They’ve shown us who they are
No, I’m not going to quote Maya Angelou yet again. You can read the quote on the back of your eyelids by now.
Wasilla Republican Rep. David Eastman sparked outrage online after asking whether there could be economic benefits from the death of abused children.
Eastman asked a series of questions during a MondayHouse Judiciary Committee hearing on adverse childhood experiences — such as physical and sexual abuse on children or growing up in a household marred by domestic violence — and how they can negatively affect a person throughout their lives.
As part of the presentation, documents given to legislators estimated that when child abuse is fatal, it could cost the family and broader society $1.5 million in terms of trauma and what the child could potentially have earned over their lifetime.
Eastman said that he had heard an argument, on occasion, that when child abuse is fatal, it could economically benefit a society.
“It can be argued, periodically, that it’s actually a cost savings because that child is not going to need any of those government services that they might otherwise be entitled to receive and need based on growing up in this type of environment,” he said.
Just after admonishing his disciples In Matthew 6 not to make a public show of piety, and after teaching them The Lord’s Prayer, and immediately after reminding them not to be hypocrites, Jesus instructs:
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Guess where Eastman’s heart is? And just where did he hear it “argued periodically” that the death of an abused child is a cost savings to society?
The late comedian Jack Benny (with his pennypincher shtick) used a stickup man’s “Your money or your life!” as the setup for the punchline, “I’m thinking it over!”
Guys like Eastman don’t have to think. It’s no shtick.
Jeff Sharlet’s correct (Politico, Tuesday):
Before Alaska’s 10 a.m. winter sunrise, in a mostly empty courtroom here in December, Republican state Rep. David Eastman went on trial accused of betraying his oath of office.
The charge: that Eastman, a hard-line conservative and fervent Donald Trump supporter, had violated a “disloyalty clause” embedded deep in the Alaska Constitution — and was thus ineligible to hold office in the state.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Eastman was in Washington, D.C., to rally for the defeated president trying to overturn the 2020 election. Eastman says he never went inside the U.S. Capitol, and he hasn’t been accused of any crimes connected to the riot that day. But he also has ties to the Oath Keepers, the far-right group whose leader was found guilty of seditious conspiracy for a violent plot to disrupt the transfer of power on Jan. 6: Eastman purchased a lifetime membership to the group nearly a decade ago.
Throughout the saga, Eastman has shown no remorse or regret. If anything, the civil suit launched against him has emboldened him.
Naturally. He won his case, too, on First Amendment grounds.
Eastman continues to serve in the Legislature, as something of a pariah but defiant as ever. And his presence is a glaring reminder that two years after Jan. 6, the insurrectionist forces unleashed by Trump and his allies have yet to be expunged from American politics.
We know who they are. The only thing American about them are their birth certificates.