Wednesday, February 08, 2023

IT'S NOT GROOMING IF A REPUBLICAN HETEROSEXUAL DOES IT!

When I first read about Donald Trump's new line of attack on Ron DeSantis, I thought it was sleazy but likely to be effective. The more I think about it, though, the more I'm certain that it won't work:
Donald Trump ... reposted images of a young Ron DeSantis allegedly partying with high school teens....

One of them, who has her arm around the now-Florida governor, is smiling and appears to be holding a brown glass bottle....

The image ... appears to come from a 2021 blogpost by HILLREPORTER.com. The post cites a 'whistleblower' who said the girls pictured 'are believed to have graduated in 2002, making them seniors at the time.'

DeSantis, 44, taught history and government at the Darlington School in Rome, Georgia, during the 2001-2002 year.

He was fresh out of Yale at the time....

The New York Times made reference to the blog post in its own article about DeSantis' time at the school....

'Two former students, both women, remembered him attending at least two parties where alcohol was served, but they said that the parties took place after graduation and that they were not bothered by his presence at the time, although they question it now....'


It was DeSantis's press secretary, Christina Pushaw, who mainstreamed the use of "groomer" as a slur, so DeSantis deserves this attack. But it will fail.

Matt Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old that was under investigation by the feds. Republican voters don't care. Donald Trump is the subject of multiple sex allegations. Republicans don't care. Andrew Tate, recently arrested in Romania and now being charged with human trafficking, literally boasts about grooming and imprisoning women, and also about having sex with teenagers as an adult. He continues to have many right-wing admirers. Ted Nugent once released a song called "Jailbait" about having sex with a 13-year-old, and he adopted a 17-year-old so he could have sex with her. Republicans love him.

To a Republican, it's simply not grooming if the groomer is male, heterosexual, and right-wing. So it doesn't matter what DeSantis did, as long as it involved girls. GOP voters will say it's fine.

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