 |
| Anti-LGBTQ SC Congressman Jeff Duncan's wife has filed for a divorce while accusing him of multiple affairs. |
Last year, South Carolina Congressman Jeff Duncan publicly accused the Democratic Party of trying to destroy families by "going after children." This year, Duncan's wife is filing for divorce while accusing him of having multiple affairs. It's a story as old as the hills and remade more times than the motion picture A Star is Born.
From Business Insider:
A politician who promotes the importance of family has abandoned them. This time, it appears to be US Rep. Jeff Duncan, a Republican in South Carolina. Duncan's wife, Melody Duncan, filed for divorce last week, citing her husband's multiple affairs. Melody Duncan, his wife of more than 30 years and mother to his three sons, accused her husband of at least two affairs in the divorce filing, which was first obtained and published by the Index-Journal, a local newspaper in Greenwood.
Duncan has been in office for 13 years and has long advocated for conservative Christian values. "As a life-long social conservative, I am a strong advocate for life and traditional family values," Duncan writes on his website. Accompanying the post is a stock image of the Holy Bible, a book famous for its views on infidelity. He then pledges himself to the anti-abortion cause: "The most basic component of our society is the family."
The family, plus a few mistresses, it would seem.
The divorce filing described Melody Duncan as a "dutiful wife" who "wholeheartedly supported" Duncan in his career. It cites a political event last month where Duncan echoed his wife's sentiment. At a "Faith and Freedom BBQ" on August 28, Duncan described his wife as "supportive and loving" while portraying himself as a "dedicated, dutiful husband," according to the divorce filing. Duncan then "left the next day and went directly" to the home of his mistress, it says.
Melody Duncan also says that her husband admitted his affair to their sons and congressional staffers, adding that she believes he has had at least one other affair.
This is the same Jeff Duncan who published a piece last year accusing Democrats of trying to destroy families and marriages:
Conservative policies are pro-child, pro-family, pro-parent, and most importantly, pro-life. Democrats, however, promote policies and ideologies that ultimately impair children in the long run, vilify concerned parents as “domestic terrorists,” and attack the most vulnerable. Conservatives believe that parents, not the government, should have the primary say in their child’s life and that a child’s rights must be protected first and foremost. For conservatives, when it comes to protecting children, that is the hill to die on.
The following is what he reportedly said about marriage equality in 2010:
I BELIEVE in family. I believe that children develop best when they have loving parents. I believe that marriage is sacred, and should only be defined as a union between one man and one woman I believe in protecting family values, and that is part of the reason why I am running for United States Congress.
And in 2015, he cosponsored a resolution to amend the Constitution to ban marriage equality.
So here we go again. A 'pro-family' Congressman who makes a big deal about his morality and opposition to marriage equality has shown himself to be a huge hypocrite. It happens so often that there simply is no shock value anymore. Worse than that, not only have we come to expect it, but we all have come to accept it. And with that acceptance comes the ability of hypocrites like Duncan to get away with it.
