Political Irony

If you don’t understand why the #metoo movement is so angry, I suggest you read this short article titled “Everything I can remember“.

As a man, I can only guess what this must be like. I try to relate it to the times I have felt threatened or in danger from others and how that made me feel. But I acknowledge that this is extremely different. I can only try to imagine what it would be like to face such constant harassment.

I do understand how infuriating it must be to have someone elected as our president who openly brags about sexually assaulting women. Someone who not only treats nobody with respect (unless they are actively kowtowing to him), but seems to be giving the assholes of the world permission to act (and speak) on their darkest impulses.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t automatically believe every woman who accuses someone of sexual assault or harassment. Even though by the very nature of sexual assault, evidence is almost always very difficult to obtain, and indeed, even when there is significant corroboration, it is likely to be ignored or dismissed. If a woman has been assaulted, reporting it will all-too-often result in a worse situation, frequently even worse for the woman than the assault itself.

Anyone who asks “why didn’t she report it immediately” is at best an idiot.

I sometimes see #metoo going too far. But I never question the validity of their anger. Just, occasionally, how they express it. After all, if we are told that “boys will be boys” then we should expect that in response, “girls will be girls”. Everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt, not just men.

How to get out of this dilemma? Take reports of assault and rape seriously and investigate them, like any other significant crime. Listen to women and their concerns, and treat these concerns with respect.

I was once involved in a situation where a man was unfairly accused of something by a woman. After investigating, I helped defend the man, even though the woman was a friend of mine and I didn’t know the man all that well. Unfortunately, the social pressure against him forced him to move away to another city.

Yes, it happens. But I believe this is an exception. It just proves that you have to treat both sides fairly. Dismissing the man’s side is just as bad as dismissing the woman’s side.

Unfortunately, we seem to be typically much more willing to dismiss women. Or silence them.

© Bruce MacKinnon

Sometimes, not always, but sometimes I think Donald Trump wants to lose his majority in Congress at the midterms. I know this sounds crazy, but what isn’t crazy now?

Look at it this way. Trump loves to complain about how unfair things are to him. With him as president and having majorities in both houses of Congress, he doesn’t really have anyone he can actually blame. He tries to blame Obama for the mysterious “deep state” that was installed in the executive branch that causes all his problems. He tries to blame Jeff Sessions (his own appointee) for the Russian investigation. He wants someone to blame.

And what does Trump have to lose? Other than the Republican tax cut, everything he has done has been by executive order, something he will still have the ability to do even if Congress turns solidly blue. And with a Democratic Congress he will be able to blame the Democrats for everything.

You might ask, but what about judicial appointments? If the Senate goes to the Democrats, it won’t be so easy to appoint conservative judges. He thought it would be fine if he gets Kavanaugh installed on the Supreme Court, but remember, even if the nomination fails, Trump still has until January to install a conservative, and establish a conservative majority.

The Republicans have never tried to hide the fact that they are doing everything they can to sabotage the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Their hysterical campaign has included a barrage of frivolous lawsuits, purposely driving insurance firms out of markets, withholding reimbursements that were promised by the law, and rendering the individual mandate toothless. And their sabotage has continued despite the fact that Obamacare has steadily become more popular and is supported by a majority of Americans. And unlike the dramatic rate increases of the past, health insurance companies are actually talking about reducing rates for 2019.

And Republicans keep claiming that Obamacare is a socialist takeover of our healthcare system, even though it is nothing of the sort. They willfully ignore that the blueprint of the ACA was first drawn up by the conservative Heritage Foundation, and first implemented by Republican Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts. Yes, that’s right, the Republicans came up with and supported the idea of an individual mandate.

But what Republican sabotage has done is to convince Democrats that a market-based solution like the ACA is simply too vulnerable to right-wing sabotage. So the only safe path to providing health insurance to more people is through public programs, since public programs like Medicare have not only succeeded and are very popular, they have resisted Republican attempts to sabotage them.

So the irony is that the right wing as been completely oblivious to how their uncompromising stand has actually strengthened the case for more left-wing health-care reforms, while undermining the basis for more moderate ones (which were originally conceived of by conservatives).

Next step? Medicare for all! After all, Donald Trump did promise healthcare coverage for everyone.