("Franken Should Go")
It sickens me to think that Al Franken, by all apparent measure, a decent person and dedicated and serious politician, would end up on the trash heap while Donald Trump, who possesses none of the good qualities of Mr. Franken, remains unscathed despite a lifetime of aberrant behavior.
There must be degrees of sexual impropriety, Republican or Democrat, new or old, when we consider and before we condemn. There must also be context. Mr. Franken's egregious act seems, for the moment at least, isolated. It was not done as a private attack, but a public joke, ill conceived as it was.
There are Anthony Weiner's, Roy Moore's, Donald Trump's, Kevin Spacey's, Harvey Weinstein's, even Bill Clinton's. Men whose lives are replete with episodes of wrongdoing, that speak to a pervasive corrosiveness, that demonstrate time and again a failing at the core, who commit assault as the very nature of who they are.
But that does not appear to be Al Franken. He seems a comedian who seriously stepped over the line and for that he has admitted he violated another and gave his mea culpa.
For me, it is a matter of degree. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Don't create a frenzy in which everything is a first degree crime. Whether it is Al Franken or some Republican politician for whom I have no love, let us use our better judgment in deciding who deserves the guillotine.
6 comments:
don't agree with you on this one. wrong is wrong in cases of sexual inpropriety lois
My intention was not to excuse his behavior, but merely to suggest that there are varying degrees of wrongdoing and we should not equally punish all of them (the underlying article calling for Franken to be removed from office).
PS - I had hoped Franken would be the Democratic nominee in 2020 and maybe this colors how I view his transgressions
I agree with Robert. There are indeed varying degrees of wrongdoing, and Franken has admitted he made a mistake, and has asked the Senate Ethics Committee to review the situation and make whatever recommendations they will make. This behavior is far more exemplary than Mr. Trump, Mr. Moore and others.
I agree w your sentiments.
G
We can not have a world where there is either purity or death.
I agree and hope that Franken's behavior was not a serial event. He is on the right side of history and we need him to remain in office.
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