Note to MAGA: Stick to VP Kamala Harris’ politics and drop the sexual slander

Note to MAGA: Be careful how you vilify Vice President Kamala Harris.

The way that some — not all — are going about trying to discredit her is cringe.

Don’t you realize that your daughters, nieces, and other female relatives are watching and see how you use sexual slander to try and denigrate women? They may not say anything to you about it but they read your social media posts. They notice when you ignore reports about how Donald Trump talks about women and his being found liable for the sexual assault of advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. They hear you when you make misogynistic and vulgar sexual references about Harris.

Some of you all don’t even have the decency to be ashamed.

I’m not just talking about Fox News host Jesse Watters, who recently tried — and failed — to explain away an apparent reference to gang rape when discussing the vice president.

Pause for a moment and let what he said sink in. Watters went on the air and described an imagined act of sexual violence against the Democratic nominee for president of the United States. Imagine if it weren’t Harris but his daughter who was the subject of such a “joke”— would he still feel OK about it?

Thankfully, Watters’ cohost, Jeanine Pirro, didn’t sit by and let something like that slide. She spoke up immediately demanding that he “take that back.” Watters tried to do that on Tuesday, but the damage already has been done.

Something similar happened closer to home in Souderton. A school board member accused Harris on social media of providing sexual favors. Bill Formica put up a lewd post on the social media platform X that contained vulgar speculation about Harris’ sexual history. Again, he needs to imagine if someone made a crude reference like that about his daughter.

After the Souderton Area School District reprimanded him, Formica also tried to backpedal, writing: “To clarify, my post was directed at a national political figure, not any individual or group within our community.”

That’s completely beside the point.

It doesn’t matter who Formica’s vile speculation was directed at — the fact he expressed it at all, and publicly, means he shouldn’t be involved in anything having to do with shaping the lives and education of children. His continued presence on the school board projects the message that it’s OK to make slanderous claims to score political points.

“This is a pattern of behavior that has played out on X and LinkedIn for over a year — it’s not just one poor decision,” officials with Souderton Area for Responsible Leadership pointed out in a letter to him that was made public on Facebook. “You have disparaged women, minorities, immigrants, teachers, and the LGBTQ+ community. You’re not sorry for what you said. You’re sorry that you got called out for it.”

More than 2,000 people have signed a petition demanding his resignation. Formica apologized for being “impulsive and juvenile” during a raucous school board meeting on Aug. 29 but refused to step down.

I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking it’s too bad that members of the board can’t just throw him off the board.

It’s fair game to criticize Harris’ politics. But it crosses a line when the critiques turn from policies to gendered slander. House Speaker Mike Johnson urged Republican lawmakers to shift the focus of their attacks on Harris earlier this summer. “This election will be about policies and not personalities,” he told reporters. “This is not personal with regard to Kamala Harris,” he said, “and her ethnicity or her gender have nothing to do with this whatsoever.”

But some Republicans aren’t listening — including the GOP’s presidential candidate.

On Wednesday, Donald Trump shared a post with a similarly vile claim about Harris on Truth Social. It’s so disgusting, I don’t even want to repeat it. According to the New York Times, it is the second time in 10 days that he’s posted a sexually oriented attack against Harris.

No one can stop him. No one stop his copycat followers either. They can’t even stop themselves.

The toxic messages Trump and his followers are spewing by sexualizing Harris or implying her successes are based on sexual favors rather than her own merit sends a clear and terrible message to to all girls and women on both sides of the political divide.

Misogyny and racism should have no place in American politics. But the longer this race between Trump and Harris goes on, the more I am convinced that it’s the leading issue.