It’s an audio podcast, covering the Clinton/Lewinski scandal in detail.
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The impeachment proceedings focused on Lewinksky, not any other women. And she said – and still says, last I heard – that she wasn’t assaulted.
Presidents have had extramarital sex before. And several of the people accusing Clinton had had extramarital sex themselves. It was a bunch of hypocrites playing a game with each other, using poor Lewinsky as the ball.
If the Starr hearings had focused on assault, that would have been one thing. But they didn’t.
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Her position is a bit more nuanced these days:
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I’m not talking about the Starr hearings; just about the conversation about him. The Starr hearings were an absurd abuse of power, way out of proportion to the crime. However, Gennifer Flowers and Juanita Broderick both made very credible claims against him, and there were other women, too, who talked about him groping them.
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After seeing photos of Alyssa Milano at the Kavanaugh hearing, I figured that her website might have a way of staying connected with her work.
Here’s the link. She is working through Countable and when you sign up you can join Countable and also join other action centers.
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I think we often do, yes. Of course, that shouldn’t stop us from putting the pressure on now. I do think that the fact that prominent democrats who have been accused more recently got pressure to step down from their own party (Al Franken) is progress and shows a willingness to do the right thing, even when it can hurt the party, at least to a greater extent than the GOP.
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Yes, I was glad they did that, too.
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I do agree with you about the other credible accusations against Bill Clinton. It’s depressing how both Broaderick and Flowers were treated, that they were pretty much ignored.
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I’m mixed on this, because the Republicans take all of the legit concerns that Democrats have and use those as weapons against them. For example, with the metoo movement, now we have Cruella DeVille Kellyanne Conway coming forward as a victim. Not to say that she isn’t a victim of abuse, but does anyone think she is really aligning herself with the metoo movement, or do you think she is going to use that to undermine it?
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Last I heard undermining is exactly what she’s doing – she’s claiming the assault was her fault, even though she didn’t do the assaulting.
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Of course she is.
Meanwhile:
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So how do we help her, given that she is clearly a victim of Stockholm Syndrome as well?
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Step 1: Tear down the patriarchy, so that victim-blaming is no longer recognized as a valid response to sexual assault.
Step 2: Tear down the stigma around mental illness so that she can seek therapy without facing negative consequences for doing so.
Step 3: Leave the deprogramming itself to the professionals.
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You know, I was wondering if confessing on air might have had some kind of unintended effect on her. I have had the opportunity this year to talk about abuse against me in the past, and it was surprisingly freeing. It’d be interesting if she were to soften and start to be capable of looking at her own situation, as she is in such a position of power. I find her and other women like her, such as Sarah Huckabee, so interesting in how they have managed to rise only by working within the patriarchy and completely swallowing all the baloney of it. What if they started to question it? How interesting would that be. She could be a force! But I doubt it.
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Certainly we owe her more or a better response than she would be getting from her coworkers or those surrounding her. I note that only the “liberal” arms of the MSM are giving her even the slightest bit of support, and that tinged with disbelief. Well it doesn’t work that way-- if we are going to accept that people are victims, we need to just as readily accept that from the people we don’t like as those we do.
I do not speak on this subject often, because I am mostly confused. In the far distant past, I have participated in sexual acts where one or both of us were incapable of giving consent. But it was a different time. In the 70’s, that was what many people of my age and social status did-- get drunk or otherwise fucked up, and then get oneself into a situation when giving in seemed like the easiest and best solution. Free love, disintegrating sexual mores, and changes in society, that have experienced yet another sea change in the years since. But by modern social standards, I have been both an abuser and the abused in the distant past. I have made an uneasy peace with that, and I try to atone in ways that I do not completely understand.
Perhaps obviously, my views have changed as society’s has, though I recognize that it’s trivial to say that. But I cannot undo what has been done and what I did.
There is an Irish saying, something of a curse, oft said of men who treat women poorly: “may you have many beautiful daughters.” Perhaps it is my way of paying my karmic debt that I do, in fact, have beautiful daughters who I hope will never be victims, and I have sons who I must teach not to be victimizers. I am still learning that myself. Learning about oneself, and growing up, is hard at any age.
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I generally tend to believe the victims and survivors, but I have a hard time believing a known liar, the same person who came up with “alternative facts.”
It’s possible that she was a victim, but I absolutely believe that if she was then she’s only talking about it now to undermine the movement.
Frankly, if she got hit by a bus, I’d probably cheer.
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Agree. It’s a little fantasy I have - what if she actually got woke. A little dream. Maybe she would murder Trump in his sleep.
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And she ain’t the only one, either.
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Agreed. I certainly believe her. But in the same breath when I heard her say that, she became extremely dismissive of other women.
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