A Binary Choice
America has entered a period of “truth and reconciliation.” While many felt that the election of Donald Trump marked the “backsliding” of America to a time when bias, prejudice and discrimination were accepted: we now see the airing of American sins to the public. From actors speaking out against Harvey Weinstein to Diana Nyad speaking out against her former high school and Olympic coach; we are hearing about the powerful taking unacceptable sexual advantage of the powerless.
This should not be a political issue. Weinstein was a high-powered Democratic donor, Bill Clinton was the President of the United States, Bill Cosby made moral proclamations to the black community. This is an issue of the powerful and the powerless. Americans are taking a stand.
This process is also one that could be dangerously unfair. Once the “bell is rung” with the charge of harassment, it cannot be called back. And while there is a presumption of truth to the harassed, accusations can clearly be “weaponized” into a social/political attack tool.
So there is a choice to be made in each of these cases: do we believe the accused harasser, or do we believe the accuser. This is the decision to be made.
In the case of Judge Roy Moore, Republican candidate for Senate in Alabama, there are some factors that work in his favor. His accusers waited almost forty years to bring these charges, and it was the “Liberal-Bezos-Amazon-Washington Post” that brought the story to public view.
This, as opposed to the highly detailed and truthful sounding story of the then fourteen year-old girl, who, with all of the detail of a violent car wreck, told the story of her molestation. And the fact that Moore, while denying her claims, did not deny that he dated teenage girls as the other accusers stated, while an Assistant District Attorney in his thirties. These are the factors that the voters of Alabama should weigh.
It is a binary choice. Either you believe the women, or you believe Moore. What it should not be is to accept excuses and somehow justify Moore’s behavior. Take the completely outrageous statement by Alabama State Auditor Jim Ziegler:
“Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.” Or the “statutes of limitations” excuse, forty years is too long. And Moore’s own excuses, “I never dated a teenager without their mother’s permission.”
Which means – he dated teenagers. It explains why he hung out at the mall and high school events when he was in his thirties. It means that at least some of the charges are true. This, the man who believes homosexuality should be against the law and that Muslims should be denied election to Congress, and who was kicked off the Alabama Supreme Court for putting a five ton marble Ten Commandments monument in the lobby of the Court building. It puts the voters of Alabama into a “binary choice.” Do they vote for a fatally flawed Republican, or do they vote for an even greater anathema – a Democrat.
It puts the Republican leadership in the same position. While most have made the argument that they need to see more facts, they know full well that there are no more facts, and that the decision need be made on the matter as it stands. They too are in a “binary” bind – if a Democrat gets elected from Alabama, they will have only a single vote majority in the Senate. And, if the Virginia elections are any indication, their chances for a majority will be even slimmer after the 2018 elections. They NEED Alabama, but will they swallow a possible child-molester to get it?
It seems like the same choice many Americans made with Donald Trump after the “bus tapes.” The excuse then: Hillary Clinton was just as morally corrupt by supporting her husband. What excuse will they find this time? It’s a binary choice, but I have no confidence that the final choice will be the “moral” one.
