Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Franken

I get torn back and forth on the saga of Al Franken.  His behavior was demeaning and inappropriate, if every word is true it's perhaps a little worse than that.  He denies that all of the allegations are true, but the pattern for people who harass is pretty clear - it's never a one time thing. 

Ana Marie Cox makes a solid point that men like Franken aren't being denied due process, because they aren't being charged with crimes.  They are losing their jobs, and people lose their jobs for non-criminal reasons all the time.  Franken and Conyers held jobs of public trust, and their behavior violated that trust.

The fact that Trump remains president and Roy Moore stands a very good chance of becoming the next Senator from Alabama is, of course, troubling.  I get people who say that this "isn't fair."  Why should Democrats hold themselves to a higher standard? 

Probably because someone has to.  Right now, the Republican party is clothing itself in ignominy.  They are tolerating a mentally incapable, emotionally unstable serial predator as president.  They are likely about to welcome a pedophile into the Senate.  Their legislative agenda is morally outrageous, stealing from the sick to give to the rich.

I think a lot of Democrats feel that there will never be a reckoning for men like Trump.  There's ample reason to feel that way, looking at the last year and a half.  However, the reckoning always comes.  It may not feel like it, but eventually the hammer falls.

I have to believe that.

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