August 18, 2018

The GOP and Governor Scott Walker make a very specific attack on Tony Evers.

On the day Tony Evers won the primary and became the Democratic Party's challenger to Scott Walker, the Wisconsin GOP put out this ad:



And here's Scott Walker's tweet:



Evers had a lot of competition for the nomination, and he was the front-runner whom all the other candidates had a motivation to try to take down. I don't remember hearing any of them use this issue, and I watched a long debate. This is a very emotional issue, likely to work on low-information voters (i.e, virtually all of us). Why didn't other Democrats try to stop Evers with this? Maybe they could see that he was likely to win the primary and they didn't want to hit him where he was vulnerable and make it any worse for him in the general election than what we're seeing now.

103 comments:

Fernandinande said...

dropped this ad

To me that means "stopped running the ad", but nowadays it really means "started running the ad", correct?

FleetUSA said...

The Dems may ask Evers to be sick and drop out now before it gets abysmal.

Michael K said...

Looks pretty effective.

IgnatzEsq said...

And here I thought this was going to be an insect politics post...

mccullough said...

This isn’t something Dems can attack other Dems on. They all believe the primary purpose of public education is to provide jobs to teachers and administrators. If kids happen to learn something, then great. If not, then too bad.

Of course, if you’re rich like the Obamas then you send your kids to private schools because you know public schools suck. They are for other people’s children. Private schools are about educating kids, not a jobs program. They aren’t going to do that to their own kids. They love their kids. Your kids they don’t give a duck about.

rhhardin said...

Stuff that shows women as strong ought to be okay.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Breaking: Scott Walker will be indicted over bogus charges trumped up by corrupt democrats. any moment.

Kevin said...

Why didn't other Democrats try to stop Evers with this?

Because it undercuts the larger narrative that Democrat = Good and Republican = Bad.

I suspect a lot of inconvenient arguments are going to be "no fly zones" in Dem primaries, which a Republican with any guts at all will immediately shove in their faces.

It will take loss after loss for them to abandon this fake moral high ground they believe they inhabit.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...


“The Dems may ask Evers to be sick and drop out now before it gets abysmal.”

Heavens, no. This is pretty weak tea because nobody really cares about pornography and the Donks really, really care about teacher’s unions. If anything, this just gives Evers more cred with his base. Walker’s aiming this at Independents.

rhhardin said...

When I was a kid we read The Scarlett Letter, and The Human Comedy, both with heart of gold sluts.

rhhardin said...

There was a lot of ee cummings stuff that was into sex. She Being Brand New.

Drago said...

Evers better bring in some big guns to help his campaign STAT! Preferably someone well known and in a dem leadership position, highly respected amongst dems, as well as running for statewide office in a state closeby.

Someone who's ethics and moral character can help shield this piece of crap Evers fron the just consequences of his actions.

....does anyone have Keith Ellison's phone number?

Shouting Thomas said...

Spreading porn in the schools might be the most non-essential, redundant chore you could attempt.

All the kids are watching porn on their phones and tablets.

rhhardin said...

Think of Evers as the goat-footed balloon man.

Francisco D said...

Sex is personal and not subject to public or legal scrutiny.

Unless you are a Republican.

- Stormy Daniels

Drago said...

I dont believe that even a DemDefenseStrike dialed up to "11" by LLR Chuck and his Mini-me gadfly can help Evers now.

rhhardin said...

Metaphorically, Evers is adulthood intruding on innocent childhood.

That's the play.

Ann Althouse said...

"To me that means "stopped running the ad", but nowadays it really means "started running the ad", correct?"

Good point: it's ambiguous. I changed it.

The current vogue use of "drop" appealed to me here because it's a concrete metaphor that makes it seem damaging, like it fell on Evers.

I'm actually annoyed by the vogue usage generally, so I'll stop now.

rhhardin said...

The schools don't have Playboy in the library, I'd guess.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

As Althouse comments on this race, the most entertaining thing will be watching the Dems pretend to be just, well, fired up in support of Evers.

Original Mike said...

Dems support teachers, when necessary, at the cost of children. It’s why Evers supported the teacher in the first place and why none of the other dems attacked Evers over it in the primaries.

rhhardin said...

Trading on hysteria is not a good thing, for a political campaign.

AllenS said...

That ad was a giant kick to Tony Evers' nut sack.

MadisonMan said...

I think it's obvious why he didn't: He wanted to have Union Support. I see as I post this that others makes the same point. Oh well, so I'm not Original :)

I do recall reading about the Middleton Teacher in the News back then, and was pretty disgusted about the non-termination.

Bay Area Guy said...

Not a fan of the ad. But I freely admit I dont know what might work politically.

I'd rather Walker run on his record of achievement, and Evers run on his proposed policy prescriptions.

However, I might be a political Boy Scout.

Original Mike said...

MadisonMan said...”Oh well, so I'm not Original :)”

You’re wrapped up in the origin of my name. I signed up as “Mike”, many, many years ago, to respond to a comment you made. Then another “Mike” came along spouting Scientology. I needed to distinguish myself as the “Mike” who had been posting for awhile and not the kook, so I became Original.

The Godfather said...

This is an old story. Evers must have had a response 4 years ago. Does anybody know what it was?

Gahrie said...

Of course, if you’re rich like the Obamas then you send your kids to private schools because you know public schools suck.

As a public school teacher, I'm amazed at the number of public school teachers that send their kids to private schools.

rhhardin said...

"He knew"

The philosopher produces a particular example whose fate, in the course of his investigation, seems to tell the fate of knowledge as a whole...

For when are we "knowing something?" Do I know (now) (am I, as it were knowing) that there is a green jar of pencils on the desk (though I am not now looking at it)? If I do know now, did I not know before I asked the question? I had not, before then, said that or thought it; but that perhaps is not relevant. If someone had asked me whether the jar was on the desk I could have said yes without looking. So I did know. But what does it mean to say "I did know?" Of course no one will say that I did not know (that I wasn't knowing). On the other hand, no one would have said of me, seeing me sitting at my desk with the green jar out my range of vision, "He knows there is a green jar of pencils on the desk," nor would anyone say of me now, "He (you) knew there was a green jar...," apart from some special reason which makes that description of my "knowledge" relevant to something I did or said or am doing or saying (e.g., I told someone that I never keep pencils on my desk; I knew that Mrs. Greenjar was coming to tea and that she takes it as a person affront if there is a green jar visible in the room...).


Stanley Cavell, The Claim of Reason, p.205

Gahrie said...

Having seen the ad, the teacher probably didn't deserve to be fired...I say this as a Republican who would like to see him defeated. The teacher wasn't showing porn to the kids. Getting caught watching porn on school computers deserves a written reprimand. Making comments about the girls, not to them also deserves reprimand. If these behaviors persist, then we can talk about firing and losing a teaching certificate.

rhhardin said...

Cavell is doing an analysis of how philosophers get themselves in trouble.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Comanche Voter said...

Hey it's oppo research. And modern campaigns (the successful ones at least) bring it. Sometimes they bring stuff that is not true--see Reid, Harry "Romney did not pay his taxes". A flat out lie, but as Dingy Harry said, "It worked, didn't it".

I went to middle and high school so long ago that no porn videos were available. I had to make do with Grace Metalious's "Peyton Place" and a bootlegged copy of Frank Harris's
"My Life and Loves" published by Evergreen (?) Press in Paris. May have the name wrong, but they specialized in printing books that were banned in the US. Anyway a young teenager's lively imagination yields a result more satisfying than looking at a video of that tired old warhorse Stormy Daniels doing the deed with her 50th sex partner of the week.

Anyway, unless the Dems can drum something up on Walker, I think folks will be calling him "Governor Walker" for another four years.

Ann Althouse said...

"I think it's obvious why he didn't: He wanted to have Union Support. I see as I post this that others makes the same point. Oh well, so I'm not Original :)"

I think it's obvious in the ad that Evers is aligned with the teacher's union, and that fits with the longstanding opposition to Walker, going back to Act 10 and the protests. Walker took the other side, and, he will always argue, that was for the benefit of the people. So now, if you bring the union guy back in to replace Walker, it will hurt us in all sorts of pervasive ways. That's the more important fear to be spread, more important that the idea that Evers condones giving pornography to children and commenting on their bodies.

rhhardin said...

So, after Cavell, that would be a good ad if Evers promoted himself as pro-hysteria on sexual matters, showing that he in fact not pro-hysteria.

Ann Althouse said...

This wasn't hard to find oppo research. Republicans attacked Evers with this back in Nov 2017, I'm seeing in news articles. I don't know why they did that. I think Evers is a weak opponent for Walker and I assume many Republicans voted for Evers in the primary.

Ann Althouse said...

I see that Evers did a campaign appearance just a few blocks from where I live, and I didn't notice until I read about it in the newspaper.

I don't see how this guy is going to catch fire.

rhhardin said...

How about an endorsement from Tinker and Chance.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

that put the condom on Evers' banana

rhhardin said...

Your hysteria is important to us.

Ann Althouse said...

I look at the news approximately constantly, and both parties have my email address and send me things as if I am one of their big supporters. But I didn't know I could just take a little walk over to Mickey's Dairy Bar and see him.

By the way, a new poll shows Evers with a 5 point lead over Walker. Wisconsin Public Radio reports:

The first poll conducted after this week’s gubernatorial primaries shows Democrat Tony Evers leading Republican Gov. Scott Walker by five points.

The poll, conducted by the liberal firm Public Policy Polling, surveyed nearly 600 Wisconsin voters on the two days following Tuesday’s primary election, Aug. 15 and 16.

Evers received support from 49 percent of those surveyed, compared to Walker’s 44 percent. Seven percent were undecided. The margin of error was 4 percent.

"I think Scott Walker is in trouble," said Jim Williams, polling analyst at Public Policy Polling. "I think we have a nominee (in Tony Evers) who is in strong position, relative to Scott Walker, and is potentially looking to get stronger as his party coalesces behind him."

Original Mike said...

”I don't see how this guy is going to catch fire.”

They’re just counting on the “Resist” vote. And it may be enough.

Original Mike said...

”But I didn't know I could just take a little walk over to Mickey's Dairy Bar and see him.”

oh, I would have done that. I love their Scrambler.

cronus titan said...

Al Gore famously ran a Willie Horton ad against Michael Dukakis in 1988. The Democratic primary voters did not care all that much so Gore dropped it. Bush I effectively used it during the general campaign because most voters did care about it.

Same here. Most Democratic primary voters did not care about a candidate protecting a teacher distributing pornography. While they likely did not support it, it was not considered important and was therefore not raised. But it surely will be a huge factor in the general election.

n.n said...

Sexual education has deprecated teaching biology, self-moderation, and personal responsibility. Social progress.

Drago said...

Gahrie: "As a public school teacher, I'm amazed at the number of public school teachers that send their kids to private schools."

Au contraire.

As a public school teacher you are a member of the profession that should be the LEAST surprised at the number of public school teachers who send their own children to private school.

Yancey Ward said...

Well, this analogous to Clinton's e-mail server and Bernie Sanders' refusal to criticize her for it until it was far too late.

A front-runner for a Democrat nomination has the press on their side almost all the time- the press protects such a person at all costs so that they are relatively undamaged come general election time, so Democrat opponents do shy away from effective issues in the primaries. It is a mistake, in my opinion, but that is why they do it. Sanders made the calculation that if he went after Clinton's e-mails, the press would gut him relentlessly, and he is probably correct in that regard, but it was still a mistake, I think, because it was the voters' he should have been speaking to, not the press.

Michael K said...

Jim Williams, polling analyst at Public Policy Polling.

Well known leftist push poller.

Drago said...

Yancey Ward: "Well, this analogous to Clinton's e-mail server and Bernie Sanders' refusal to criticize her for it until it was far too late."

Like all good little commie foot soldier cannon fodder, weak little Bernie knows how to take a direct order from his superiors without question or independent thought.

Who can forget how Bernie presented the Hillary argument for not caring about her criminal email arrangement even more passionately than Hillary herself! It was hilarious!

Later in the campaign of course Bernie realized what a moron and schmuck and patsy he had been so he tepidly dipped his little toes ever so gently back into that conversation....but dar far too late and far far too meekly.

Remember, Bernie is the dope that got fired from the only "job" he ever held which was working in a stupid little commie commune...fired by the commies...for LAZINESS!

LOL

Folks, thats a Mel Brooks movie subplot right there!

roesch/voltaire said...

This from Poltifact might help make the issue clearer and the fact that when the new law was passed Walker made no note of it:
But what’s left out is that Evers concluded that state law at the time didn’t allow for a revocation because the teacher’s behavior didn’t endanger children. The same conclusion had been reached by an arbitrator, who ruled the teacher had been fired improperly and gave the teacher back his job. And two courts upheld the arbitrator’s decision.

cronus titan said...

@Drago 11:16

Now that I think about it, Mueller kinda looks like Torquemada from History of the World. Small changes to the lyrics:

"Let all those who wish to confess their evil ways and to accept and embrace the true political party convert now or forever burn in hell, for now begins the Inquisition!

Confess!
Confess, confess!
Don't be boring!

Say yes!
Say yes! Say yes!
Don't be dull!

A fact
You're ignoring
It's better to lose your job than your skull!
Oy oy gevalt!

The Inquisition!
What a show!
The Inquisition!
Here we go!

We know you're wishing
That we'd go away!
But the Inquisition's here!
And it's here to stay!"

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

O Mike, what happened to Scientology Mike? I don’t recall him and I’ve been around a long time. I thought your handle was ironic. But then you might predate me. Walker wins in a landslide.

gilbar said...

rhhardin said... How about an endorsement from Tinker and Chance.
Thanx rhhardin, any and all National League* double play references greatly appreciated...
However, Despite their celebrated success at turning spectacular plays in collaboration, relations between the teammates were said to have been often strained. Tinker and Evers feuded for many years.[5] On September 14, 1905, Tinker and Evers engaged in a fistfight on the field because Evers had taken a cab to the stadium and left his teammates behind in the hotel lobby. They did not speak for years following this event. So, DURING their glory, they didn't speak to each other off the field. NOTHING says TEAMWORK like working with people You HATE, and being LEGENDARY at your job

National League* Tinker, Evers, and Chance began playing together with the Cubs in September 1902, forming a double play combination that lasted through April 1912. The Cubs won the National League pennant four times from 1906 and 1910 and won back-to-back World's Championship series in 1907 and 1908

Currently, WHO'S THE BEST IN THE NATIONAL LEAGUE? I'm just asking, 'cause it has to be somebody. GO CUBS GO!

Original Mike said...

@Mike: He posted for just a brief period. Turns out, I could have waited him out. Just as well, we need Mike-differentiation anyway.

Bad Lieutenant said...

rhhardin said...
"He knew"


Why is it that, in every single discussion of sexual abuse or exploitation, particularly of children, that ever has occurred on Althouse, you simply MUST distract, minimize, excuse, justify the behavior? It is more likely that Chuck will let go an opportunity to criticize the President, than you will not implicitly or explicitly support and defend child abuse.

Asking for a friend.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“I don't see how this guy is going to catch fire.”

He won’t, but what has already happened is the desire to replace Walker with a Democrat. There is a huge amount of anti Republican sentiment out there and these primaries in almost every state show that the number of Democrats coming out to vote is much higher than Republicans. In Wisconsin 81,000 more Democrats voted in the primary than Republicans. The energy is on the Democrats’ side this time.

Evers did what was the smart thing to do, he followed the law and the options that were open to him. No one on the left is going to believe that Evers was remiss in his duties. Walker can try to convince independents, but he may end up looking like Trump, going low.

“But what’s left out is that Evers concluded that state law at the time didn’t allow for a revocation because the teacher’s behavior didn’t endanger children. The same conclusion had been reached by an arbitrator, who ruled the teacher had been fired improperly and gave the teacher back his job. And two courts upheld the arbitrator’s decision.”

And this has been Evers response.

AllenS said...

Gahrie said...
Getting caught watching porn on school computers deserves a written reprimand.

I worked in a factory. Anyone caught looking at porn at work, was fired immediately.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

any corruptocrat will do.

AllenS said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
hombre said...

"... and they didn't want to hit him where he was vulnerable and make it any worse for him in the general election than what we're seeing now."

They're Democrats. They didn't think it was any big deal. Children, like the preborn, don't vote. Teachers' union members and pornographers do.

AllenS said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
AllenS said...

It appears that working in a factory means you need to have a higher moral standard than working in a public school. Something that I'm not surprised to learn.

Damn typos.

William said...

Slightly off topic: Look at the way Dems are tiptoeing around Keith Ellison. That story might be a ticking time bomb, and it might be a dud. They wish to avoid the blast radius if the bomb goes off and yet be close enough to indicate support if it proves to be a dud...... If this story concerned a Republican, the story itself would have been the exploded bomb.

wwww said...


I don't know if Evers will win. He has won state-wide elections. It's not the first time people have voted for him. What that means for Wisconsin is yet to be seen.

In 2018 politicians don't need to catch fire to win. Generic Ds like Amy Klobuchar are polling high. People are looking for the undramatic "generic" candidate. People like term limits. A calm presence who looks like he'd be happy to eat hot dish may be more appealing then someone who catches fire.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Slightly off topic: Look at the way Dems are tiptoeing around Keith Ellison. That story might be a ticking time bomb, and it might be a dud. They wish to avoid the blast radius if the bomb goes off and yet be close enough to indicate support if it proves to be a dud...... If this story concerned a Republican, the story itself would have been the exploded bomb.”

Democrats of New York got rid of their AG pretty darn quickly when reports of abuse were made against him. Democrats are not going to let Ellison stay if the accusations look credible.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Apropos "dropped" and regional idioms. We moved from New England to Chicago suburbs in early 1950's. I was in 5th grade. Took a while to understand that "Put up your work" (i.e. put it up on a figurative shelf somewhere) meant to stop working (i.e. "put down your work").

Birkel said...

Maybe the simplest answer is best?
Democrats support sexual fringe groups?
And attacking Evers on this issue would be attacking a solid Democrat constituency?

Just spitballing here...

walter said...

Middleton schools are sexy!

MIDDLETON, Wis. - A former Middleton High School teacher and track coach has resigned after being investigated for an alleged sexual assault of another school staff member and inappropriate images the Middleton-Cross Plains School District found on his computer.

Middleton Superintendent Don Johnson said the investigation began in September after finding sexually explicit images and emails on Mezera's school computer. Software from the district flagged inappropriate language and web searches.

"There is no lag time or court case; these people understand that they have breached the trust of the district and the community," Johnson said.

Johnson said once the district was aware of the information, they placed Mezera on administrative leave. An internal investigation by the district revealed sexual emails between Mezera and another staff member.

According to a 26-page report from Middleton police, the female employee initially told officers she and Mezera begun a sexual relationship in 2014 but claimed it was against her will. The woman later told officers that the relationship was consensual.

"Some of the information that she provided to us by her is that she would not have reported this unless she had been advised to by the school administration, and she also indicated that in her mind this was not a sexual assault," Middleton PD Capt. Troy Hellenbrand said.

Police reports show the two had sexual encounters on and off school property. Officials seized three thumb drives of inappropriate emails, photos and web searches from Mezera's computer. After police investigated the woman's claims and reviewed images found on Mezera's computer, no charges were filed. Mezera resigned Oct. 1.
https://www.channel3000.com/news/local-news/2-middleton-school-employees-resign-after-sex-at-school/156165936

Crimso said...

"Just as well, we need Mike-differentiation anyway."

I can't help but think of you as "Famous Original Mike."

TRISTRAM said...

This is why you got Trump. The media and Dems beat the hell out of moderate republicans with any flaws (esp. if they have even a minimal amount of honor, enough to be defensive or embarrassed). So, year after year, the Romney's are whittled away until you either have Dems running a Republicans (Bloomberg, Kasich, Trump) or honey badgers (Cruz, Paul, Walker).

Given evolution, y'all are breeding media resistant Republicans.

Good luck when they being to infect the rest of the polity (oh, wait, the Obama years were enriched agar for local and state republicans. Hahaha).

walter said...

"the female employee initially told officers she and Mezera begun a sexual relationship in 2014 but claimed it was against her will. The woman later told officers that the relationship was consensual."

So....we know the guy's name and that he resigned.
What about "the female employee"?

walter said...

Middleton schools party!
MIDDLETON (WKOW) -- Some local students and a volunteer coach are being disciplined for their involvement in an underage drinking party that took place on New Year's Eve.
Middleton High School disciplined 17 students and fired a volunteer assistant coach about two weeks ago.
While some are questioning the delayed response, the Middleton-Cross Plains School District says the process moved quickly once they found out what happened on New Year's Eve.
It started the first week of May when Middleton High School's athletic director told police about a rumor that concerned him.
"There were questions about a relationship between a student and an assistant coach—nothing concrete. It was all second hand," said Capt. Noel Kakuske of the Middleton Police Department.
Police didn't find evidence to support it.
"But they did discover there had been an underage drinking party," Kakuske said.
More than five months after the party, the high school suspended 17 students from their extracurricular activities a week after learning they had been at a New Year's Eve party in Cross Plains where there was underage drinking.
An incident report shows volunteer assistant girls basketball coach and substitute teacher, 26-year-old Matthew Cushman, acted as a doorman while the mother of one of the students hosted the party at her home.

http://www.wkow.com/story/18663731/middleton-cross-plains-students-and-teacher-disciplined

I don't see when this happened..no date for article. I couldn't find any others.

SweatBee said...

My guess is they didn't use it against him for the same reason Ilhan Omar's primary opponents didn't try to use her [alleged] bigamy, immigration fraud, and divorce-filings perjury against her.

Seeing Red said...

But what’s left out is that Evers concluded that state law at the time didn’t allow for a revocation because the teacher’s behavior didn’t endanger children. The same conclusion had been reached by an arbitrator, who ruled the teacher had been fired improperly and gave the teacher back his job. And two courts upheld the arbitrator’s decision.”


The Clinton defense.

Its private, between the families.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Seeing Red said...

There is a huge amount of anti Republican sentiment out there and these primaries in almost every state show that the number of Democrats coming out to vote is much higher than Republicans.

Or it’s a huge temper tantrum from the anointed.

I’m not going to deny they’re fired up but we know why.

The anointed vagina lollipop didn’t win.

Jim at said...

A crowded Dem primary vs an incumbent Republican, and some people think that's an accurate measurement of voter intensity come November.

Seeing Red said...

And if support in the AA community remains where it it and they don’t turn out....

Drago said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Drago said...

Inga: "Democrats are not going to let Ellison stay if the accusations look credible."

LOL


"...if the accusations look credible...."

Looks like we are back to You Dont Have To Believe The Women again!

And wouldnt yoy know it, just in time fir another dem to benefit.

I. Did. Not. See. That. Coming.

The only thing better rhan that is the dem gal running for Ellisin's congressional seat who thankfully recently divorced her own brother!

Fantastic!

rhhardin said...

"He knew"
Why is it that, in every single discussion of sexual abuse or exploitation, particularly of children, that ever has occurred on Althouse, you simply MUST distract, minimize, excuse, justify the behavior? It is more likely that Chuck will let go an opportunity to criticize the President, than you will not implicitly or explicitly support and defend child abuse.


Anti-hysteria, particularly when it's used as a political move. Women are such easy marks.

Curious to find out yourself?

Ian Hacking in "The Making and Molding of Child Abuse" (Critical Inquiry 17:2 Winter 1991, U Chicago)

Adolf Guggenbuhl-Craig "Myth and Reality of Child Sexual Abuse" _From the Wrong Side: a paradoxical approach to psychology_ 1995

The hysteria is more harmful to victims than the thing itself.

They mythology that revolves around sexual abuse of children offers us more than the gratification of our needs for causes and for morality. We live today in a transitional period from patriarchy to matriarchy, a transition which has already occured in many areas of our lives. While men still dominate the fields of politics, business and industry, they have already lost countless battles. The majority of families have a matriarchal structure in which the men have less and less of a voice. Sexual abuse of children provides us not only with the "cause" of most problematic psychological development - and an evil cause at that - but with a villain: a man. The evil patriarchy thereby becomes the source of practically all psychological difficulties, of all the sufferings of human kind. It represents the male beast who almost incidintally abuses children sexually whenever the opportunity presents itself...The benefits we derive from this mythologizing make it very difficult to investigate and judge the phenomenon to appropriately deal with it.

later

Children who experience child abuse often feel guilty. They have the impression that they, somehow, were at fault. Older children, in particular, have ambivalent feelings about the abuse. They are uncertain whether the experience did not provide them with a certain pleasure. They often wonder if they if they failed to defend themselves or possibly encouraged the perpetrator. Many psychologists reject these guilt feelings out of hand as completely unjustified. They maintain that in no way can there be a question of guilt. They encourage the children to forget the guilt, to put it out of their minds.

This therapeutic position can be harmful for the psychological development of a child. Therapists simply think of and accept the child as a victim. They energetically reject and deny any attempt on the child's part to assume any responsibility for what happened or at least to recognize his or her own ambivalence. Therapists thereby impose a victim psychology upon the child, a psychology which says that for everything that happens there is always someone to blame. They nip in the bud the child's growing awareness that he is at least partially responsible for what happens to him - or at least the back and forth tension between rejection and acceptance. This therapeutic position does not take the child seriously as a human being. It sees the child solely as a mistreated, innocent victim. The child is no longer a part of creation with all its possibilities and contradictions, with its conflicting interests and desires...


Hysteria is not only bad politics but bad for the victims.

Then there's Dorothy Rabinowitz's pulitzer prize winning book on what'sit day care, in the insaneness of hysteria.

rhhardin said...

Lord of the Flies would have been so much better if the island had had a short-lived male child-abusing castaway to get the plot going.

rhhardin said...

I watched Amanda Seyfried _Gone_ (2012) last night, ordering the last few DVDs that might be watchable. This from a list of women-abducted plots.

It's hard to comment on without producing a spoiler, but it can be watched with Guggenbulh Craig in mind.

Good story, after the whole thing is taken in. The best I can do spoilerlessly.

Doug said...

Or, maybe they didn't bring it up because ... they're Democrats.

Tommy Duncan said...

At least there are voices in Walker's ad, unlike the recent Evers ad.

I am amazed at how quickly the Republicans are hitting the ground running for the general election. I received a Republican flyer for the Minnesota Governor's race the day after the primary.

Anonymous said...

Bad L to rh: Why is it that, in every single discussion of sexual abuse or exploitation, particularly of children, that ever has occurred on Althouse, you simply MUST distract, minimize, excuse, justify the behavior? It is more likely that Chuck will let go an opportunity to criticize the President, than you will not implicitly or explicitly support and defend child abuse.

Asking for a friend.


Labeling some, or even many, manifestations of concern with behavior X as "hysteria" is not necessarily unreasonable. Lotta crazy out there. All of them? At that point enquiring minds may begin to ponder sperg-perv intersectionality.

rh: I watched Amanda Seyfried _Gone_ (2012) last night, ordering the last few DVDs that might be watchable. This from a list of women-abducted plots.

TMI? Or data point?

Molly said...

Others have made this point, so perhaps there is no need for this comment. But I hope this clarifies:

But in this particular case, there were only two options: (1) support the molested child, but oppose the teachers union; (2) support the teachers union, but support the molested child. For Walker this was a no-brainer: he had already lost any remnants of support among teachers union supporters. For all non-Evers Democrats, the choice was also a no-brainer: oppose the teachers union and lose any possibility of winning the democratic primary or support the teachers union and retain some (even if slim) possibility of winning the democratic primary.

Greg P said...

Thank you Molly, you hit it on the head

The Democrats aren't going to piss off the NEA by going after a bad teacher protected by the Union

It's why no one who values education should ever vote for a Democrat

The Vault Dweller said...

I'm not from Wisconsin, so I don't know how widely known Evers is, but if he is relatively unknown, it is best to start throwing mud early and tarnish his image with voters before they can form an image of him. Appearance wise, Evers does look a little creepy, so associating him with sexual misconduct with school children could be effective. Scott Walker is a known quantity, so I doubt he would face much blowback from running a negative ad about Evers.

Molly said...

thanks Greg P for reading past my typo: I meant: (2) support the teachers union but oppose [not support as in my earlier post] the molested child.

Greg P said...

By the way, a new poll shows Evers with a 5 point lead over Walker. Wisconsin Public Radio reports:

The first poll conducted after this week’s gubernatorial primaries shows Democrat Tony Evers leading Republican Gov. Scott Walker by five points.

The poll, conducted by the liberal firm Public Policy Polling, surveyed nearly 600 Wisconsin voters on the two days following Tuesday’s primary election, Aug. 15 and 16.


IIRC, PPP is one of the most worthless "polling" firms out there.

As in, so bad you can't even put in a "screw" factor for them, you just pay no attention to them

Abdul Abulbul Amir said...

The rest of the Dems were silent because they knew better than to be on the wrong side of the teachers union.

JohnJMac862 said...

The Dems will spend several weeks tryi;g to figure out if spreading porn to kiddies is bad.

Drago said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Drago said...

JohnJMac862: "The Dems will spend several weeks tryi;g to figure out if spreading porn to kiddies is bad."

Hardly.

They will spend several weeks trying to find out if the widespread exposure of their allowing the spread of porn to kids is a bad thing and, if so, how quickly can they "jouno-list" this thibg into the republicans fault.

Original Mike said...

”It's why no one who values education should ever vote for a Democrat”

And why no one who can afford to (which, unfortunately, is not most people) should send their child to a public school.

FIDO said...

Democrats of New York got rid of their AG pretty darn quickly when reports of abuse were made against him as long as that position could safely be refilled by another Democrat, making the ousting essentially politically meaningless. If there is a Republican Governor who can appoint a REPUBLICAN to replace a pedophilic Democrat, ala Mendez, or a rapist such as Clinton the Democrats will circle their wagons and die of acute hypocrisy on that hill because 'power'..

Democrats are not going to let Ellison stay if the accusations can't be ignored or dismissed by the media, and seem to have legs with the voters. Otherwise, he's a shoe in


A few small nuances and bits of history of Democratic 'morality', which is situational at best.

FIDO said...

Inga, why don't you believe the women? Cause it's not 'one woman'. It's two.


I am just asking because that seems to be a so called principle of the Democrats.

FIDO said...

One last question, Inga.

Are you going to accept a DNC investigation or an official POLICE investigation of the credibility of the charges?

FIDO said...

As far as the ad is concerned...for me, it seems pretty weak sauce. 'He knew'. Well...when? What did he do when 'he knew'? Did he know before hand?

And this is me as a Republican!

But that being said, 'he knew' has this resonance with women which is incredibly powerful.

And if Althouse is in any way a sample of the prudery of the average Wisconsin woman...WELL!

So my thoughts is that this isn't aimed at Republicans. They aren't voting for him anyway.

It MIGHT resonate with Independents, but I'm guessing Independents are getting pretty tired of the moral scolding (mostly lead by Democrats) that has filled our last year, particularly the men "Yeah, someone knew someone who looked at porn once and made a comment about a girl. Go fuck yourself!"

No, this is a vote suppression tactic for single young women who actually BELIEVE in #MeToo. For the occasional Democrat mom who let some of her cell clusters live.

Not every Democrat woman is as big a hypocrite as Inga and had Slick Willy had to face another vote, them women who joined him at that first dance wouldn't have danced with him again.

With Evers, they won't dance with him once.

MadisonMan said...

I love their Scrambler.

I hope you do not get the gravy on the side, if you get gravy with it. According to my kids, that's heretical.

I never leave Mickie's thinking "Hmm....I'm still hungry"! :)

Unknown said...

On Aug. 15, 2018, the day after Tony Evers won the Democratic nomination for governor, the Wisconsin Republican Party targeted him in a TV ad.

It’s a familiar attack.

In fact, we’ve already rated two similar attacks the GOP made against Evers on the same subject — neither of which did well on the Truth-O-Meter.

The claims against Evers, the state schools superintendent, are about a case involving a Madison-area middle school teacher viewing pornography at school.

The new ad emphasizes, again, that Evers did not move to revoke the teacher’s license. It ends with the narrator stating: "As superintendent of public instruction, Tony Evers is supposed to keep our children safe. But he didn’t."

(Also the day after the primaries, GOP Gov. Scott Walker, who will face Evers in the November general election, claimed Evers "fell back on some bureaucratic excuse" in not trying to revoke the teacher’s license.)

Let’s review what we know from the previous fact checks on the GOP — one rated Mostly False and one rated Half True.

The teacher did share images of nudity and in at least one instance forwarded an email containing such images that he received on his school computer. The teacher was fired.

A state arbitrator gave the teacher his job back, saying his behavior did not meet the state law’s definition of immoral conduct because "there was no endangerment of the health, safety, welfare or education of any pupil." The decision was upheld by two courts.

Evers’ department, citing the state law requiring that kids be endangered, decided not to try to revoke the teacher’s license.

Evers and Walker later supported a change in state law that removed the endangerment clause — meaning, a teacher’s license could now be revoked for viewing pornography at school.

Unknown said...

Gilbar- and then there was the great Cubs DP combo of the 50s- Miskis to Smalley to Addison... for those of you not up on your Northside geography Addison is the street that runs along the first base line...