boy.
Solving this enormous problem is an arduous task. We need stronger laws, stronger enforcement, and we need to tear down this wall.
If the next generation of children can grow up without having ever been abused, then meeting a conservative in 30 years may be just as common as meeting a green Martian.