CSotD: The Attack of the Swifties
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Signe Wilkinson offers commentary on Joe Biden’s current silence, which reminds me of an old piece of cowboy wisdom, “Never miss a good chance to shut up.”
As her cartoon suggests, Trump’s nonsensical comments about disinfectants and his general mishandling of the Covid-19 issue are doing more for Biden’s chances than anything Joe could be doing himself.
Gary Markstein is reasonable, though, in asking why Biden is not emerging as the Democratic voice, criticizing Trump’s mishandling of the crisis as well as issues like the diversion of small business relief into large business coffers.
Biden has produced some podcasts, but I had to Google to find them; they haven’t had enough impact to be cited on any of the social media pages I maintain.
Well, we knew he wasn’t a fire-and-brimstone preacher type like Liz Warren, and my guess is that, if she were the presumptive nominee, we’d have ceiling tiles falling about now.
Then again, she’s not the presumptive nominee, and the question is, who is Biden supposed to be running against?
Technically, he’s still running against that whole oversized Democratic field, since, for financial regulatory FEC reasons, their campaigns are “suspended” and not dead.
They’re only having a bit of a kip, sleeping on their backs as suspended campaigns are wont to do.
However, in apparently unrelated synchronicity, this Super Fun Pak Comic illustrates the friendly fire under which Biden currently operates.
Just as “politically correct” is the insulting way to refer to “common courtesy,” calling someone a “Social Justice Warrior” is how you oppose people who criticize the flaws that keep our society divided and unfair.
And yet “virtue signalling” is a real thing and always has been. There have always been people whose identities were tied up in the political sphere and who see every interaction through that lens.
Granted, my view of “always has been” carries little relevance, given that the median age in this country is 38. What happened in the 1960s might has well have happened in the 1860s.
But virtue signalling was around then, too: One group of Quaker abolitionists tried marketing clothing that contained no cotton, in order to avoid supporting slavery.
Virtuous, but they couldn’t sell enough to stay in business.
So they turned to more pragmatic efforts, and eventually succeeded in forcing the question.
At the moment, the cause celebre for such ideological purists is that Joe Biden isn’t Bernie Sanders, and they not only refuse to support him but continue to oppose him.
Bob Gorrell is not a 20-something SJW, and his opposition to Biden is not virtue signalling but active support for Donald Trump.
Just as Bolling’s SJW is puzzled by the notion that “virtue” is no longer seen as a good thing, so, too, you might be puzzled trying to sort Democrats from Republicans when it comes to the Tara Reade situation.
Both Gorrell and the group I’ve taken to calling the “Swift Boat Democrats for Truth” claim that Reade has not been heard, but, in fact, she got a solid, in-depth vetting from the Washington Post, the New York Times, Salon and other generally left-side-of-the-aisle media.
Which were immediately condemned by the New Swifties as establishment lies and cover-ups, comme il faut.
And her case continues to be examined — by Nation and by Medium and by others — in large part because she and the New Swifties continue to press it.
Just in the past 24 hours, Business Insider, and the Washington Post and, gleefully, Fox News, have dug up new claims, which don’t rise to the levels of “evidence” but, yes, should be heard.
The neighbor’s story is more interesting than other things we’ve heard, but it’s only what Reade claimed a few years after the event. It’s no little blue dress, but, more to the point, it’s hearsay, not a spontaneous utterance.
Reade’s mother’s phone call to a radio show is all but irrelevant: She said only that her daughter was uncomfortable there, not that she was assaulted. A lot of people have been uncomfortable with Biden’s touchy/huggy style, for which he has apologized.
And the brother’s “confirmation” at first was only about similar harassment. He later called the Post reporter back to add the assault, which assumes that, if your sister told you she’d been sexually assaulted, it might temporarily slip your mind. (Really?)
It might also be an example of why witnesses are questioned separately. If I were Lenny Briscoe, I’d pull their LUDs for the time period between that initial interview and the call-back.
People are comparing it to Trump’s bragging about sexual assaults, his sexual hijinx with porn stars and his bribery of sex partners, but that’s not relevant until November.
In terms of “Did it happen?” we might do better to compare it to Bill Clinton, who was elected despite an admitted affair with Gennifer Flowers, after which Troopergate failed to hold water but additional accusations piled up until that little blue dress finally confirmed an unethical but consensual dalliance.
I firmly believe that accusations of sexual assault should be believed.
And I’m aware not only of how many have been unjustly dismissed but of how many have never been told, except sometimes late at night, in tearful confidence.
However, when both Clinton and Trump (and Epstein and Weinstein) were accused, other victims stepped forward. That’s also been true of pederast priests and coaches and other kinds of sexual predators.
Tara Reade’s accusation, meanwhile, is not one I’d take into court, which is why the major media, having examined it, have backed away. Nobody who worked in the office remembers it or believes it, the report she claims to have filed can’t be found and you don’t have to attack her morals — only her politics — to undermine her credibility.
But here’s something I’m sure of: If Biden wins, he’ll only serve one term. After four years of quiet sanity, you can bring on the progressive revolution.
If he loses, the Supreme Court will be packed by 2024 and it won’t matter who you elect.
Dismiss everything else I’ve written, but believe that.
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