by Karen England, National Committeewoman, California Republican Assembly
Meg Whitman’s promotion of pornography shows that she does not have the judgment, character, or values necessary to be governor of California and the face of the California Republican Party.
For months, conservatives have had plenty of reasons to doubt Meg Whitman’s values and judgment. Whitman supports abortion on demand for minors and has vowed to continue abortion funding at taxpayer expense. Whitman is worlds apart from conservatives on these fundamental values issues.
To counter questions about her qualifications, Whitman has based her candidacy on her tenure at eBay. But when conservatives hone in on her controversial decision to create an “adults only” eBay site and facilitate the sale of pornography, she laughs. She denies that this issue of judgment and values is relevant to the gubernatorial election.
Whitman’s liberal defenders argue that she didn’t sell pornography, she merely set up a market and let users decide what to sell. According to this flawed argument, because conservatives are supposed to favor “markets,” we shouldn’t criticize Whitman about pornography.
The truth is that Whitman set rules and made decisions about what items would be available on the eBay site. And if conservatives are serious about protecting culture, we have to ask business leaders to take responsibility when they promote pornography and seek profits at the expense of society.
Around the same time that Whitman set up her “adults only” site, she also instituted a complete ban on the sale of guns on eBay.
She later wrote that her decision to ban guns was one of her “least difficult decisions” and said that gun owners would “cut corners” and facilitate gun crimes. Whitman apparently didn’t have any such qualms about the potential consequences of hardcore pornography, even though it later turned out that the “adults only” eBay site was used in connection with sex crimes.
When a reporter asked Whitman about the eBay pornography site, she laughed.
Whitman should be a little less gleeful about her role and recognize that this is a serious issue. She aided the distribution of pornography and sexual paraphernalia, profiting from an industry that degrades women, glamorizes obscene acts, and encourages promiscuity. While there’s no reason to believe that Whitman was involved in the manufacture of the material sold on her “adults only” site, she clearly facilitated its dissemination. She needs to take responsibility for the fact that there is more pornography in America today because she created the “adults only” eBay.
Whitman’s refusal to even take the issue seriously should be a red flag for conservatives. We are concerned about the sexualizing of American culture. We are worried about our children and grandchildren being exposed to depictions of sexual behavior. And we know that sexualized culture leads to behavior and attitude changes that increase the number of premarital pregnancies and abortions. These are genuine concerns for California families, and we need a governor who understands them.
I don’t believe that California has ever had a Republican nominee for governor who profited from the degradation of women. Let’s not start now.
