Caffeinated Politics

Let’s be honest, there is only so much that any Wisconsinite should be forced to endure during campaign season. (I am thinking that, and I love politics.) Today we are reminded of the travesty of Francesca Hong backing legislation that would decriminalize prostitution for adults and create a “sex workers’ bill of rights”. That comes to mind as we learn that Francesca Hong’s deputy campaign manager, Renee Faust, was serving as a sex worker. She had an active account on a pornographic website. Faust also founded the ‘Coalition of American Sex Workers-Local 304.’

While Democrats are thinking about gaining the majority in the state senate and many talented candidates are waging contests in Republican districts for the state assembly, Hong is proudly hitching her campaign wagon to the idea that Wisconsin’s future hinges on giving brothels the same labor protections as teachers, nurses, and the guy who salts the roads in February. According to Hong, this is a bold leap toward legitimizing sex work. Because apparently, nothing says progress for a socialist like turning exploitation into a resume builder.

Francesca Hong is a walking disaster for the Democratic Party in Wisconsin.

Assembly Bill 1193, courtesy of Hong and two other equally addled colleagues, would wipe away criminal penalties for prostitution, solicitation, and running brothels, provided everyone involved is an adult. That’s the sales pitch. The sponsors insist it’s about “removing stigma” and “making things safer,” as if a government seal of approval magically transforms a predatory industry into a tidy little workplace with STD checkups every sixty lays.

Hong probably is not aware that prostitution doesn’t become safe just because she decides to stop calling it a crime. She is willingly oblivious of the power imbalances, the trafficking pipelines, the drug addictions, and the violence that comes with the business she wishes to encourage.

What Hong supports is reckless. Wisconsin deserves leaders who confront the root causes of vulnerability, such as poverty, addiction, abuse, etc., rather than the most base type of candidate to make exploitation more “professional.”

Wisconsin doesn’t need a hooker’s union. And Wisconsin does not need Francesca Hong.