The Politics of Impunity
Monday Memo
As the country remains gripped by the Epstein sex-trafficking and insider-trading scandals, the controversy surrounding Republican U.S. Representative Ernest Anthony “Tony” Gonzales II of Texas has emerged with a particular brutality.
Gonzales is the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Conference, and served for twenty years in the United States Navy, retiring as a Master Chief Petty Officer. He has been a moderate Republican, currently serving his third term in the House. His image has been shattered by accusations of an illicit affair with a married staffer, Regina Ann Santos-Aviles. Her subsequent death by self-immolation left a child motherless and a husband widowed.
In an interview with the San Antonio Express-News, the wronged husband, Adrian Aviles, said a few things that stood out to me in light of the exposure of the scandals.
“Tony abused his power. He should have held himself to a higher standard as a congressional leader.” And his attack that Gonzales “pushes, you know, family values and Christian morals ... denying the fact that he’s ruined somebody’s life.”1 The hypocrisy of elites is especially angering to the American people right now.
Mr. Aviles wants to clear his late wife’s name as he believes the actions of Gonzales contributed to her mental anguish and that she was not herself when she took her life by setting herself on fire. Mr. Aviles was with her at the end as she died in the hospital. Mr. Aviles wants the truth to preserve his wife’s memory for their son. Representative Gonzales, rather than doing his duty as a member of Congress and employer to look out for his people, took actions that destroyed a constituent’s family. When such awful actions occur, a democracy has to have means of punishing the offender on behalf of the wronged family. Without such means, the government invites private action; that is the worst case scenario. However, the failure to punish elites encourages elite contempt for the people and the rule of law.
Yet, the people’s reaction to contempt can be explosive; it is best to snuff out the fuse before it ignites. The government must hold elites, must hold its own to account.
The House of Representatives should expel Ernest Anthony Gonzales.
https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/tony-gonzales-santos-aviles-affair-husband-21360950.php