Double standards for sexual harassment among Utah's Political establishment
Amelia Powers Gardner, current Utah County Clerk, is running for Utah County Commissioner. She has had a sexual harassment investigation and findings made public. Including outing the orientation of her employees, screaming, and throwing things at them. There has been little if not any public outrage from Utah's political establishment. She does feel as if she is being kavanaughed and feels everything is being taken out of context.
David Robinson, a republican volunteer, was also accused of sexual harassment. He's denied the allegations and reported anything he did say was taken out of context. He didn't have a third party investigation. Despite this, there has been widespread condemnation and public displays of shaming. As well as glorifications of public officials for standing up to bullying.
I wasn't there for either. I don't know exactly what happened. I do know there is a massive and sickening display of double standards. Rules apply to some but not all. My question is, why? The former county employee in Amelia Powers Gardner's case came out with a public statement saying there was nothing to be upset about. Is this the reason for a double standard? I don't buy that in least. Having public statements from an accuser doesn't excuse the behavior. Spencer Cox and Derek Brown came out with statements condemning David Robinson but not Amelia. Many of those who have endorsed Amelia were the first to attack David Robinson, but have also been quick to defend Amelia. Why is one person getting reamed by the political establishment and another is not?
Is it because she's a woman and he's a gay man?
We've seen in the last five years a "me too" movement that led to some very powerful men losing their jobs or in Harvey Weinstein's case going to jail. However we haven't seen pushes for sometimes overtly and in public condemnations of women objectifying men in everything to press junkets to the workplace. This is a double standard society has for men and not for women. Is this it?
Is it because she's an elected official and he's a volunteer?
People in power play by a different set of rules. In Amelia Powers Gardner's case we have an elected official accused of harassing a public employee. In David Robinson's case we have a volunteer accused of harassing elected officials. Why are elected officials not held to the same standard?
Is it because her attacks on the current commission align with the political establishment's attempts to destroy the commission?
2020 saw a ballot initiative to destroy Utah County's Commission and replace it with Salt Lake County style Mayor and Council. Lee and Sakievich supported keeping the commission. Amelia Powers Gardner has publicly criticized the current sitting commissioners Lee and Sakievich for working to move a position to fall under multiple elected officials and away from the county clerk. Is this a political play to help destroy the commission by bolstering its critics?
Is it because of elections?
David Robinson has been very effective about deconstructing establishment narratives about trans-gendering children and conversion therapy, calling out the far left and then candidate for governor Spencer Cox. While Amelia has been very effective at reinforcing a narrative that mail-in voting was safe. Reinforcing the Biden campaigns claims and contradicting President Trump during the 2020 election. Tow the correct political line and get special treatment is a sacrament of the far left. The far left operating in the Utah GOP is no different.
The pandemic brought about a national push by the far left for universal vote by mail. This was criticized as being a power play to enable voter fraud to steal the election from Donald Trump. Utah's political establishment made it clear they despised Donald Trump in 2016. Spencer Cox was on multiple leftist national outlets touting how safe mail in voting was and how ridiculous President Trump's concerns were. Spencer Cox has been one of the most divisive and toxic critics of President Trump in the nation. Even going so far as to state he preferred serial killers and wanting to punch someone. Consistently Cox was using his twitter account in 2020 to contradict and attack the president about mail in voting and it's outcomes.
Who did Utah's far left GOP establishment hold up as an example the rest of the nation should follow? Amelia Powers Gardner and Utah County. Amelia Powers Gardner was featured in the far left Washington Post and TechCrunch touting on a national stage how safe mail in voting was. That somehow mass mailing ballots to everyone on record is safer than people showing up with voter ID in person. Somehow the chain of custody of those ballots while never being maintained is somehow as safe. It's not, that's a blatant lie. We saw this as soon as counting stopped and the ballots needed to make up the difference to defeat Trump were found in democrat run counties in swing states to deliver the election to Joe Biden. A man who can't even make it through a press conference much less run for president. Yet Amelia Powers Gardner, Spencer Cox, Mitt Romney and the Biden campaign were out there touting how good Utah was at mail in voting and how safe it was for the country. Is this the reason Governor Cox and the Utah GOP didn't issue a statement condemning the sexual harassment? Did Amelia Powers Gardner deliver a critical talking point needed to grease the tracks for national election fraud? Is this why she gets a pass?
This would explain consummate Never-Trumper and McMullin pusher Aimee Winder Newton endorsing Amelia Powers Gardner. Aimee Winder Newton publicly advocated the destruction of Utah County's commission. She led the charge against David Robinson. Robinson wasn't afraid to call out Aimee Winder Newton for how duplicitous and awful she was. Aimee Winder Newton has touted her victimhood and called for a purge of anyone that doesn't subscribe to her version of events. Even going so far as call for a candidate for state chair to not be considered for knowing David Robinson.
It could be observed that Amelia Powers Gardner was doing her job to advocate mail in voting was in her job description. That the double standards were by other people but Amelia Powers Gardner wasn't out there pushing the double standard, but... there's this...
Amelia is bandwagoning on the attacks by Aimee Winder Newton. Is she giving David Robinson the benefit of the doubt she's being given? No. I would challenge Amelia to do so. It wouldn't be politically expedient to call out those who have endorsed her Aimee Winder Newton. It would be honest.
Elected officials shouldn't get special treatment, volunteers shouldn't be lynched on social media by elected officials. It's abundantly clear that the double standards for Gardner and Robinson are about politics and not about sexual harassment. Those that claimed to be concerned about harassment were lying, otherwise they would have condemned Gardner as much as Robinson. We need to keep these duplicitous scheming and deceptive people out of the realm of public policy or as Aimee Winder Newton put it "excused and dismissed" from public life all together.