ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY MY ONLY POST ABOUT AL FRANKEN

Oh, Al.

A few comments:

1. It’s been amusing watching conservatives desperately hoping that the Franken accusations would be a golden opportunity to either get liberals to leave Roy Moore alone or accuse them of hypocrisy by not demanding that Franken resign. As it happens, plenty of Demos have in fact demanded that Franken step down, but then conservatives enjoy watching libs being forced to turn on their own too, and it’s clear by now they’re not going to drop Moore, so either way, they’re probably couldn't be more pleased.

2. Should Franken resign? Maybe, although I think it’s a mistake to equate what he did (stupid sexist joke photo, some forced kissing as part of a comedy routine) with what Roy Moore did (picked up a 14-year-old while her mom was in a custody hearing and tried to have sex with her). It doesn't even put Franken in the same league with Bill Clinton, or even Bill O’Reilly. Also, as I understand it, Leeann Tweeden has accepted Franken’s apology, which to my mind pretty much ends the matter, provided it was a one-off thing.

3. Melanie Morgan claims it isn't – she also made an accusation, but it seems more focused on Franken supposedly calling her up constantly to argue politics. And given Morgan’s history of defending O’Reilly and other Fox News colleagues when they were losing their jobs over sexual harassment and assault accusations, it’s possible she’s basically hoping to throw gasoline on the Franken fire by taking advantage of the current #BelieveWomen trend.

Maybe.

4. This commentary piece from Erin Gloria Ryan does a good job of explaining why this poses a problem for the #MeToo/#BelieveWomen movement currently underway. Once it collides with the conservative propaganda machine out to prove that Roy Moore is the real victim here and that all of his accusers are liars (as are all of the women accusing Trump of sexual harassment and assault), the results could be bad for women:

This Roy Moore Old Testament-Original Sin-Women Are Liars mindset is the worldview that needs to change in order for women to truly have access to the same opportunities that men have. But its opposite—the notion that women must be believed without any evidence whatsoever—will lead the worst among us to exploit the proof loophole and wreak as much damage as they can before their lies are discovered and skewered. At that point, the loophole irreversibly closes. And if that happens, we’re stuck in Roy Moore’s world, where men are the arbiters of morality and if women aren’t lying, they must have been asking for it.

This comes back to what I was saying before: the justice system has arguably failed sexual harassment/assault/rape victims by refusing to believe them and making them go through hell to prove their case – hence the pushback. But simply taking accusations at face value only gets you so far, and we need to think seriously about how to move forward with this. We need that balance that makes it easier for women to be taken seriously when they come forward, but still maintains an impartial (and less traumatic) method for determining the perpetrator’s guilt.

Be careful what you wish for,

This is dF