I can't read another word about Republican child/minor molesters!

[beachmom]

Despite the fact that I'm a Democrat, I simply don't want to believe that the GOP has a similar problem as the Catholic Church. If it indeed is a pervasive problem, I think these are the reasons:

1. Gays being forced to stay in the closet. To have to lie about something so important makes you lie about more and more, and the inherent lies about yourself can sicken your psyche over time. This is coupled with virulent gay hatred. There, if someone is gay, they loathe themselves. That's not healthy.

2. The "blame the culture" mentality. They blame the culture for their sexual deviance. "If it wasn't for the porn shown on Cinemax at night, I wouldn't have done it". No, that's wrong. Blaming the culture makes it so people don't take responsibility for their feelings and actions.

3. The pious nature of the religious right. Nobody is perfect, and when people think in those stark black and white terms, then they are more likely to full throttle go on the dark side. I really think religious fundamentalism poses a danger not just in the form of violence terrorists perpetrate, but a danger to our children in its neurotic tendencies.


This seems to mostly be a problem with a particular movement within the Republican Party -- the religious right. So I do think it's wrong to blanket condemn people who just want lower taxes. But I do expect the GOP to do some navel gazing and get their house in order -- weed out the crazies and the perverts. Hopefully a Democratic win on Nov. 7th will help them along in this process.

[Mass]

1. This is not the problem - The problem is that the GOP cannot recognize

when they have problems. They refuse to acknowledge their error in the Iraq War. They refuse to acknowledge their error in Louisiana. They refuse to acknowledge that Foley has a problem. If he had been molesting little girls, it would have not changed anything. They still would be refusing to acknowledge that.

The rest is excuses that they make to cover their refusal of any accountability, whatever it is.

Note: there are child molesters of all religion, culture, political and sexual orientation. There are some that are Democrat. All we can hope is that, should such a thing happen with a Democrat, Reid and Pelosi would not cover that the way Hastert has covered that.

ACCOUNTABILITY AND CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Kerry has it perfectly right on that.

[beachmom]

2. I agree with that, but . . .

I also think they have a problem with the religious right. Did you read that list of Republican deviants? Very weird stuff. And the religious right has some of the same institutional issues as the Catholic Church.

[Mass]

3. I dont think so. I think the Catholic Church had exactly the same problem

as the GOP. They refused to acknowledge that a relatively small number of people among them had a problem and it became a huge problem as well.

I have seen the same problem happen in France in education. It is not that all teachers were pedophile. It was that the administration refused to recognize that even a small number of teachers were pedophile and that they cover up.

I dont know what the list of Republican deviants is. It did not see it, but I am very wary of such lists.

[beachmom]

4. There was a list on the Greatest Page, but curiously, it has

completely disappeared. Okay, I guess you're right. It must have been taken down by the mods as disinformation.

There was this on Digby, though.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_digbysblog_archive.html#115991457480750400

Plus that guy in the dept. of Homeland Security. So it's not just one person. I think your assessment of the GOP not willing to deal with the problem is spot on. Thanks, Mass.

[sandnsea]

5. I agree with Mass

The number of pedophile priests is around 1% and the number in the general population is around 1%.

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=361&page=1

And for all the people who want to say pedophilia is restricted to the prepubescent, well then most priests weren't pedophiles. Most of those incidents were priests and teen-age boys. The problem was the moving the priests around, which increased the number of incidents, and covering it up.

Although, at the time, the country as a whole was attempting to treat pedophiles and give them a chance to reclaim their lives without public humiliation. I would bet some of the same liberals who vilify the Church, were proponents of treatment at the time and refuse to see the disconnect in their own attitude.

Oh, and I don't think there's any more pedophiiles or perverts in the Republican Party than anywhere else.