This story first caught my eye because, well, it is about human trafficking, and like any sane person, I abhor human trafficking.

I got the impression when I read the piece that Illinois was a standout in having bad policies--after all, the story was that Illinois got an “F,” and such a grade catches the eye, as it is intended to.

Then, I went to the Shared Hope website, which does the grading. I am not endorsing them or their particular methodology; I am simply taking a cue from it (I am no expert on the subject). What struck me was not that Illinois got an F, but the two states that got the highest scores.

Most states got Ds and Fs, so my first angle on the story was moot. Illinois got an F, but so did many other states. Florida and Tennessee were the top 2 spots, and it wasn’t even close.

A new report from Shared Hope International has given Illinois an "F" grade for its handling of child sex and human trafficking. https://t.co/G6tHLcBWJO

— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) January 23, 2024

What jumped out was that Tennessee was the only state that got an A, and Florida the only state that got a B–really a B+, since their score was 87 out of 100.

That’s pretty startling.

If you want to check out the methodology, you can visit the link above, but what struck me was the particular attention to child sex trafficking issues varied so much from state to state.

All victims of human trafficking deserve as much attention as possible, and in an ideal world, we could identify and help all women who have been forced into prostitution escape it. Escorts by choice are a different, more complicated matter (I oppose legalization, but it is clearly a different phenomenon than street prostitutes run by pimps–which to me qualifies as human trafficking).

But at the very least, we should focus like a laser on getting kids out of sex trafficking, and some states do it better than others. And it shouldn’t surprise you that it is states like TN and FL that do it best. Governors and legislators in both states have made it clear that protecting kids is a priority.

Why liberals have been downplaying the trafficking of children should be a mystery, but I think we all know the reason why. It’s not so much that they approve of pedophilia but rather that they are squishy on anything having to do with the sexualization of children. As you recall the Left went crazy going after the movie Sound of Freedom and went on a jihad against the idea that it was a real thing. They oppose anything that highlights the fact that kids are being sexualized.

It’s a key facet of alphabet ideology to do so, and if that means squishiness to pedophilia, so be it.

Most normal liberals would recoil at the idea of kids being used for sex–liberals are not monsters!–but the fact that it is an issue the Right cares about makes them leery of acknowledging that we may have a point.

And you see the resutls–it’s not that every Red state is great on the issue, but it’s only Red states that have focused on it strongly. And it’s in Tennessee (home of Matt Walsh, who focuses a lot on the issue) and Florida (where Governor DeSantis does the same) that the government has pushed strongly to fight the traffickers.

There are verbal expressions of compassion–which liberals are good at–and actual on-the-ground actions–which conservatives are good at.

I think you know which one is more important.