We can all agree that with the statement that with Bill O’Reilly being forced out of a job as a result of his history sexual harassment that Donald Trump should be next.
After all, as Ana Navarro said, “Reminder, this is the guy Trump said (during Sexual Harassment Awareness Month) had done nothing wrong.” By extension, of course, Trump thinks he has nothing wrong.
The women in question have something quite different to say about that but it’s no surprise men like Trump and O’Reilly would stick together. As as horror writer Stephen King explains it,
Trump supported O'Reilly because both are members of the odious boys' club where members feel they can abuse & humiliate women at will.
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— Stephen King (@StephenKing) April 19, 2017
We might at Roger Ailes to that list. But Rupert Murdoch, the man who established that culture at Fox News, is still at large and beyond our reach. Or is he? Maxine Waters is optimistic:
Regarding the news on O'Reilly, a day will come when rich men won't be able to buy their way out of criminal conduct & they will go to jail.
— Maxine Waters (@MaxineWaters) April 20, 2017
Waters may be right. But Trump’s end may come as a result of his betraying his country rather than as a result of him being a rich man who is a member of “the odious club” King speaks of. Given Republican control of Congress, neither goal will be easily attained.
These boys protect their own. But Trump could not protect O’Reilly. Given Trump’s own reputation at this point, trying to help O’Reilly may have actually hurt the Fox host.
It is no surprise he rushed to his defense, however. As Isaac Chotiner at Slate argues, two decades of O’Reilly made Donald Trump possible.
Chotiner argues that though Trump is gone, “his ugly brand of egotism and resentment is here to stay.” Though your heart wants to agree with Waters utopian ideal, your mind tells you that Chotiner is right.
The privilege of the rich has always existed, all through history. It will likely always exist. Jesus railed against a corrupt system. The system nailed him to a cross and left him to die. He treated women as women deserved to be treated, as trusted equals.
When he was dead, women were silenced, told that far from being equals, they could not even be priests as their pagan sisters could.
If some men want to control women, rich men have the deep pockets that make that control possible.
However, if we can’t destroy the disease, that doesn’t mean we can’t treat the symptoms, and treat them harshly.
Which brings us back to O’Reilly – and Trump.
The irony of “odious rich man” O’Reilly’s fall is that as Public Advocate Letitia James told “The Last Word”, “women spoke with their pocketbooks” and “advertisers paid attention.” It was a form of power Bill O’Reilly could not buy his way out of, as he had in the past.
Donald Trump thinks he is above the law, but he is just as subject to women’s pocketbooks as O’Reilly. That won’t get him out of the White House but the White House can’t protect him from the sting.
The Trump name has been attached to all sorts of everyday items. His merchandise can be boycotted as well, just as Ivanka’s have been.
Trump is about to learn two very painful lessons: he isn’t above the law, and he isn’t above the avenging voice of America’s outraged women.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
