Make me a sammich, Rev. Wilson
Pete Hesgeth's road to Damascus is twisted -- and deeply disturbing
By Sam Bellamy
During his first rampage through our lives, I wondered frequently if Donald Trump had kompromat on at least some of the moral contortionists on Capitol Hill who expressed distaste for the man’s actions in the morning, then gushed praise for those same actions in the afternoon.
Among the twisty sisters and brothers is Sen. Lindsey Graham, who famously declared during Trump’s first run for office that if the Republican Party nominated him for president, “we will get destroyed and we will deserve it.”
Today, of course, Graham grovels before Trump nearly as much as the uber-devoted Mike Pence did in the years before he was nearly hanged by a mob on Jan. 6, 2021 – with Trump’s tacit approval.
On Tuesday, Graham told CBS News that he has some doubts about the chances of Trump’s Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hesgeth winning confirmation in the Senate. "I think some of these articles are very disturbing,” he said. “He obviously has a chance to defend himself here, but some of this stuff is – it’s going to be difficult ..."
In a sane America, that would be a sobering comment for any aspiring Pentagon leader – even Hesgeth – given that Graham is a high-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
But this ain’t sanity we’re living in. By the time you read this, Graham may have already bent to Trump’s will and dismissed those articles as just more fake news.
One article that I hope Graham – and everyone else – reads is Amanda Marcotte’s shocking piece at Salon examining Hesgeth’s ties to a Christian nationalist organization (link below).
Marcotte reports that the church’s leader, self-proclaimed pastor Doug Wilson, had the following to say in his book, “Fidelity: How to Become a One-Woman Man.”
[T]he sexual act cannot be made into an egalitarian pleasuring party. A man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.
Wilson goes on to explain that wives who do not submit will cause fellows to “dream of being rapists.”
Um, noooo. It would make sane fellows think, “Maybe I should quit using phrases like ‘egalitarian pleasuring party’ and I might get lucky more often.”
Disturbed – deeply disturbed -- men dream of being rapists.
Given Trump’s own misogyny, it’s a wonder Wilson isn’t also a Cabinet nominee. In a video available on You Tube (link in Marcotte’s article below) called, “The Natural Use of Women,” Wilson says women were made to serve man by doing things like making them a sandwich.
The Natural Use of Women. Yet another example of why “You Can’t Make This Shit Up” ought to be emblazoned on the presidential seal during the Trump years.
Of course, we’re supposed to be respectful of one another’s religious views and definitely not count them against someone seeking a role in public service.
But I think we have to make an exception for this brand of Christian nationalism – and piggishness. Hesgeth can’t credibly distance himself from this. As Marcotte reports, he is heavily involved in this organization.
Various media outlets are now reporting that Hesgeth’s nomination is teetering, with Trump aides talking about alternatives for Defense Secretary.
If Trump holds his ground and Hesgeth’s nomination does proceed, all Democrats and any Republican still sporting a spine must fight it. A person immersed in this perverse view of the world should not be in a Cabinet meeting, a Pentagon office or anywhere near a room where decisions are made that affect our lives.
By the way, Wilson has also said that American slavery "was a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence.”
That’s one twisted brother. Send his acolyte back to Fox News.