Two women have accused former vice president and possible 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden of inappropriately touching their bodies and hair. Serious accusations but the real dirt on Biden is even worse.
Joe Biden Was Also a Victim of Inappropriate Touching
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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Yeah,the times they’s a changin’
My parents were much more comfortable with flirty banter than my generation. (And we’re the ones with the sexual revolution – go figure) Laying a hand on a stranger’s shoulder as a sign of camaraderie or sympathy was more common when I was younger, and nobody took it as an assault.
I was recently at a party hosted by neighbors I’d never met before. At the end the hostess came up and said “I’m from the South, we hug” and proceeded to do so. We’d shared maybe a dozen words over the course of the party. I don’t *think* I was sexually assaulted, I think it’s just a different viewpoint.
So … Joe? I don’t think he’s a monster. I think he’s unaware at how sensitive society has become. Awareness of sexual impropriety is definitely important, but over-sensitivity is no good either. Most pack / group animals embrace and touch each other – maybe it’s humans who’ve got it wrong. Again.
I recall an article from way back when in which a woman, who had been raped, reported that when she got to the hospital, the staff simply would not believe her when she said she was okay. “Oh, honey, don’t you realize? You’re now a victim, and you must only identify as such, and will be forever and ever. If you don’t agree, it’s because you’re, frankly, out of your mind. Oh, rape is absolutely always completely destructive to the victim, and no one can recover from it except through decades of constantly being told that it will take decades to recover, if ever.” Or words to those effect.
Her point was a good one. She wasn’t (nor am I) saying that rape is a paper cut, but she was raising the objection that–like with many other hospital experiences–she was not allowed to have full agency of her own emotional state. Her experience with how she felt was dismissed. Here, put on these pajamas, sit in a room, wait for the adults to show up, answer questions, shh shh shh, hush, we’ll do the thinkin’ for ya, darlin’.
The current binary nature of the discussion–if it can be called a discussion–renders the whole exercise somewhat useless: you either snatch up a pitchfork and scream for blood or you keep your mouth shut (or you’ll be next, friend).
I dislike Joe Biden because he’s got so much blood on his hands. And his political record does not seem like that of a moral being or of a highly thoughtful person. But, once again, the thing everyone’s up in arms over isn’t something that can be empirically accessed. We’re into hanging-chad reviews of videos and arguments about whether the woman in question is disgusted, pleased, nonplussed or nonplussed (because it now has two contradictory meanings).
To Alex,
It appears that you are assuming the role of the hospital staff of your opening story toward the women who have complained about Biden.
Instead of, however inadvertently, ignoring these complaints (and, thus, in effect, condoning Biden’s behavior) why not simply put ALL of Biden’s disqualifications on the table together in one, large, putrid pile and eliminate him from the running once and for all?
It is completely arbitrary to suggest, for any candidate, that one set of behaviors is relevant and another needs not be addressed. He’s a multi-faceted turd and that fact needs to be made clear.
Note: I am in NO way suggesting that achieving the obvious need of finally retiring Biden guarantees that the Dems will then choose a valid, legitimate candidate.
Actually, I don’t think I’m taking the staff POV. Unless I’m misremembering, several women have actually stated that although Biden has touched them in the past, they did not feel it was inappropriate. They, of course, are simply so traumatized as to be incapable of being believed. Other women who have not made statements but who show up on videos that are displayed to show “the problem” do not look, in the least, upset by Biden’s actions.
But this is all getting away from the purity of simply branding Biden a serial predator and a creep because he’s a little too tactile. I’d love it too if all of Biden’s disqualifications–his voting record, his revenue sources, etc.–were put on the table. But once again, the MSM’s machine avoids the straightforward evaluation and goes for the thing that can devolve into a squabble that eats up lots and lots of time. Mustn’t have enough time left over to finally discussion Israel/Palestine.
Over to Ted for the weather on the 9’s.