Emetic of the liberal elites
Built up anger of abused liberal women finally breaks through, enabled oddly enough by Trump’s defeat of Hillary.
I can hardly keep up with the daily revelations of yet another liberal entertainment/media/political figure being exposed as an *alleged* sexual harasser and/or abuser.
Not all the revelations have been about liberals (see, Roy Moore), but it seems that there is a liberal self-cleansing mechanism in progress when WaPo, the NY Times, and even Vox are turning on their own after years of looking the other way (or in the case of NBC, spiking the story).
This frenzy could be pure as the driven snow, a well-intentioned attempt to purge the liberal body politic in its many incarnations. Something just seems off, however, about the liberal fervor to drive liberal icons from liberal industries. Why now?
I think there are a few things going on here.
There is honest built-up resentment and anger among liberal women who have been the victims of predatory conduct by liberal men. They were expected to maintain their silence for the liberal cause, because to air their legitimate grievances would call into question the icons of Democratic Party history, the Kennedy’s and the Clintons, and the key funders of liberal causes in Hollywood and the entertainment industry.
Trump’s victory over a Clinton, oddly enough, freed liberal women to stop being silent about liberal male abusers in a way not possible after the Obama victory over Hillary in the 2008 primary. Obama co-opted the Clintons into his camp, appointing Hillary as Secretary of State. Hillary then became the presumptive Democrat nominee after leaving government. There was no breathing room for abused liberal women to escape the clench in which the Clintons held them until Trump’s victory.
That explains why the women are coming forward, but it doesn’t explain the seeming pleasure of the liberal media in telling their stories, and even seeking out those stories. So there must be more going on.
Major media, which has a vested interest in the success of the Democratic Party and the eventual defeat of Trump, knows that defeat of Trump cannot take place until there is a changing of the Democrat guard. The Clintons and vestiges of the Clintons must be purged, and what better way than to portray the party and liberalism as a coming to grips with the past abuses of Bill Clinton as covered up by Hillary. The major media now is acting as something of a truth and reconciliation commission, in which exposure of others in addition to the Clintons is necessary.
Additionally, that purging of the Clintons is necessary for the progressive wing to take over. The Clintons, and all that the Democratic establishment represents, is entrenched even in defeat. The airing of grievances against the Democrat harasser/abuser in chief, and his henchwoman, is necessary for the party to move on to it next, more radical, phase. That more radical phase will have people like Keith Ellison, who is being promoted as a replacement for Al Franken, in leadership.
Last, but certainly not least, is that that having harassers/abusers in their midst hamstrings #TheResistance in its most important life goal, attacking Trump. I’ve seen a lot of liberal media and #NeverTrump Republican types pushing the meme that since people believe the accusers of liberal Democrats, they must also believe the accusers of Trump. I don’t think that will work, but it’s understandable that it’s being tried.
I’m not sure how this liberal purge ends. But it’s long overdue.
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Comments
It is BS that will come to nothing.
This whole kerfluffel is being portrayed as the victimization of women, when the number of female victims is very likely swamped by the number of enthusiastic female participants.
Unless and until the discussion recognizes that women willingly participate in the prostitution culture in Hollywood and DC, that women who do not wish to participate can and should take steps to keep out of it, AND that men who do not wish to participate in it can and should take steps to keep out of it, the discussion will remain meaningless.
The media that jeered at Mike Pence for protecting his own reputation and marriage is the same media that has spiked stories about predators and is now gleefully “outing” men who may or may not be predators.
Yes, which is also another reason, and a compelling one, why they didn’t complain– it was a quid pro quo.
Touche, and Touche, for what both of you have said!
It seems to be fact to me.
That’s not how I read it at all. I think the accusations will be seen as a victory for the women’s movement. That’s the way it’ll be seen by everyone in general because no one will identify the icons as liberals or progressives. They’ll just see them all as patriarchal men that abused women and society has to change to recognize that.
In the little that I have been around the press, it seems that they are more organized than what Professor Jacobson suspects. At this moment, I’m looking for a larger agenda, but I confess that I don’t have a clue as to what that agenda looks like.
I think that they have started a witch hunt, confident that it would take down their enemies, and are now horrified that it is taking down so many of their friends.
Those of us who’ve learned a bit of history already know that the biggest reason you don’t start witch hunts is that they always go quickly out of control, and once they get started there is no stopping them, not until the angry mob is sated and people caught up in it finally get bored and go looking for some other shiny new thing.
History Indeed!
…”just ask Robespierre. Jacobinism is a dangerous game.”
They communicate their “agenda” out in the open over the MSM media airwaves and in print every day.
They want to get rid of Trump, and if that means getting rid of the Clintons and anyone else, they don’t care.
My theory is that because Hillary didn’t shut up and go away after they rigged the nomination process to give Hillary her turn, that the progs sacrificed Weinstein to cut Hollywood support from under her and neuter Bill Clinton (Hillary’s best resource). I don’t think they expected how fast the conflagration would spread. We are a long ways from being done.
By the way, Roy Moore has nothing to do with this. Roy Moore is a classic prog (or eGOP) hit on an outsider. The hit on him would have happened regardless….and nothing against him is provable.
“By the way, Roy Moore has nothing to do with this…”
Amen.
Hey, did you hear about the rumors about mcconnell: he supposedly volunteered at orphanages to help bath little girls. (Heard it from the same source as the Judge Moore source, and the Trump dossier source.)
Time for mcconnell to resign.
I do not see any hidden agenda. It seems there is blood in the water and the climate is more favorable for victims to come forward. My concern is about false accusations and smear campaigns.
Paul,
These people don’t do anything until they get their marching orders from leftists at Harvard by way of the ny times. The left’s leadership has excellent control over its useful idiots in the media.
The game plan: sell-out bill clinton (he’s of no use anymore, being hillary clinton is officially a perennial loser), weinstein, and the rest of them and try and take out Trump in the process.
The left has great control over their useful idiot media and their brainwashed base, but then Donald Trump has a base that is not brainwashed or controlled by anybody but themselves.
Trump is us. We are Trump. If they destroy The Donald, they destroy us. They know it. But worse for them, we know it. And we ain’t going for it.
Touche, and touche!
Back in 2008 during Obama’s “run” everyone on GOP web sites would post and comment on how any surprise turn in the election for Obama would suddenly result in all the Obama Democrat Trolls going silent for days. That is until they got their “marching orders” from the DC Establishment Uni-Party.
RE: “These people don’t do anything until they get their marching orders from leftists at Harvard by way of the ny times. The left’s leadership has excellent control over its useful idiots in the media.”
Yes. It’s not over until due process sings.
One reason women are coming forward is a bandwagon effect — it’s cool to be seen as a victim, and an easy way to get you name and photos in the news for several days.
Would like to hear thoughts on this “more radical phase.”
What are the women going to do when the only men that approach are the ones they least want to interact with?
So now, they’ve allowed themselves to be exploited by abusers. Thus, they have become angry hysterics, and slavishly vote for the likes of hillary clinton.
When they are approached by men they do not want to interact with, they will become angry hysterics, and slavishly vote for the likes of hillary clinton.
Frustrated, they will re-allow themselves to be be exploited by abusers. Thus, they have become angry hysterics, and slavishly vote for the likes of hillary clinton.
In other words, nothing will change.
They shouldn’t be allowed to vote until they start reading articles about themselves:
10 Things You Discover About Yourself When You’re Diagnosed With Borderline Personality Disorder:
https://thoughtcatalog.com/carrie-lynne-davis/2013/08/10-things-you-discover-about-yourself-when-youre-diagnosed-with-borderline-personality-disorder/
I put it to a group that acts on emotions. They preen and protest and say the right things… and now.. under duress , their world is coming unraveled. All it took were a few threads here and there.. and a tapestry of shared “correct” thinking all is unraveling as these societal puritans tear at one another for not being pure enough or out and out heretics to the cause.
This is connected to Trump’s unforeseen victory and the shock and the bad behavior… by any means necessary or the resistance .. there are so many things that are just so.. and yet, the lack of certainty is unraveling the whole mess. And Trump isn’t playing ball… he’s mocking them.. he’s forced so many to completely drop their masks… It’s quite a show of the breakdown of the PC movement and the progressives. It will continue too… the whole mess is coming apart at the seams.
God Bless Trump!
It’s about the right time for Democrats, when they know they are on the wrong side of an issue, to ask for “a national conversation” on sexual harrassment.
This device allows them to shift societal blame to white male conservatives, as if it is they who cause them to commit all these crimes and indiscretions.
Let’s see some actual prosecutions. Public shaming, resignations are just sideshows that will be forgotten.
I want to know about those on Capitol Hill that have had the millions from taxpayers used for hush money. Glen Thrush is a Lush! Sounds like Charlie Rose’s mommy must not have held him enough. What a bunch of wussy weirdos.
This snowball is getting kinda big
We are way past the pastors-touch-little-boys levels of crimes that inspired a decade of lazy comedy routines. I’m curious to see the downstream effects on the culture.
When the Left controls all the Institutions, eventually these institutions reflect that control. Since the Left has controlled the culture for decades, it is no wonder why we are seeing today’s headlines. After all, politics is down stream from culture.
In the past (During the era of the moral majority) many libs shouted with glee as the hypocrites were hoisted on their own petards (Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, etc). We’ve been told that those who espouse family values should always be called out when they act against family values.
Now the party of Womans rights has been shown to have boorish pigs in their midst. The same men who point their fingers in accusation against others are acting worse than frat boys on a bender.
I say to the men: Keep your pants zipped and treat all of your co-workers or constituents with respect.
I say to the women: Dont go to meetings in hotel rooms. Reject all unwanted advances. Dont remain silent so you can prevent the next victim.
I say to all of us: Hold those to account for their actions. Demand proof and demand accountability. Whether its hollywood, washington or in your own job.
The Marxist-Communist left has engaged in the politics of personal destruction without proper prior perpetration. The lid is coming off the D.C. swamp and the stink will be overpowering. Do take note of the doings of the latest revelation, Michigan Rep. John Conyers, a Democrat. There will be many more. Buy popcorn futures.
I was going to note that all of the people reported about so far have been old white men (the youngest, Louis CK, is 50).
Nobody young. No women. No minorities.
Then I saw your comment about Conyers. I Googled him and saw the headline, “Ryan Calls Conyers Report Deeply Disturbing”.
Haven’t read it yet. But my theory that the media were only going to report on transgressions of “old white men” may not hold up now that something is out there on Conyers.
(The far left progressive wing that now controls the Democrat Party hates white men.)
Great Catch and Great Comments……
From that headline I read “Ryan is Really Concerned….”
I am stealing a line from a Legal Insurrection fan:
Best. Election. Ever.
Democracy Dies in Darkness. Remember the oodles of journalists who decided that the election of Trump inspired them to double their efforts to produce quality reporting? Column after column of editors and columnists reassuring us that the Trump administration had taught the journalists that they must do better and be unrelenting in their quest for the truth…
The obvious question of “What the hell were you doing for the last eight years?” was neatly sidestepped, but that’s not important because shut up, you deplorable.
Surprise! It seems that when you finally get around to doing your job, you find dirt in the most interesting places.
Sounds overly subtle and too complex. I suspect the Democrats’ problem is simpler.
They learned from 2008 and 2012 that the “black vote” is reliable, so long as they run a candidate they can pass off as “black”, even a mulatto with no serious exposure to “black culture”.
They also learned from 2016 that the electoral Holy Grail, the “women’s vote”, is not reliable, even if they run a candidate they can pass off as a woman. Women voted for Trump in 2016, and they’ll vote for him in 2020 as well, and for the same reasons—reasons the Dems can’t do anything about.
So sucking up by ballyhooing the “war on women” won’t work for the Dems, particularly since nearly all the grossest abuses recently come to light are by either Dems or solid Liberals. In other words, women’s natural predators are Leftists, and that’s too obvious to ignore.
So, the Party will put the emphasis back on race-baiting and grievance-mongering, continuing Obama’s pioneering work on that front. They want that black vote back, and they’ll have to run a black candidate to get it. But who? They have a while to cultivate one. Harris might be tempting, but I suspect she’s too stupid for even the Dems to think that they can do anything useful with her. So they’ll be looking for someone else.
Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth … the Clintons are definitely an anvil tied around their necks, nothing but liability with no chance of a payoff, so the Party will be trying to cut them loose. If they can take advantage of the current fad for picking on sexual predators, that should be an easy way to do it.
The Clinton supporters in the Party will have to be purged somehow, and newfound concern over Billy Jeff’s career of predation won’t rub off on his sycophants, so they’ll need some more dirty tricks. But I have great faith that the Dems won’t find dirty tricks a challenge.
Oddly enough, Trump is the feminist women have been waiting for. It could have been Sarah Palin. Perhaps it’s better that it’s Trump who is intimately familiar with the environment and culture of social liberalism practiced under a thinly veiled layer of privacy.
Great article by Prof Jacobson. I think that the liberal women who lowered themselves to support Bill and Hillary don’t need them anymore and are anxious to get back up on their hipster high horses to scream racism and sexism and wag their fingers at anyone who supports people-of-the-wrong-kind.
I don’t think this is going to work for them. That they want Franken to keep his office is ruining their stoning party and times have changed.
Mike Pence was ridiculed by the left-wing media for always taking his wife to meetings with women. Now, I suspect that all male politicians, media figures, etc. will adopt the Pence plan for avoiding these kinds of charges.
I’m old enough to remember the 1950s, when the way to get rid of anyone you didn’t like was to accuse him or her of being a Commie. Going back further, Salem, Mass made it easy get rid of a woman by accusing her of being a witch.
Now, the news media have made it easy to get rid of a man by accusing him of sexual harassment. Since no evidence is required, the truth or falsehood of the accusation is immaterial. Just the accusation is sufficient to destroy the target’s career, even if the accusation is decades old or totally preposterous. Forget about the presumption of innocence, he’s guilty until proven innocent, and maybe even after he’s proven innocent.
In the cases where the accusation is true, we as a society must decide whether a stupid word or action (such as the Al Franken photo) should forever prevent that person from holding public office. Is there ever redemption, or do we use Joe McCarthy’s criterion “Once a Commie, always a Commie”? (substitute “sexist pig” for “Commie”) If someone is accused of something, even after decades of public service, is that person rendered unfit for public service, without a trial or any other attempt at justice?
An even more important question is, how do you restore the accused person’s reputation when the accusation is later proven to be false? How do you correct for his losing an election or a job because of false accusations that are later disproved? The news media always report on salacious accusations, but they rarely report when those accusations are disproved.
OldProf says:
“in the cases where the accusation is true, we as a society must decide whether a stupid word or action (such as the Al Franken photo) should forever prevent that person from holding public office.”
No, it’s not going to be that easy. A “stupid action” is not the problem with Franken or Rose or Clintons or their supporters. The problem is the level of hypocrisy by those who have happily pointed fingers and destroyed lives while doing far worse.
This is no different than the Tammy Faye Baker/Swaggert situation. The embrace of Bill Clinton in the second term or embrace of Franken now will leave a BO stench of hypocrisy that will never wash off. It’s not the crime, it’s the hypocrisy.
Valerie is spot-on.
When trumps 12 year old pussy grabbing tape surfaced everyone wanted to talk about misogyny.
I wanted to talk about why women sell themselves. Trump wasn’t talking about all women he was talking about these celebrity groupie gold diggers. I grew up with well so I can relate, so many “normal” women wanted to marry my bank account and we’re willing to do all manner of perverted acts to win my affection. Thankfully for the sake of my soul I was too shy to take advantage of them.
,
When men list the attributes they’re looking for in a mate it’s usually Beauty intelligence and humor. For today’s woman it’s six foot and six figures.
Whores.
Come on Fen! First, I acknowledge your valid point, that many of the women suddenly shocked! SHOCKED! that gambling was going on, were collecting their winnings as they walked out the door.
However, if you are going to cry foul that some women will sell a little piece of their soul to pursue $$uccessful good looking men, then you should be understanding when women cry foul and call men misogynists when they sell a little piece of their souls for women with a large bra and a tiny waist.
There is plenty of guilt to go around. The Franken, Clinton, Rose, etc., etc. outcry is about vicious Hypocrisy.