I’ve written facetiously before about a fictional nation, the Male Chauvinist Pigdom. Unfortunately, it’s very real and not funny, unless you get your jollies from the stories that are emerging of the male pigs — not all of us, mind you, but far too many — who foul the terrain. Yes, I know, male pigs are called “boars,” which arguably could be a misspelling, except that there’s nothing boring about the way gross numbers of our breed brutalize the females of our species.
Day after day, plausible horror stories of sexual assault finally spew after festering for years. The lineup of alleged pervs reaches the highest levels of celebrity, presidents of the United States, powerful movie producers and so many performers and prominent journalists — it’s an all-star list of rapists, gross exhibitionists and those who abuse their power over the careers of their victims.
Oh, I almost forgot child molesters, perhaps the worst swine of all. Roy Moore, the Republican Party’s official candidate to be the next United States senator from Alabama, stands accused in a well-documented Washington Post article of imposing himself sexually as described by Leigh Corfman, a 14-year-old girl back in 1979. Moore was in his 30s. Additionally, the Post reporters interviewed other teenagers from that time, who said he also put romantic moves on them, all while he was serving as an assistant district attorney in Gadsden, Alabama.
One would think such credible revelations would be devastating to a candidate for Senate, even nearly 40 years later, particularly when one is aware (and it’s hard not to be) that the 70-year-old has evolved into a Christian zealot. He’s so extreme that he has built a political career on religious intolerance. Twice he’s gotten thrown out of office for his fanaticism, but he keeps rising again. Part of that can be attributed to the fact that 86 percent of the state’s population, according to a Pew survey, identifies itself as “Christian,” 49 percent as “evangelical.”
For whatever reason Moore, with his stands against Muslims, gays, on and on ad nauseum, has created a climate where not only can he and his supporters defend him by claiming that this is a liberal hatchet job, never mind the evidence, but then offer the most bizarre justifications in case the allegations are true. The one that’s gotten much of the attention was state auditor Jim Ziegler, who told the Washington Examiner: “Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.” That is not made up.
What has happened is that the Moore case has exposed a large number of weasels who are also in abundance. They are the ones who roam the pigdom’s Capitol, specifically the Republicans. They are also the ones obviously trying to weasel out of their dilemma, where an accused child molester could be joining their Senate caucus. So a boogle of them (yup, a group of weasels is called a boogle) are trying to boogie away from Roy Moore as fast as their paws can take them. Mitch McConnell and others in the GOP have been saying that Moore should abandon his Senate quest IF the charges can be proven. Obviously, the decades-old charges can’t be proven. As Mitt Romney, who joined John McCain in the party’s non-weasel herd, put it on Twitter: “Innocent until proven guilty is for criminal convictions, not elections. I believe Leigh Corfman. Her account is too serious to ignore. Moore is unfit for office and should step aside.” And now, even McConnell is trying to weasel out of his weaseling. The Senate majority leader has calculated that Moore is more trouble than he is worth. So now McConnell says, “I believe the women.” This is treacherous terrain.
What we are finally realizing is that the way of life in our Male Chauvinist Pigdom includes a lot of sexual oppression. If we’re not among the list of perpetrators, which grows by the moment, all too many of us are enablers. The MCP is not really a part of the civilized world. If there is a civilized world.
Bob Franken is a longtime broadcast journalist, including 20 years at CNN.
