Representative Glenn Grothman (R-The nearest Brat Boil) took the floor of Congress and used his time to complain about – checks notes – the French Revolution. No, really:
In fact, there have always been powerful people in history, beginning with the radical leftists in the mid 1800s, who felt the family was restricting and felt it’s something that we should break away, destroy. This is one of the things that began to come out of the French Revolution in the 1780s. And to this day, some people view the French Revolution as something that should be looked upon favorably.
Yeah, forget that they people were being starved by King Louie and Marie Antoinette and that they fought for things like life and liberty and solidarity. Most people would think those are good things. But not Grothman.
His problem is that the French gave those rights to everybody, even women and children:
In a groundbreaking book that challenges many assumptions about gender and politics in the French Revolution, Suzanne Desan offers an insightful analysis of the ways the Revolution radically redefined the family and its internal dynamics. She shows how revolutionary politics and laws brought about a social revolution within households and created space for thousands of French women and men to reimagine their most intimate relationships. Families negotiated new social practices, including divorce, the reduction of paternal authority, egalitarian inheritance for sons and daughters alike, and the granting of civil rights to illegitimate children. Contrary to arguments that claim the Revolution bound women within a domestic sphere, The Family on Trial maintains that the new civil laws and gender politics offered many women unexpected opportunities to gain power, property, or independence.
And just look at where such nonsense got us! The smashing of the patriarchy! A woman running for president! Illegitimate children being treated like people! Women and children making decisions for themselves. Oh, the humanity!
Maybe Grothman should try to stay up with current events. Then again, maybe not.
