Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) laments the moral collapse of American politics:
“What does it say about our national conscience when the suffering of a child becomes a strategy for winning public office?
“What does it profit a nation to celebrate political victory while tolerating the degradation of its most vulnerable citizens?
“Public service invites scrutiny. It does not authorize the weaponization of sexual violence.
“A democracy cannot survive on constitutional procedures alone. It requires a moral culture capable of sustaining those procedures. It requires citizens who understand that political opponents remain human beings, that public disagreement need not become personal degradation and that victory without restraint can become its own form of defeat.”