In political discourse, the term pedophile now means anyone you disagree with.
Over the past couple of weeks, Democrats and Republicans have been lobbing pedophilia accusations at one another over policy disagreements. It’s an absurd way to operate and makes for worse political discourse in this country.
It’s coming from conservatives and Republicans in sex ed and woke gender ideology discourse. Some supporters of Florida’s parental rights in education bill (which opponents labeled the “Don’t Say Gay” bill) have been calling people who disagree with them “groomers.”
Christina Pushaw, a spokeswoman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, is among those popularizing the term “groomer.”
“The bill that liberals inaccurately call ‘Don’t Say Gay’ would be more accurately described as an Anti-Grooming Bill,” she tweeted last month. “If you’re against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you don’t denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children. Silence is complicity. This is how it works, Democrats, and I didn’t make the rules.”
Even though it’s a good bill, this is a bad way to frame the argument. The average person who opposes the bill likely thinks they’re being inclusive and thinks people should be accepted for who they are and who they want to be. That doesn’t mean they’re pedophiles looking to groom 4-year-olds. The same is true of the Senate Republicans who planned to vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. It’s unfortunate that Jackson getting on to the court given her support for legal abortion and light sentencing for pedophiles. However, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney aren’t pedophiles for voting to confirm her. Yet, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green made just that accusation.
“1. Any Senator voting to confirm #KJB is pro-pedophile just like she is,” she tweeted earlier in the week. “There are MANY more qualified black women judges, that actually can define what a woman is, but Biden chose the one that protects evil child predators. And then Romney, Murkowski, and Collins vote for her.”
Being soft on crime doesn’t make someone a pedophile. And transgenderism and pedophilia are two separate issues. One can oppose the concept of transgenderism and support putting pedophiles away for life but also recognize that a policy disagreement doesn’t make someone a pedophile.
Conversely, Democrats have been making a ridiculous pedophilia charge against Republicans. In Tennessee, some Republicans support a bill that would define marriage as being between one man and one woman. Democrats took it as a chance to call them pedophiles because the initial bill didn’t have a marriage age. But Republicans amended the bill to fix that problem and the age of consent would have been 18 years old.
“Still can’t get over how on the SAME WEEK that Republicans are desperately trying to label everyone else pedophiles and groomers, the Tennessee GOP is advancing a bill *literally* legalizing child marriage,” liberal political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen tweeted.
Child marriage is legal in 44 states. Every state should outlaw it. It’s a bad cultural practice being imported to the United States. But a now-corrected drafting error on a bill doesn’t mean Tennessee lawmakers support pedophilia.
Calling people groomers and pedophiles when they are not groomers and pedophiles makes political discourse in the country worse. Let’s cut it out.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports ) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.
