By the time most people read this post, Al Franken will probably be a former Senator. Thirty of his Democratic colleagues called for him to step down among increasing allegations that he groped women during photo shoots. In this moment of societal transformation and political polarization, Franken can’t survive.
Last Friday, I wrote a piece that said he should probably resign. I pulled it down after a short time because, while I don’t think he can survive politically, I also don’t think his transgressions reach the level of other harassers or that denying him, or others, some sort of due process is right. I also believe that taking responsibility, as Franken did, deserves some sort of positive recognition.
Franken’s resignation recognizes the political realities of the day. The Democrats have become a party of causes and movements. They’ve staked themselves out as the defenders of the oppressed and marginalized and they’re increasingly a party dominated by minorities and women, reflecting the America of the near future. There’s little room for nuance or gray areas when trying to shift the attitudes and perceptions of a country of 220 million people.
Republicans, for their part, have decided they’ll take legislative victories over moral authority. Instead of believing accusers, they’re defending the accused. They’ve made a strategic decision based on politics. If they can elect Roy Moore and protect Donald Trump, they’re closer to a majority that can transform society in another way. They’ll shift the tax burden more onto the middle class while gutting the social safety net. In short, they believe they can return the country back to the pre-New Deal days of Herbert Hoover and Calvin Coolidge.
Democrats will win the moral high ground, but Republicans will win the economic policy debates. We’ll be a more welcoming and diverse nation with zero tolerance for sexual harassment or abuse. But we’ll be a country riven by the economic inequality that dominated the latter 19th and early 20th centuries.
My hope is that this moment and movement leads to the removal of barriers for women and others to create more opportunities based on their abilities. I also hope that it creates the leaders necessary to take up the next major cause—economic justice for those who fall through the shredded safety net and are left behind by the global economy. And I hope it leads to political defeat for Republicans and moral hypocrites for the next 20 years.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Yeah well, in the comments section of a NYTimes (?) or maybe it was a WaPo (?) artical on this subject, the comments were 100% (?) rage at the senate dems who attacked Franken and vows to primary them and take them down. I think there is enormous support for Franken and zero sympathy for his accusers.
Meanwhile, I think women have just shot themselves in the foot, bigly! We have been fighting for years to convince men thy should let us play in their game. Now we have just demonstrated that their reasons for not wanting us there were absolutely correct.
Nice job ladies!
So many Democrats agree with you.
Then why does the party keep doing it and losing all the time???
The Democratic leadership is another matter. They are spinning the narrative about greater virtue, forgetting that the majority of white woman put Trump in the White House, and Republicans see morality as a character flaw.
DUMB!
The Democratic Party, now smaller, is bursting at the seams with holiness, glowing from the shimmering light of virtue emanating from their Washington caucus.
The long knives came out and the leadership and key members of the party have bled from mortal wounds inflicted by their kinsmen and close friends. And with friends like that, who needs Republicans?
Apparently, the strategic importance of removing those accused of misdemeanors is that now the party holds the high moral ground where they can accuse those guilty of felonies without hypocrisy.
But, first, the revolution must expel the sins that continue to tarnish the glimmer of virtue and banish the remaining offenders – the cheating spouses. Woman and men who have had affairs should take their steps toward the Obelisk of Luxor. This will take courage because it will involve other genders.
If purity is the goal, the senators, journalists, and entertainers must be dogged in the pursuit of rectitude on public display.
The #MeToo movement should begin telling the stories of heartbreak, scandal, and lost families as a result of cheating hearts.
as a political strategy, are you suggesting this will work???
No.