Exposing the Corruption of the "Family Values" Party
Richard McIntosh is a lobbyist in Missouri whose son was expelled for a Title IX violation from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. While the specific charge is unknown, Title IX violations include many forms of sexual misconduct from harassment, stalking, partner violence, and rape. Washington University has been harshly criticized for doing too little…
Kenneth Lee was appointed by Donald Trump to the 9th Circuit. He was confirmed with a party line vote, in large part because of his extreme and intemperate writing about race, homosexuality, sexual harassment, and rape. He was dishonest with the Judiciary Committee, selectively holding back his controversial writing, an action that led to an Obama appointee not being confirmed. The Republicans looked past his dishonesty and confirmed him anyway.
Steve King was a Republican U.S. representative from Iowa from 2003 to 2019. He was infamous for his extremist views, his anti-Black, anti-immigrant, and antiabortion views. He did manage to shock the world though with his defense of rape. He actually asked if not for rape and incest, “would there be any humanity left.”
Barry Hovis is a Republican state representative in Missouri. He is anti-abortion and supported a ban on abortion after eight weeks. To make his case, he expounded on his experience as a police officer informing him that most rapes were not “a gentleman” jumping out of the bushes but were “date rapes or consensual rapes.”
Robert Foster is a former state representative in Mississippi. He ran for governor but lost the Republican primary with less than 18% of the vote. Shamefully, he would not allow women to cover his campaign without a chaperone. He said someone could take a picture of him with a woman, his rivals could use it to smear him. “Out of respect for his wife” women had to have chaperones.
Mitch McConnell is the Republican leader in the U.S. Senate. At the time this happened, he was the Senate Majority Leader. He usually makes an effort to appear above the fray but when his official campaign account shared a photo a group of young men in his #TeamMitch shirts assaulted, groped, and strangled a life-size photo cutout of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggesting she should be assaulted with the phrase “Break me off a piece of that” he did not apologize. Instead his campaign offered a very boys-will-be-boys defense.
Greg Abbott is the Republican governor of Texas who just won re-election in 2022. He contributed to rape culture by vetoing a bill to protect children from being prosecuted when they are the victims of sex traffickers. One of the great injustices of our legal system is that when children are trafficked, they are prosecuted…
Amanda Chase is a Republican state senator in Virginia. She’s well-known for a few outrageous things she has said. She earned her place on this list with her contribution to the foundational argument of rape culture – that it is the victim’s fault for being raped. In a discussion about the public carrying guns, she…
Anthony Kern was the Republican chair of the House Rules Committee that was deciding what to do with legislation that would affect abuse survivors’ ability to sue their abusers. There were three bills floating around addressing legal issues about child sex abuse such as changing the statute of limitations and the ability of people to sue. This was a bill child sexual abuse survivors opposed and they were present to share their perspective.
Kern refused to allow testimony because he said they heard testimony on a similar bill. The thing is, though, both bills might address the same issue, but one protected abusers. There was a vote, 5-3, along party lines, the Republicans prevailing and denying survivors of child sexual abuse a chance to testify.
Steve Sword is a Tennessee Criminal Court judge appointed by Governor Bill Haslem, a Republican. Since his appointment, he was re-elected in 2012 and 2014 and he was unopposed in 2022. In 2019, he presided over a trial that ended in the conviction of David Lynn Richards Jr,. a former pastor, for repeatedly raping his adopted daughter.