As former Florida governor Jeb Bush continues to tease making an announcement to run for president in 2016, the scrutiny has grown in intensity. In 1995, Bush pondered a way to rein in the “irresponsible behavior” of some people, reported The Huffington Post.
In his book, Profiles in Character, Bush wrote that America should bring back the institution of public shaming. He believes that public shaming would prevent women from having children “out of wedlock.”
One of the reasons more young women are giving birth out of wedlock and more young men are walking away from their paternal obligations is that there is no longer a stigma attached to this behavior, no reason to feel shame. . . . There was a time when neighbors and communities would frown on out of wedlock births and when public condemnation was enough of a stimulus for one to be careful.
Bush isn’t satisfied with the mere public knowledge of an unwed person having a child, he invoked The Scarlet Letter where the main character was forced to wear a mark indicating her as an adulter.
“Infamous shotgun weddings and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter are reminders that public condemnation of irresponsible sexual behavior has strong historical roots,” wrote Bush.
The former governor is a sick man. In 2001, when he was governor of Florida, Bush didn’t veto a law that would have forced women to publish their sexual history prior to putting a child up for adoption. The “Scarlet Letter” law was challenged in court two years later, and Bush then signed a repeal.
Late last month, a 13-year-old girl killed herself because her father thought it was a good idea to publicly shame her on the internet. He posted a 15-second video of her after he cut off her hair to shame her. She jumped off of a bridge on May 29, days after he posted the video online.
The public shaming of women is cruel and archaic. The Puritans publicly shamed women who were believed to be witches during the Salem Witch Trials. That occurred in the 1600s. There is no room for a draconian president in the White House.
