Republicans, Forced Abortion, and Prostitution
Nothing demonstrates both the depravity and the hypocrisy of the modern Republican party than the saga of the Northern Mariana islands. Nothing else can portray in so stark a light the vast chasm between pro-life rhetoric and the corporate sleaze. Sure, the fact that the modern GOP exploited the Christian vote and blasphemously seized the mantle of faith– like the Pharisees of old– for their own political purposes is by now an old story, told by insiders like David Kuo. But the Saipan saga stands apart, as an extreme example of what happens when Christianity runs into money interests…and who wins.
Let me do a very brief re-cap of the saga. The Northern Mariana islands are a US territory in Micronesia. The main industry is textiles, and its (female) workers come from a variety of Asian countries, especially China and the Philippines. These textile manufacturers enjoyed a distinct advantage as garments could travel tariff-free and quota-free to the US and could display the all-important “Made in the USA” label.
But there was an underlying grave scandal: the female employees were subjected to appalling sweatshop conditions that included being forced to work 12 hour days, for half the U.S. minimum hourly wage, and to live in barbed wire prisons. They were effectively slaves. As Josh Marshall noted, this particular guest worker program was notorious for “forced abortion, slavery, child prostitution, sex trafficking, beatings, female workers kept in shacks with no plumbing surrounded by barbed wire and other fun stuff.” It’s true, the sweatshop owners forced women who became pregnant to have abortions. And as a sideline, taking advantage of the women’s highly vulnerable position, they also fostered sex slavery.
The US Congress took a keen interest in this situation in the late 1990s, and the sweatshop owners paid millions to Jack Abramoff to lobby on their behalf. Tom Delay came to the rescue, and is on record as stating:
“You are a shining light for what is happening to the Republican Party, and you represent everything that is good about what we are trying to do in America and leading the world in the free-market system.”
Tom brought his friends with him. Take Ralph Reed, erstwhile head of the Christian Coalition, who made the following statement in the context of opposing legislation to subject these islands to U.S. federal wage and worker safety laws:
“The radical left, the Big Labor Union Bosses, and Bill Clinton want to pass a law preventing Chinese from coming to work on the Marianas Islands. [The Chinese workers] are exposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ…[and] are converted to the Christian faith and return to China with Bibles in hand.”
There’s more. Allen Stayman was a State Department official advocating labor law changes in the Northern Mariana islands. As such, he was a threat to Jack Abramoff and his clients. So Ken Mehlman, who was then White House political director had him fired.
And then there’s the sleaze. A while back, a Texas Republican called Ralph Hall denounced a teenage sex slave from the floor of the House, claiming that she “wanted to do nude dancing.” Isn’t it interesting who they will defend when corporate interests run into moral values? By the way, the girl in question was 15 years old.
And recently, it transpired that Colorado senate candidate Bob Schaffer was in on the game, having traveled to Saipan as part of the Arbamoff-Delay lobbying blitz. His $13,000 trip was paid for by an outfit called the Traditional Values Coalition. Christian coalition. Traditional Values coalition. Obscene.
This may be old news, but we should not forget the lesson. This group of Republicans claimed to be Christian, claimed to stand for moral value and human rights, all at the same time actively backing the sordid Saipan sweatshops. Yes, this is truly a pro-life party… This is not just a tale of political corruption and vested interests. Such examples abound, on all sides. No, this is an example of groups claiming to be Christian defending some very evil activities…for money. Of course, if the Democrats were not in the thrall of the abortion lobby, they could be hanging the “forced abortions” banner over the heads of the GOP on a daily basis….
I think the lesson here is that you shouldn’t form your opinions based solely on TPM and/or cherry-picked op-eds that support your preexisting prejudices.
Your breathless condemnation of the eeviiiil Republican party never quite seems to get around to mentioning what, precisely, they did wrong. Nevertheless, the heart of your criticism seems to lie the fact that some Republicans opposed the extension of U.S. minimum wage laws and certain immigration restrictions to Micronesia.
While I’m not exactly an expert on the law of Micronesia, I would assume that “forced abortion, slavery, child prostitution, sex trafficking, beatings, [and keeping] female workers… in shacks with no plumbing surrounded by barbed wire” are all already illegal in Micronesia, your insinuations to the contrary notwithstanding. Until we can figure a way to make it extra-super-duper illegal, one plausible answer to these crimes is the enforcement of existing laws, not necessarily additional regulation. To believe otherwise is not an endorsement of child prostitution and sex slavery.
Further, Republicans believe that the minimum wage hurts the poor. And while limiting guest worker visas would prevent some bad acts from occurring on our soil, it would do so only at the cost of relocating those bad acts to foreign soil, while forcing the poor who committed the crime of not being born in America to live in even deeper poverty in their home countries and, simultaneously, raising the cost of American consumer goods.
In sum, those who prefer practical action to a constant state of moral outrage are not necessarily approving of evil.
The Party of Death includes both Republicans and Dems. No doubt about it.
On that, Feddie, we can certainly agree.
The Party of Death includes both Republicans and Dems. No doubt about it.
If there is a “Party of Death,” then I think you’re right: it claims members and collaboraters across political parties.
Oh Minion (sigh) you’re such a hopeless liberal, I fear for your soul. When politicians say they are prolife, Faithful Catholics take them at their word and are not forever snooping around like Doubting Thomases. I will pray for you.
This egregious error aside, Schaffer seems as good a candidate as one might expect. I’m hoping he can honestly denounce Abramoff and the Marianas scandal now, though he would have to take the unappealing stand of pleading ignorance and admitting to being duped.
You know, anybody hear about this guy called the Bishop of Rome, the representative of Christ on earth, who’s reportedly going to be coming HERE in the next week?
Obviously, the things described as going on there are horrible, and Abramoff is a scumbag. There aren’t a whole lot of questions on that front.
I’m less clear why a whole new package of legislation was needed to combat indentured servitude, prostitution, forced abortions, etc. — all of which are assumedly already illegal in US territories. One would imagine we could simply round up the people operating such institutions and jail them. (Time was when it was said that hanging was too good for such men, but I gather we live in more “civilized” times now.)
Googling around a bit, I read that Bush signed legislation last year to raise the minimum wage to US levels over a period of time, and impose other mainland labor laws. The downside to this is that a number of the garment factories have already closed up and moved to China, and others are planning to do so over the next couple years. So assuming that some of the factories were actually decent source of employment (it may well be that $3/hr is a decent wage over there, I don’t know) implementing the US minimum wage there may have pretty much ended their garment industry. After all, if it costs the same to manufacture there as in the US, why do it there and have to pay shipping?
“Sure, the fact that the modern GOP exploited the Christian vote and blasphemously seized the mantle of faith–”
Sigh
I do not feel exploited. Heck maybe I am accused of being the exploiter since I argue the pro-life position fo the GOP most of the time
An acknowledgement of the problem is the first step towards recovery… ;)
“You know, anybody hear about this guy called the Bishop of Rome, the representative of Christ on earth, who’s reportedly going to be coming HERE in the next week?”
The Pope is coming to Vox-Nova? Neat!
Yes, he’s doing a guest post called “Why America is Calvinist and How to Overcome It”
I’ll take a devout Calvinist over a liberal Catholic any day of the week, and twice on Sunday (even if he does think I worship Mary).
“any” = “every”
This is what is typical in my mind of the Evangelical. And this is my sinful thought pattern to overcome, because many Evangelicals are not like this, but the Ralph Reed quote in which the actions embodying Christ’s word mean dramatically less than getting preached at typifies my routine horror of Evangelical missionary work.
The justification of injustice to give someone a Bible is very scary and less likely to promote the Kingdom than to ensure the wrath depicted for the goats in Matthew 25.
And I note that no one but Abramoff gets excoriated in the comments above Delay is untouched by right wing comments. As is Ralph Reed.
I get Abramoff. For him its about money. He made this clear. Delay and Reed in this instance pursue corruption, dishonesty, and grave injustices. The psalms speak of these two often. In the terms reserved for those beating the poor. But right wingers are afraid of standing out of the pack and critiquing these instruments of corruption. But froth when they see a liberal backing one of his/her pet candidates. Lets see some independent thinking for once, guys.
Additonally, I am eager for a right wing blogger to comment for once that Republicans belong to the party of death. Without also including Democrats. I would bet they would get scolding e-mails if they did. Its the code-don’t trash Republican abortion failures without spending more syllables on Democrats. And they should never be criticized alone. Watch this trick. Its a rule.
Excellent post. That’s why I am an Independent voter.
I’ll take a kind and gentle agnostic over a conservative of any stripe. Three times on Sunday.