Why have the Democrats’ problem men learned all the wrong lessons from Republicans? rtraister writes
Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images Recently, I’ve been reading about a hypnotically ugly — and sad — political mess that serves as a parable about the current state of power in this nation.
Early this year, Leach was accused of having forced a 17-year-old to perform oral sex on him back in 1991, when he was a 30-year-old attorney defending the minor on a murder charge. At that point, Leach did cede his role as the chairman of the state’s judiciary committee, but he also sued his accuser for defamation. This spring, a Pennsylvania school district disinvited Leach from a discussion of education policy.
Leach’s unwillingness to budge is one of several dispiriting stories — certainly not limited to Pennsylvania — that make clear that all the Democrats seem to have gleaned from these years of autocratic power--grabbing is the very worst lesson: how to cover their own asses and get away with exactly the kind of bad behavior that the party is supposed to be intolerant of.
In early June I watched Virginia governor Ralph Northam, standing alongside Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax and Attorney General Mark Herring, announce that in response to the mass shooting in Virginia Beach, he’d be recalling the legislature for a special summer session to enact stricter gun-reform laws. “We must do more than give our thoughts and prayers” was Northam’s message. “We must give Virginians the action they deserve.
He did not. And on the final day of the state’s legislative session, he gave a speech in which he compared himself to victims of lynching in his state, many of them black men falsely accused by white women of sexual misconduct, in which he failed to acknowledge that both of the women who claim he assaulted them are black.
Of course, “doing it wrong” presumes that the “right” outcome is evading oversight and censure from the left, vilifying and discrediting critics and colleagues, acting like the victim, thereby hanging on to your job. So the big lightbulb for Democrats appears to be that the one neat dictatorial trick to maintaining their power is simply to not cede it.
Becoming oversight- and penalty-resistant — simply by driving forward through credible allegations that once might have been damaging but which you frame as fraudulent and malevolent with such conviction that even your opponents throw up their hands in wan defeat — makes more sense for politicians on the right.
The United States may pride itself on being a nation built around mechanisms meant to keep the politically powerful in check. But the claim that either party truly holds itself to a system of checks and balances in the face of individual misbehavior has always been shaky; corruption and illegal behavior have extended throughout history and across party lines; the nation has dynasties and nepotism and political machines that have protected the guilty.
Uresti finally resigned in June 2018, one week before being sentenced to 12 years in federal prison; Miles is still a state senator and responded to the harassment allegations against him with a statement that characterized his critics as “powerful enemies who will go to any length to destroy and disrupt my service.”
What all this reinforces is that what is important seems to be power for power’s sake, not power on behalf of making more resources available to more people; not power on behalf of simply doing the right thing.
México Últimas Noticias, México Titulares
Similar News:También puedes leer noticias similares a ésta que hemos recopilado de otras fuentes de noticias.
What Men Can Learn From Sex and the CitySexAndTheCity superfan desusnice on why Carrie deserves Big, Berger breaking up with Carrie using a Post-it, and feeling sympathy for Steve
Leer más »
Here’s Why You Get Heartburn All the Freaking Time NowAs you get older, a few factors can come into play that make acid reflux worse and can contribute to heartburn.
Leer más »
Witch Finger, Teardrop, Cotton Candy? These Are Grapes?!These are grape names btw. (And yes, grapes have names)
Leer más »
Three People Talk All About Their Favorite TattoosPlus, why Lake Bell has triangle tattoos on her shoulders.
Leer más »