I Don't Think the Moral High Ground Exists Anymore - Charlie Pierce

[octoberlib]

Last edited Thu Dec 7, 2017, 07:47 PM - Edit history (1)

I was going to let Dahlia Lithwick’s angry, lucid account in Slate of the end of Al Franken’s senatorial career speak for me, since Lithwick said everything I felt about this tawdry episode, and probably better than I could. Especially this part:

Is this the principled solution? By every metric I can think of, it’s correct. But it’s also wrong. It’s wrong because we no longer inhabit a closed ethical system, in which morality and norm preservation are their own rewards. We live in a broken and corroded system in which unilateral disarmament is going to destroy the very things we want to preserve.

It seemed fitting that Franken invoked the name of his mentor, the late Senator Paul Wellstone, in his valedictory address on Thursday, because it was his account of the indecent political hijacking of Wellstone’s memorial service by the flying monkeys of the right that first made me think that Franken was more than simply a gifted satirist. Very important people in American politics, and in the elite American political media, most of whom still have their jobs today, lied about what went on at that service. They did so deliberately, and for cheap political advantage.

(This was the funeral after which conservative commentators told America that the crowd was being prompted to applaud because the closed-captioning on the big screen in the hall said, “Applause” when there was applause.)I know they lied about it because my wife and I watched the whole thing on CSPAN and the conservative accounts of it did not match the reality of the service in any way. In his first book, Franken ran all these lying liars to ground and left them there. That was an early example of the broken and corroded system of which Dahlia Lithwick wrote, and that came for Al Franken this week.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a14381583/al-franken-resign-moral-high-ground/




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[scarletwoman]

1. Thank you for posting this.

As an aside, I attended the Wellstone memorial in person - the right wing lies about that event were utterly shocking and disgusting,

[Achilleaze]

2. + 1

[eleny]

3. Sadly recalling the coverage of the memorial

It was shameless. But that's how the right wing rolls and we let them.

[octoberlib]

4. Thanks for commenting. I didn't see it but heard about it.

[calimary]

5. There it is!

"We live in a broken and corroded system in which unilateral disarmament is going to destroy the very things we want to preserve."

Unilateral disarmament. That's what this whole sad, sordid Al Franken hit job is all about. Tactically, it just seems to me like an invitation to get your ass handed to you, again and again. It may be noble to disarm. But not if the opponent hasn't (or won't), also. This shit has gone on too long to compel the benefit of the doubt.

[octoberlib]

6. I feel the same way.

[Paladin]

7. Senator Gillibrand and Tom Perez ought to get "Unilateral Disarmament" tatoos for themselves.

Talk about a perfect phrasing of their behavior, and the behavior of other top Democrats, during the last few days.

[zentrum]

8. Really?

…..depressed today about the eviction of Franken

[BannonsLiver]

9. A withering takedown of moralist dopes.

So good I feel like I need a cigarette, and I don’t smoke.

[byronius]

10. Randi Rhodes had a great take on this today. She and Al aren't friends, but she thinks this sucks.

[dlk]

11. There Were No Winners in the Democratic Party Today

[2naSalit]

12. K&R