I like Al Franken. I contributed to his 1st campaign for U.S. Senate. I hung on every update of the recount against Coleman. I have cheered his success in the Senate and his championing of progressive policies. I have loved his grilling of Sessions.
None of that matters. He must resign for sexually harassing Tweeden. Even if the photo is of him pretending to grope her. Even if the details of the kiss rehearsal are not as bad she, a RWNJ who might be trying to divert attention from Roy Moore, claims. He still has to resign and we Dems and progressives have to hold ourselves to a zero tolerance policy—or the culture of rape, assault, and harassment will never end.
We knew this was coming. We knew that it wasn’t only going to be people we despised who would be accused.
But I am sickened by those who are trying to excuse his behavior. Being a comedian is no excuse. Too much male comedy is sexually demeaning to women. Being on a USO tour is no excuse. It just reinforces the rape culture of the military. This is not a “youthful indiscretion,” it happened in 2006. Franken was already middle aged.
I am especially sickened by those who claim that we should not push for Franken to resign unless Trump does too. Trump is a MUCH WORSE sexual predator. No question at all. But we CANNOT, MUST NOT let Trump set our moral standards. My God he keeps pulling the country down. We cannot let that happen.
No, we set zero tolerance standards and if Trump and the Re-thugs fall below them, the nation will notice.
We either believe in the equality and dignity of women with men or we don’t. We either believe that this kind of shit has gone on too long or we don’t. Never mind what we overlooked in the past. Never mind what Martin Luther King did or what Bill Clinton did or JFK or Ted Kennedy. We let things go that we shouldn’t have—and the abuse of women, and girls (and some men and boys, especially gay men and boys) continued. The aiding and abetting of this culture must stop—no matter what progressive champions get taken down.
I’m sorry, Senator Franken. You have to resign. It ends now—or Democrats are hypocrites.
We progressives and Dems will be held to a different standard than the Re-thugs—we already are. If we own this and hold ourselves to a higher standard then we can help end the abuse—and we might win the nation to our side in the process. Or not. We must be zero tolerance anyway.
We cannot condemn the Trumps and Moores and then defend Franken. Not with integrity. I won’t.