It's the Hypocrisy As Much As the Groping

Last week was a big week for the gropers and, to be fair, accused gropers.  Along with a whole host of Hollywood types, and the ongoing situation involving Roy Moore, the candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama, we were treated to another interesting spectacle involving a sitting senator.

This one involved good old Al Franken, who is somehow a senator from the curious state of Minnesota.  Franken, as you will recall, practiced hard for years to be a senator, by having a career as a comedy writer, which seems odd given that he criticized now-Education Secretary Jeanne deVos in her hearings because she was not a teacher or principal in a public school.

Franken is the person who fat-shamed Rush Limbaugh in a 1990s book, which no one seems to have ever taken him to task for.  And now, this hero of the left has been exposed to the world for having conceded he made unwanted physical and sexual advances at two women in separate incidents (as I write this), and one can imagine that by the time this goes to press there will be more.

That is simply bad, and what Roy Moore is accused of with the 14-year-old girl is also simply bad (though as I wrote, some of what he is accused of with others is simply not).  What Harvey Weinstein did is past despicable, as is what Kevin Spacey (who referred to his hero, and apparent role model, Bill Clinton as "a shining light") did throughout his career as the accusations pile up there, too.

There is a certain feeling we get -- I don't know if it constitutes schadenfreude, but probably -- like when we find out that some pompous TV preacher has had an affair.  We feel that way not because of the affair, which happens in plenty of marriages out there, but because of the innate hypocrisy in a person standing at the altar on Sundays berating infidelity and spending the rest of the week committing it.

I remember the story about a pastor railing against infidelity, screaming and yelling and finally declaring that "If any man here has committed adultery, may his tongue cleave to the woof of his mowf!"  OK, you had to be there.

But I digress, a little.

The left is perpetually dividing us.  I'd link to previous articles where I've touched on that, but there are too many.  Their goal is obvious; the more different constituencies they can invent, well, the more aggrieved parties they can dream up with issues that only government can address.  The more suffering they can invent, the more grievance, the more there is need for a dictatorial, all-powerful government.  And they have to do that in order to destroy the one great global bastion of government of the people -- the USA.

In their dividing, they actually start with gender, specifically that we are a male-dominated society and women are repressed and have major grievances.  Hillary Clinton walked a tightrope between being the candidate of the party of the left and having to pound "women's issues", while being a utero-American herself and trying not to be "just" about her being female.  She, of course, fell off that tightrope, as we recall, and is still hollering from the safety net.

One way or the other, the Democrats became the ones touting "women's issues" (except, of course, for unborn women, same as they feel for unborn black people).  They knee-jerk jump to defend women accusing men of rape, even after, as was the case when Jackie Coakley made up the whole UVa  fraternity-party rape story, the made-up ones are debunked.  We know that's true because the Washington Post still, after so many months, refuses to print Miss Coakley's last name (it's "Coakley", or at least was before she got married).  That is even though not only is she not a rape victim, but is a pathological liar whose lies ultimately cost many people reputation and money.

The left is like that.  That's precisely why, when their own heroes like Franken are exposed as serial abusers, with pictures to prove it, there is an added element of hypocrisy to add to their sins.  Much like the pastor with the cloven tongue, the Frankens and Spaceys of the world are not just sexual predators, but hypocrites for pompously telling others what they should not do, or ignoring the sins of their heroes, while privately engaging in the same actions themselves.

Franken proactively having a picture taken of his actions is pretty contemptible itself, but to claim to speak to women's issues ever again, well, he's going to have to make some kind of speech that absolves himself, and it won't be pretty.  Imagine some Cabinet member testifying before a Senate committee he is on.  Imagine Franken asking an accusatory question about the secretary's actions or qualifications.  Imagine how one secretary with a quick tongue could verbally dissect Franken in a moment for his actions and his hypocrisy.

Maybe we're better off with him staying in the Senate and being permanently weakened until the next election.  Hopefully by that time the people of Minnesota will come to their perpetually-frozen senses.

We have enough hypocrites in Washington already.

Copyright 2017 by Robert Sutton
Like what you read here?  There's a new post from Bob at www.uberthoughtsUSA.com at 10am Eastern time, every weekday, giving new meaning to "prolific essayist."  Appearance, advertising, sponsorship and interview inquiries cheerfully welcomed at bsutton@alum.mit.edu or on Twitter at @rmosutton.