The Democrats’ Reade dilemma
Tara Reade’s accusations against Biden have presented the Democrats with a serious dilemma when they can least afford one. At first glance, it seems that if they wish to be consistent they must choose either a “believe all women” position – which would mean they have to jettison Biden – or a “due process” position, which would mean they have to disavow their dreadful treatment of Kavanaugh. Of course, they wish to do neither, and yet they probably don’t want to risk being exposed as principle-discarding hypocrites, especially with the potentially angry MeToo crowd.
That letter to the editor from Martin Tolchin that I wrote about the other day offers a third way, and the Times spread the word by publishing his letter. Tolchin’s letter cuts the Gordian knot and proudly embraces the contradiction through claiming allegiance to the highest principle of all in the minds of the left: getting rid of the enemy Trump. His message is the necessity of discarding abstract principles, because the only allegiance is to victory at any cost.
And to Tolchin, that is true no matter what Biden’s shortcomings or even crimes may be. Biden’s not Trump, and if that’s good enough for a formerly-respected journalist such as Tolchin, the Times is letting its readers know that it should be good enough for them, too.
That approach is mostly a suggestion to voters; it would be harder for Democratic politicians to fess up to the need to discard whatever principles they pretend to have. They’re in a hard place no matter what, but with the protection of the MSM – which will either make excuses for them or pretend there’s no contradiction – they forge ahead. One example of this is long-time Senator Dianne Feinstein, whom you may recall was instrumental in the Democrats’ Kavanaugh caper:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), however, is traveling on a different path in all this. Manu Raju, in a rare act of actual journalism for a CNN reporter, got the longtime Senator and prominent Biden supporter/booster to go on the record Thursday with her thoughts on Reade’s allegations. And boy, were they something.
Here’s the Twitter thread Raju posted:
Dianne Feinstein, ranking Democrat on Senate Judiciary, argued to us that the Kavanuagh situation is “totally different” than the Tara Reade allegations against Biden. "Kavanuagh was under the harshest inspection that we give people over a substantial period of time.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 7, 2020
“And I don't know this person at all who has made the allegations. She came out of nowhere. Where has she been all these years? He was Vice President,” Feinstein said. She touted his record and then said “to attack him this way to me is absolutely ridiculous.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 7, 2020
"Why didn't she say something — you know when he was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee or after that?" Feinstein rejected the notion of a Dem double standard and argued the situation isn’t “comparable” to Kavanaugh
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 7, 2020
“I don’t know this person at all.” That is absolutely priceless, a jewel that looks beautiful from so many different angles.
The partisan Democrats I’ve encountered deflect madly or just lie when presented with this contradiction.
Yes it is, Dianne. It is entirely comparable. But not to you, because you refuse to make the comparison.
So this is not about comparability, it is about hyper partisanship. I believe that is your middle name.
The old comment to the effect “it’s a good thing she has double standards, or else she’d have no standards at all?” That was first said about Dianne Feinstein. Trust me — it’s in the internet.
The new meme now that we have an issue with the old one is that Kavanagh was actually guilty. So it’s not comparable.
The Mollie Hemingway book on Kav’s ordeal is an excellent account of how flimsy the Dem charges were.
DiFi’s response is breathtaking.
If Biden actually did it, how is he any better than Trump?
The TDS has gotten so bad that it doesn’t matter how immoral another person is, as long as he or she isn’t Trump.
Even if you think Trump is a bad person, he’s not the first bad person to become President and he won’t be the last. He’s not even the first in our lifetime. A lot of people who get elected to higher office are narcissists, sociopaths, or just plain nasty people. “But he’s a racist/fascist/Nazi!” Trump is much less racist than many, probably most Presidents this country has had. He’s also been a friend to African-Americans and the Jewish community, which is very odd for an alleged Nazi. Under his administration, we are seeing massive deregulation and appointments of judges whose views of the Constitution will lead to many liberty-oriented results – very odd for an alleged fascist. You can point out some things he’s said that sound fascist, but you can point out some things his opponents say that sound fascist, too.
The level of TDS that would lead people to support Biden whether he’s a sexual predator or not, whether he’s mentally fit or not, just because he’s running against Trump proves how irrational opposition to Trump really is. It’s not about fascism, Nazism, racism, or morality in any way. It’s about Trump.
I don’t think Biden will be the nominee. They’ll let him shamble about, being very senile, then dump him at the appropriate time, to be replaced by some great prog hope- perhaps yet undetermined- but certainly without that baggage and who also hasn’t been subject to decades of public scrutiny.
I expect this will happen as late as possible- at or just before the convention, perhaps- but with the intent of it being too late for the Trump campaign to tell the public what that person actually believes.
I also expect this will be coordinated to occur just when the leftist-controlled media decides things Trump says and campaign ads he wants to run are just too full of badthink to be allowed to be seen by the public.
In other words, they’ll attempt to pole-vault an otherwise unelectable candidate into office by deceit. Again.
The Tara Reade story gives them an easy excuse, at any time needed. They’ll simply stonewall until they decide it’s time to throw Biden off the train, then piously intone about believe-all-woman.
They were working hard the whole time to find the truth- and finally they discovered Biden needed to go- just like Trump needs to go!
Xennedy:
I believed the same thing for a long time. Now I have doubts, because Bernie Sanders has the second-most delegates. The party has already stolen the nomination from Bernie once. If they do it again, he might just do something drastic, like leave the Democratic caucus! There! Take that, Democrats! I’m outta here!
See? Now there’s a threat with real teeth in it. \sarc off\
shadow,
It’s not all about Trump, mostly it’s about the deplorables who had the audacity to vote for him instead of HRC. How dare you!
“I also expect this will be coordinated to occur just when the leftist-controlled media decides things Trump says and campaign ads he wants to run are just too full of badthink to be allowed to be seen by the public.” Xennady
That would provide an excellent rationale for pulling their broadcasting licenses. Shut them down and charge them with violating the President’s freedom of speech.
There is a PSA called Enough in which “famous” actors say the phrase “boys will be boys” over and over regarding men covering up sexual harassment while saying this.
Growing up, this phrase was used to explain why boys were more rambunctious and causing trouble rather than harassing girls so it causes a disconnect for me when this comes on.
When I saw it the other day, every time they said “boys will be boys” I flashed back to Nancy Pelosi saying “Joe Biden is Joe Biden.” It’s another way to deflect the charges against him.
I don’t know if they are true or not but they should be investigated which hasn’t happened. But the “progressives” must be held to their own standard, which is to believe them entirely and require Biden to recuse himself.
Anything else is truly hypocritical and needs to be shouted from the rooftops forever.
It’s absurd that Joe Biden is the Democratic nominee. Here the Democrats have the perfect reason to ditch him as a candidate and they’re not doing it. The Dems used to be the party of the bureaucrats and the party of the union leaders. Union leaders were also bureaucrats but they had to have a feel for electoral politics. With globalism, the unions lost their leverage and the Democrat power base is the ever expanding bureaucracy. And the thing about bureaucrats is that they don’t care about public opinion. In fact, the best way for a bureaucrat to exhibit power is to support that which is unpopular. So for the bureaucrats, Biden is the perfect candidate. But is he electable? No. In this age of ballot harvesting does that matter?
Now I have doubts, because Bernie Sanders has the second-most delegates.
Election results mattering? How quaint. I literally didn’t even think about Sanders or the delegate count when I was writing that, because we’re talking about Democrats. There is no particular evidence that the party establishment respects election results unless they get their desired result and no particular evidence that rank-and-file dems care either. They’ll roll over and do what they’re told by their wealthy masters anyway, so they’ll accept whatever candidate is set before them, delegate count be ****ed.
That would provide an excellent rationale for pulling their broadcasting licenses. Shut them down and charge them with violating the President’s freedom of speech.
If we had a non-leftist party that was capable of or willing to do that, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I note the gee ohh peeee controlled all branches of government 2017-2019 and did nothing to defend itself or its constituents from leftist censorship. It seems the left has simply been able to outsource tyranny to their private sector friends, having failed so far to use the government for that purpose. A functioning opposition would object, but not the Republican party.
In this age of ballot harvesting does that matter?
Maybe this is it. Maybe they figure their capability for vote fraud is finally thorough enough that it doesn’t even matter if their candidate can remember his own name. They’ll just run the government via a council of billionaires with Joe as a sort of mascot.
Interesting times…
Of course the treatment of Biden under allegations, and Kavanaugh under allegations, and Trump under allegations; and Weinstein plus other #MeToo targets. They’re all comparable.
Men accused by women of sexual harassment.
How the men respond is comparable, but the evidence about the allegations is also a subject of comparison.
When the allegation evidence is compared, that’s where Ford is very very weak, yet Tara Reade is quite strong.
For many Dems, the only goal is removing Trump.
For now.
But not really.
It’s not about fascism, Nazism, racism, or morality in any way. It’s about Trump.
There was Bush Derangement Syndrome (all about Bush), and Kavanaugh hate (all about Kavanaugh), and Trump DS (all about Trump).
No.
Democrats are deranged, and it’s all part of Democrat Derangement Syndrome against any and every conservative, pro-life, Republican.
Many feminists are against the sexist culture that allowed so many powerful men to harass so many women for so many years. There’s real anger at real harassment. Many feminists slightly mentioned how they shouldn’t have been protecting Pres. Bill Clinton from his adultery and lechery. This is another wake up call — how to change the culture.
Most want to keep hating Reps more than change the culture, but some will stop supporting Biden.
The democrats do not have a “Reade” problem. With connivance of the media (i.e., the propaganda organ of the demokrat party) the non-problem will simply be ignored and will disappear.
A good example of this is the “interview” by Mika Brezinski (the brainless, mostly silent airhead of Morning Joe, who got the job because of her father) in which Joe denies all, and…..well, there you have it.
Case closed.
No “journalists” dumpster diving for documents – as they did with Sara Palin, – no Mika interview of Reade, etc. etc.
Of course, if the propaganda organs (don’t you love that term, “organs;” it was always used by the Soviets) of the demokrat party do in fact interview Reade, I refer you to the youtube videos of Roland Freisler – see here https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=snxMa_1552777250 – to get a good idea of the reception and objectivity she can expect from “journalists.”
The ONLY potential problem the dems may have is the obvious senility of Biden. This will be handled by making sure he does not debate Trump or by keeping Biden under wraps or by making sure all his incoherent utterances are edited out of his pre-recorded statements.
If he is replaced, the dem insiders will chose whomever they desire, irrespective of the delegate count or what Crazy Bernie the Communist demands.
Like the Soviet Central Committee, the party elites will determine who’s who and what’s what.
Speaking of that icon of liberty and freedom, Crazy Bernie, recall how he said waiting in line for food “was good.”
For the first time for most of us, we have now had the grand opportunity to wait in line for food.
But unlike those poor souls in the former USSR, the Eastern Bloc or present day Cuba, Venezuela, etc., as we stand in line, we at least get colorful pavement stickers or markings upon which to stand and contemplate our good luck.
If the Dems think they can win with Biden they’ll ignore Reade. If they think they’ll lose they’ll use Reade to dump him.
Under what circumstances might they keep Biden? Perhaps if Michelle O is his running mate.
Under what circumstances would they dump him? If a better candidate shows up. That is if Joe’s running mate won’t help much and a blue state governor is willing.
Not that Reade’s allegations alone should disqualify the candidate. But given Biden’s multiple seemingly catastrophic issues, it’s astounding that he remains the presumptive nominee.
But sure, let’s stay the course with him and see where this goes. It’s hard to stop a train, harder still to look away from a train wreck.
Of course the Left has no principles. They demonstrated that in a searing way when they embraced Islam and made the Muslims a protected class right after 19 Muslim terrorists burned 3,000 Americans alive: the Left’s new heroes! (Victims who weren’t Americans were regarded as unfortunate by-catch).
Every principle the Leftists claimed they championed — women’s rights, gay rights, Human rights — they discarded to embrace the most misogynistic, patriarchal, homophobic, and violent ideology on the planet.
All because the Muslims hate America and free people as much as the Leftists do.
Like O’Brien said in “1984”: “The purpose of power is power.” (Worth noting here that Orwell was a Fabian socialist himself.)