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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhen they go low how long can we stay high
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/12/the_republicans_have_built_an_uneven_playing_field_of_morality.htmlIs this the principled solution? By every metric I can think of, its correct. But its also wrong. Its wrong because we no longer inhabit a closed ethical system, in which morality and norm preservation are their own rewards. We live in a broken and corroded system in which unilateral disarmament is going to destroy the very things we want to preserve.
You can talk about gradations of harmwhat Franken is accused of still pales next to child predationbut even that is a trap. The point is, as Jennifer Rubin notes Tuesday, that one party has adopted a zero-tolerance position (with Sen. Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, set to go before the ethics committee) and another party opens its arms to people it believes are miscreants. Rubin feels confident that becoming the party of alleged sexual abusers will harm the GOP in upcoming elections (did she live through last November?). My own larger concern is that becoming the party of high morality will allow Democrats to live with themselves but that the party is also self-neutering in the face of unprecedented threats, in part to do the right thing and in part to take ammunition away from the righta maneuver that never seems to work out these days. When Al Franken, who has been a champion for womens rights in his tenure in the Senate, leaves, what rushes in to fill the space may well be a true feminist. But it may also be another Roy Moore. And there is something deeply naïve, in a game of asymmetrical warfare, and in a moment of unparalleled public misogyny, in assuming that the feminist gets the seat before it happens.
More at the link
bagelsforbreakfast
(1,427 posts)LisaL
(44,974 posts)demmiblue
(36,875 posts)Which is why so many are pissed off.
Egnever
(21,506 posts)But I think the article makes some good points just the same.
JI7
(89,262 posts)they can run in 2020 on claims of being morally superior.
madaboutharry
(40,219 posts)Taking the high ground sometimes has impure motivations. It is sometimes just wanting to feel superior. And as far as the whole mess with Al Franken is concerned, I think this may turn out to be a colossal mistake. It is very possible that some right wing nut is going to end up in that seat. Minnesota isn't as safe as people want to believe. So what will Sen. Queen Bee Gillibrand say if that happens? "Well, we may have a senator who wants to reverse Roe v. Wade, gut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, starve schools for money and resources, give tax breaks to zillionaires, and destroy the environment....but hell at least we don't have Al Franken around"
How does that do any good for anyone?
treestar
(82,383 posts)Zero tolerance should refer to those who have been established to have done something.
It's not zero tolerance. It is tolerance of allowing any accusation to be enough.
BaileyBill
(171 posts)it won't stop the Republicans from making stuff up when it's her turn. Hope she has some friends left.