Giving in to "The Beast" is not a conservative value

This morning on Townhall Radio, conservative talk show host Dennis Prager was talking with an woman, now retired, about her experience with sexual harrasment in the workplace. She said that it had happened from time to time, that she had had at least one boss deny her a promotion because she wouldn't acquiesce to his demands, and that like all women at the time, she just lived with it and moved on.

Prager praised her for saying that she "just went on" in what was clearly a hostile environment. After the conversation, he asked his audience if he thought that liberal values or conservative values "like those the previous caller had expressed" made women stronger.

Well, Dennis, I'm here to tell you that her conservative values made her a floor mat. I'm ashamed at you for claiming that sexual harassment in the workplace was both uncommon and, as you put it, "the nature of the beast," and women should just learn to live with it.

Putting up with men who betray the values of honor and self-discipline is not conservative. It's just weak. It's unworthy of those who do it. Men who are willing to betray the virtue of industry in order to satisfy their own gratifications don't deserver our respect, and neither do the women who let their careers and self-interest be stalled or, worse, acquiesce only to learn the grave cost of doing so.

"Putting women in their place" (or blacks, or gays, or whatever group you want to identify) is not a conservative value, especially not when doing so harms your business by depriving it of the best, brightest, and most productive talent. But that's what Prager advocated. It was irresponsible and reactionary. Prager has always been obsessed with male privilege and its maintenance, and has been willing to sacrifice many well-established conservative values to maintain it.