General Discussion

If it is necessary, yes, I will vote for Kirsten Gillibrand. However, I will take no pride in that action.

As for Franken, he was essentially being put in the position of answering the question, "When did you stop molesting women?" It was close to a no-win situation for the man, and he did his best for the greater good when he chose to resign.

Franken has been criticized for his responses towards his accusers. If he had flatly stated that any one of them was lying, he would have been employing the tactic used by genuine sexual predators. Some say that he didn't really--truly--apologize. Again, like the loaded question above, a seriously remorseful apology would have been an admission of guilt, which would have been an untruth.

Franken was walking the careful line of respecting the #MeToo movement and the enormous, completely real issue of sexual assault and the abuse of power that proceeds sexual harassment and sexual misconduct.

Yes, women need to be believed. Yes, men need to be held accountable. And yes, women--being human beings--can sometimes misconstrue, misrepresent or outright lie. This statement does not make me a bad feminist or a self-hating woman.

We all know that children have been the victims of sexual abuse. We all care about this issue. We also know that people's reputations were ruined during the Day-care sex abuse hysteria that took place 30 years ago. Some of the people hurt were the children being prodded and manipulated psychologically during the investigations. Other people hurt since then may have been children who were not listened to or believed by people wary of being caught up in such unfounded thinking a second time around.

We care about women. We care about sexual harassment, sexual assault and abuse of power. We also care about truth. Al Franken was not served with truth, and sexual abuse victims everywhere were not served by the distortion of truth and the abuse of power that targeted him.

I am including a link to an article that I strongly disagree with because I am not sure how to articulate my points of disagreement. Perhaps someone else can do a better job.


https://www.vox.com/2018/5/21/17352230/al-franken-accusations-resignation-democrats-leann-tweeden-kirsten-gillibrand