Sex and the Presidency

There's a bit in Woody Allen's Annie Hall where Allen and co-star Diane Keaton are talking to their therapists on split screen.



The dialog goes like this:

Allen's Therapist: How often do you sleep together?
Keaton's Therapist: Do you have sex often?
Allen: Hardly ever. Maybe three times a week.
Keaton: Constantly. I'd say three times a week.

This is funny because it's so true: most men think about sex all the time, while most women don't. Estimates vary, but some studies indicate that men think about sex 34 times a day.

If men could have sex all the time, they would. And all that sex has consequences. It either requires birth control, or it results in pregnancy. And if those pregnancies are undesired, it can result in abortion.

The American right wing always frames abortion issue as a moral failing of women. But all of those women are pregnant because men had sex with them. That's why women are more hesitant about having sex: they can get pregnant. Men initiate sex far more frequently than women and they often use coercion -- physical or emotional -- to get sex when women really don't want it. For this reason, you can blame most abortions on men.

A lot of evangelicals support Trump, even knowing his history of greed, immorality, divorce, adultery and assaulting women. Evangelicals famously used to say that "character matters," that immoral private behavior disqualified a person from higher office. Well, they don't say that anymore: Trump has endorsements from numerous prominent evangelicals, including Jerry Falwell Jr.

In just five short years evangelicals have completely flipped on this issue: 30% used to say that "an elected official who commits an immoral act in their personal life can still behave ethically and fulfill their duties in their public and professional life." Now 72% say that. The reason? Donald Trump.

Why have evangelicals abandoned their moral high ground and talked themselves into this flip-flop? Because they think Trump will nominate Supreme Court justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade.

I don't know why they think he'll keep this particular promise. He denies things he's said on video. He's declared bankruptcy multiple times while enriching himself at the expense of investors. He's cheated on his wives, failed to pay people who did work for him, failed to release his tax returns, and screwed Trump University students out of millions of dollars for phony "courses."

Electing Trump will normalize sexual assault

But the worst thing about Trump is that electing him will normalize sexual assault. When his private banter became very public, his supporters passed off his bragging about molesting women as locker room talk. This gives men license to think that this kind of criminal behavior is normal. People at Trump rallies brag about how his pussy-grabbing makes him a real man.

The corrosive influence of Trump's sleaze is already affecting how people think: it has already convinced 42% of evangelicals that immoral and illegal behavior is okay.

In evangelical parlance, electing Trump would embolden sexual predators like him. A Trump presidency would encourage more licentious and aggressive masculine behavior. It would result in more unwanted pregnancies and more abortions -- whether abortion is legal or not. There will always be abortion because the bastards who get women pregnant always bail on them.

So, let's look at the moral implications of this election, as if evangelicals still practiced what they preached:

With Donald Trump as president men will think they can do whatever they want to women, then brag about it, and then lie about it. They will cheat on their wives, their business associates and their taxes. They will get their mistresses pregnant and force them into back-alley abortions.

With Hillary Clinton as president people will think they can delete old emails and make lame excuses about it. They will forgive their spouses, work to cure malaria around the world and pay their taxes. They will practice consensual, protected sex to avoid unwanted pregnancy and reduce the number of abortions.

It seems like a pretty simple choice, based on the morality.