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Michelle Goldberg Regrets Calling for Al Franken's Resignation

Do you agree with Michelle Goldberg's justification for reversing her call for Franken to resign?

  • Yes, but with reservations (explain)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No, but with reservations (explain)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    8

Harshaw

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And she does so, in the New York Times, for unapologetic partisan reasons:

It’s possible that feminists, in trying to hold Democrats to standards that they wish were universal, risk unilateral disarmament. Kate Harding made this case in The Washington Post last Friday, arguing against Franken’s resignation. If Democrats “set this precedent in the interest of demonstrating our party’s solidarity with harassed and abused women, we’re only going to drain the swamp of people who, however flawed, still regularly vote to protect women’s rights and freedoms,” she wrote. And when the next Democratic member of Congress goes down, there might not be a Democratic governor to choose his replacement.

I’m partly persuaded by this line of reasoning, though conservatives mock it as the “one free grope” rule. It’s a strange political fiction that anyone can really separate partisanship from principle. In general, the character of the party that controls the government has a much greater impact on people’s lives than the character of individual representatives. Those who care about women’s rights shouldn’t be expected to prove it by being willing to hand power to people devoted to taking those rights away.

Yet just as there’s a cost for cutting good but imperfect men loose, there’s a cost to defending them from consequences we’d demand if the politics were reversed. It forces feminists to treat our own standards as unrealistic, to undermine our own arguments. Ultimately, however these dilemmas play out, we lose: either the moral high ground or men whom we need, admire and maybe even love.

Even after acknowledging that the case against Franken had gotten worse:

Then I saw the news that a woman named Lindsay Menz accused Franken of grabbing her butt while they posed for a photo at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010, when he was a senator, and I read Franken’s lame non-denial: “I feel badly that Ms. Menz came away from our interaction feeling disrespected.”

Yet I am still not sure I made the right call [for his resignation]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/opinion/harassment-allis-franken.html

Do you agree with her? Do you think putting party over principle is justified, or not?

Something in between?

Explain.
 
I understand her position, but at the same time if nobody holds people like Franken accountable where does the party end up? It does put Democrats at a disadvantage, but it also goes against a pretty big core value in the Democratic party if we try to excuse it away. It's a frustrating issue. A guy like Moore that has a history of preying on teenage girls will probably not be held to account, but a guy like Franken who has of now two incidents that look tame by comparison may be forced out of office. I don't want Franken to resign before a public ethics investigation. Afterwards, I think it would be better for the party if he stepped down.
 
And she does so, in the New York Times, for unapologetic partisan reasons:



Even after acknowledging that the case against Franken had gotten worse:



https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/opinion/harassment-allis-franken.html

Do you agree with her? Do you think putting party over principle is justified, or not?

Something in between?

Explain.
I would argue the same thing I did about the GOP when they were running rampant getting sex scandals-there wouldn't be a problem here if they weren't such hypocrites.

If the DNC is going to demand that people step down after mere baseless accusations, then surely they should demand that these Dems step down when there is actual proof of sexual harrassment as is the case with Al Franken.
 
I love it when the left eat their own, I especially love it when their principles require it.

Same team losers, same team.

I would argue the same thing I did about the GOP when they were running rampant getting sex scandals-there wouldn't be a problem here if they weren't such hypocrites.

If the DNC is going to demand that people step down after mere baseless accusations, then surely they should demand that these Dems step down when there is actual proof of sexual harrassment as is the case with Al Franken.

Believe all women! /s
 
I understand her position, but at the same time if nobody holds people like Franken accountable where does the party end up? It does put Democrats at a disadvantage, but it also goes against a pretty big core value in the Democratic party if we try to excuse it away. It's a frustrating issue. A guy like Moore that has a history of preying on teenage girls will probably not be held to account, but a guy like Franken who has of now two incidents that look tame by comparison may be forced out of office. I don't want Franken to resign before a public ethics investigation. Afterwards, I think it would be better for the party if he stepped down.

I get where you're coming from, but if Moore is elected, he may not be there for long:

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/14/moore-senate-republicans-expulsion-244907
 
Franken is a Democrat so he needs to go. Moore is a Republican, so we can make an exception for him.
 
I dont recall even once finding Michelle Goldberg worth reading.
 
Franken is a Democrat so he needs to go. Moore is a Republican, so we can make an exception for him.

Sadly, you will find a lot of unironic support for that statement.
 
I love it when the left eat their own, I especially love it when their principles require it.

Same team losers, same team.



Believe all women! /s

We know the right doesn't have any principles about coming on to teenagers, why expect the left to be different?
 
Calling for his resignation was dumb to do in the first place. We've got a groper as president, and I'm not currently seeing any serious calls for him to step down on account of that. Nobody should be holding Franken to a higher standard than the president.
 
We know the right doesn't have any principles about coming on to teenagers

Speak for yourself, I know no such thing. I can think of quite a few principles from the right that would contradict that, such as abstinence until marriage.

why expect the left to be different?

Because Hollywood is the left.
 
I get where you're coming from, but if Moore is elected, he may not be there for long:

Interesting article. My take aways:

-McConnell is no stranger to presiding over expulsions of a fellow GOP senator.
-The best outcome the GOP can hope for is that Moore loses in the special election.
 
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I dont recall even once finding Michelle Goldberg worth reading.

I'll pass that along to Michelle at our next meeting of elitists. She'll be heartbroken :)
 
Speak for yourself, I know no such thing. I can think of quite a few principles from the right that would contradict that, such as abstinence until marriage.



Because Hollywood is the left.

So Republicans aren't supporting Roy Moore because of party over principle (direct contradiction of Trump's actual words), and the left should be better because Hollywood is a bastion of principle?

Your grasp on reality frightens me.
 
I'll pass that along to Michelle at our next meeting of elitists. She'll be heartbroken :)

Shhh! The first rule of Gay Witches for Abortion is don't talk about Gay Witches for Abortion.
 
I absolutely support her. Capitol Hill's treatment of women has been going on for decades, it's good that women (and men) are speaking out.
 
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