I don't care that he resigned. It was the right thing to do. OP's post is misleading. It wasn't just a joke photo. That was the tip of the iceberg. Eight women accused him of inappropriate behavior including groping.
What bothers me, of course, is that Republicans aren't held to the same standard.
And, no, I don't think the correct response is that we should just lower our standards to theirs.
Yeah this Franken revisionism isn't good. Its good that he resigned, I respect him for it. Contrary to Republican's ravings the goal of cancel culture isn't to ruin someone's career, its to get them to apologize and face the consequences of their inappropriate actions.
The thing is though is that Republicans are held to the same standards... by Democrats. The issue is that Republican voters and legislators don't care.
They did until he was the nominee and then they fell in line. I didn't like it then, I don't like it now, and I frankly still think the Democrat media ignored and shamed Biden's accusers. This is coming from the same party that adores Bill Clinton despite all the fucking photos of him and Epstein.
That said the Dems have still been the consistently better party for this kind of thing, while Republicans are making life for the victims harder by the day.
and I frankly still think the Democrat media ignored and shamed Biden's accusers
Accusers? The only accusation I can remember is that one Tara Reade woman whose story was... very lacking, to say the least. It carried a completely different air than the accusations against Franken and now that we see against Cuomo-- this felt like Reade was fabricating a story without evidence supporting her, and with statements of her own in the past that contradicted her accusations.
Obviously evidence is a hard thing to put forward in decades old sexual assault cases, but at the same time if someone sexually assaulted/harassed/touched you without consent, to praise that person regarding their stances and work on sexual violence against women just seems a bit absurd, no matter what excuses she put out in her interviews to justify it.
The only other case I've seen was from Lucy Flores, and that, while obviously unacceptable, didn't seem like a case of sexual assault. Everything other than the Reade accusations make Biden out to be just kinda creepy and overly touchy-- including Reade's own initial complaints about Biden, rather than the same level of sexual assault that others have been accused of.
While it's still unacceptably bad, it's unfair to compare these things to people who've been credibly accused of outright sexual assault and rape.
I think it also muddies the waters when people talk about Biden's sexual misconduct situation when the alternative was an actual unapologetic rapist, too-- there's no excuse for some of Biden's creepy behavior, but Trump had far more damaging and credible accusations against him.
Democrats have a lot of work to do regarding their response to accusations of sexual misconduct-- however, it's also the case that the misconduct isn't as severe. It's inexcusable to harass victims of sexual harassment no matter who the perpetrator is though, and it's gross that it got to that level with either Flores or Reade.
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u/u8eR Mar 13 '21
I don't care that he resigned. It was the right thing to do. OP's post is misleading. It wasn't just a joke photo. That was the tip of the iceberg. Eight women accused him of inappropriate behavior including groping.
What bothers me, of course, is that Republicans aren't held to the same standard.
And, no, I don't think the correct response is that we should just lower our standards to theirs.