• Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Fucking a teenager is why Republicans want to allow child marriage. His only crime to them was not marrying her after he trafficked her. That’s forgivable. Being unbearable might possibly not be.

      • baldingpudenda@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Rape, fraud, etc is fine because it doesn’t affect them. Him causing the Reps to not vote uniformly and needing Dem help is a catastrophe.

      • knotthatone@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        His only crime to them was not marrying her after he trafficked her.

        Oh, they don’t care about that. Conservative men can molest and rape whoever they like with no obligation to marry anybody.

      • Zerlyna@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Bible also says the rapee must marry the rapist. Surprised the evangelicals aren’t pushing that one too.

    • RampantParanoia2365@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I mean I loathe all of them too, but the rest of the quote is about his morals, and it’s the results of that investigation that they intend to base this on.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Andrew Johnson’s impeachment included:

      . . . as well before as afterwards, make and declare, with a loud voice, certain intemperate, inflammatory and scandalous harangues, and therein utter loud threats and bitter menaces, as well against Congress as the laws of the United States duly enacted thereby, amid the cries, jeers and laughter of the multitudes then assembled in hearing, which are set forth in the several specifications hereinafter written, in substance and effect . . .

      Which is 19th century formal language for “this guy is an asshole”.

      Mind you, the Senate never voted on this particular article, and Johnson was otherwise acquitted. It remains unclear if you can remove a President for being an asshole, but there is some precedent that suggests you can.

    • errer@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Human trafficking is a bonus in their books, but he was mean to them and that will not stand!

      • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Well, statutory rape. I’m not trying to let him off easy, but semantics are important

        • WHYAREWEALLCAPS@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’m also more fond of something like “Sexually assaulted a minor” or “engaged in sex with a child”. You know, something that hammers home what he did.

        • Prandom_returns@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Statutory rape is rape. It’s in the name.

          It is deemed that an underage person (child) is not able to make decision of this sort. Similarly to an intoxicated person.

          I will continue to call it rape, sorry.

          • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I disagree. I think there’s a fundamental difference between violent rape, coercive rape, and manipulative rape. And our current terminology doesn’t really work well for pointing out those differences. But the distinction between “rape” and “statutory rape” is a good one.

            I think you’re really harming victims of violent rape by equating that with a 19 year old and a 17 year old having a lay. Or even a 29 year old and a 17 year old. It waters down the term. Now when you say “so and so is a convicted rapist” people can go “yeah, but was it really?

            Edit: my favorite argument for this was how the right wing started calling Bill Clinton a rapist. Do they actually think he’s a rapist? Of course not. Does anyone really? Of course not, except for naive fools. But technically, by the Progressive, ivory-tower, PC, inclusive, new definition of rape…he was. So they used that to attack him, with a bonus of making the actual rapists on their team seem not so bad.

            • Prandom_returns@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              So, how violent does the rape have to be to be called a “violent rape”? Is a slap on the ass enough? Or does it have to be face? You see where I’m going with this?

              Honestly, comparing rape severity isn’t really helpful to any victim. And it’s exactly my point. Rape is rape. No matter the severity.

                • Prandom_returns@lemm.ee
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                  1 year ago

                  No, I do not. Explain it to me.

                  You can be severely drunk, but that is a number. You can be severely in debt, but that’s also a number. You can be severly ill, but that’s is also quantifiable.

                  Explain me, the different severities of rape, without sounding like a rapist who is trying to downplay and gaslight their victim.

                  “Nah, it’s wasn’t that bad”.

                  The “severity” of rape is completely down to the victim and the psychological effect it had on them. There is no tier list I’m affraid.

                  I understand there are circumstances that would increase the punishment, but I disagree that it’s related to the “severity of rape”.

          • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            There’s no need to apologize. You can call it whatever you like. However, legally—the important distinction—the charge would be statutory rape (among others, like trafficking).

            It would also depend on the state. I’m not actually sure where the sexual act took place, but in Florida (where he’s from) the age of consent is 18. Should this have happened in Washington State, for example, this would not be statutory rape because the age of consent is 16.

            Either way, it’s prostitution of a minor and sex trafficking which is equally reprehensible.

            Anyway, semantics matter in court, but we’re just chatting.

  • Cobrachickenwing@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    If they aren’t getting rid of George Santos they are not getting rid of Matt Gaetz. Honor among theives.

    • TechyDad@lemmy.world
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      I think the difference is that Santos is willing to go along with whatever the Republicans think will keep their majority. Gaetz is willing to burn it all down if it gets him extra social media points right now.

      This isn’t really about ethics violations, it’s about a Republican threatening his party’s chances of keeping power.

  • paddirn@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I can’t stand just hearing about him in the news, I can’t imagine what it’d be like to work with such a prick in office, knowing the guy is such a sleazebag as he is.

    • ShakeThatYam@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s kind of conflicting because I hate him, but I also love how much the Republicans (especially McCarthy) hate him.

    • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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      I think that’s the wrong way to look at it. In fact, I would argue that he is a gigantic gift to American politics.

      He wants to do nothing other than fuck with McCarthy, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

      Yes, he is a degenerate scumbag who deserves to be in jail, but as long as he’s not locked up, I’m glad he’s in Congress completely screwing with the establishment GOP.

      I will say this, and unironically, he’s a much better politician than any of the squad, or pseudo left-wing Congressperson, because unlike any of them, he actually completely fucks up the program. And before you say he extracted no political wins from his stunt, he did. His entire point was to weaken McVarthy, which he did.

      Just think if AOC, Omar, etc., actually used this type of strongarm tactics to push through even a handful of the programs that the Corporate Dems leave tabled, except when they dust them off for a stump speech every two years.

      • El Barto@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That was a right-wing sympathizing comment in disguise.

        The Republicans are just playing dirty among themselves.

        “The Squad” is doing alright without stepping down to the level of the Deplorables.

        • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Oh, geez. You got me. My rejoicing on the GOP clusterfuck, and shaming the lack of actual effective leftist members of Congress for failing to effectively fight for actual left wing policies, was actually an elaborate ploy to…

          Wait, what am I trying to fool people into believing?

        • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Politics is an expression of power, not decorum. Something that the GOP recognizes and leverages, just as the corporate Democrats do.

          Unfortunately, the GOP expresses that power to pass horrific antidemocratic policies, and cut taxes.

          The corporate Dems use it to squash the left, and maintain the current neo liberal economic order.

          Gaetz used his to sink, or at least critically damage McCarthy’s speakership.

          What major political victories have the Squad accomplished?

  • tinkeringidiot@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This guy tries to exert way too much influence for someone who only won his last race because both candidates were under active criminal investigation.

  • Cosmo@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Ahhh yes. Now his politics don’t align with yours, his ethics finally matter. Classic.

  • Delusional@lemmy.world
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    House republicans hate paedo gaetz in the same way everyone in America hates house republicans. No one can stand any of those pricks either.

  • somas@kbin.social
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    No one can stand him? For a lot of us he’s more the face of the Republicans than McCarthy or McConnell