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A blind eye for Biden

» Silence undermines credibility once again

Matthew Fraser
Opinions Editor

 

f nothing else the COVID-19 pandemic

has made the importance of trustable
leaders much clearer. As the days go by and
people clamour for a sense of solidarity and
direction, it’s important to see the face of
power remain calm, collected, and reliable.
For some people Joe Biden appears to be
exactly that; with more than 40 years of
political experience including eight years
as vice-president, Biden appears to be the
antidote to the Trump inspired misgivings
of the left. Yet, at 77 Biden is beginning
to show the infirmities of his age in what
some observers have viewed as dementia
symptoms.

Worse still, Biden has shown a
propensity for close and often unnerving
physical contact between himself and
any woman who he encounters. At first,
these habits were downplayed as being
hallmarks of an older, overly affectionate but
ultimately harmless uncle. But early last year
eight women came forward with accusations
and even video evidence of his misdeeds.
Biden was forced to backtrack and vow to
do better. Tara Reade, one of the women
who came forward, has recently returned
to major prominence by expanding upon
her accusation against Joe Biden. She now
claims that at one point, Biden pushed her
against a wall, reached beneath her skirt and
sexually assaulted her.

Talk like this should rightfully incense
the modern political sphere and reignite
the #MeToo movement but somehow
Biden has remained unquestioned and, to
a certain degree, unaffected. How could the
unrelenting push for change that was the

Right aint always right

>» Conservatives are wrong to think slow and steady always helps

Matthew Fraser
Opinions Editor

 

A what point does ideology cross
over into dogma? At what point does
one’s adherence to a good idea become
oppressive to others? And in some cases,
when does one’s adherence to their
belief system become detrimental to the
wellbeing of others by way of negligence?
What is often called “right wing” or
“conservativism’” brushes against these
questions (at least from my outsider
perspective) all too frequently. There are
days when what is clearly well meaning
from the people inside the ideology is
interpreted as disregard or even apathy by
those outside of it (Exhibit A: “Thoughts
and Prayers”). Still, it cannot be denied
that there is a lot of goodness or even
righteousness in conservative prudence
and austerity; mated to these benefits
however, is a slow and seeping slide away

#MeToo movement become so impotent in
front of such a serious test?

For one, the COVID-19 pandemic has
given cover for this allegation to slip under;
there has been no better a diversion fora
moral fault than a global pandemic. Even
still, New York Times took 19 days to publish
a story on the assault after Reade made her
story public—in stark contrast to the next
day coverage of the Kavanaugh accusation.
When they did put out a story on Biden, it
was severely neutered and buried 20 pages
deep. In an interview with Ben Smith,

NYT Editor-in-Chief Dean Baquet admits
to altering the story at the request of the
Biden campaign; objective journalism
would never alter or soften a story at the
request of a liberal person, and certainly not
at the request of a republican. And when
confronted about the difference in coverage
between the Kavanaugh allegations and
Biden's, Baquet reasoned that “Kavanaugh
was already in the public forum in a big way,
and that Tara Reade and her story were not.
Are we to believe that being a vice-president
no longer counts as being part of the public
forum in a big way? How about chairing

the Anita Hill investigation; suddenly,
overseeing someone else’s sexual assault
case isn't part of the public forum when it
comes time for one’s own? Not to mention
essentially being the titular democratic
presidential nominee?

As if the media silence wasn't enough,
even government officials have been silent
about the case at hand. At the time of
writing only AOC had acknowledged the
allegations, and in an interview with The
Wing she likened the silence to a form of
gaslighting. As the much-vaunted liberal
saying goes: “your silence is deafening.”

?

from the difficult path that change uses to
lead us to prosperity.

It is clear by just about any metric
that we are living in a better era now than
ever before; whether we consider access
to education, global wealth disparity,
mortality rates, or life expectancy, we are
doing better now than ever before. Yet,
we still live in the era of “Make America
Great Again.” What always seems to lie in
the conservative mind is an hour ora day
of yore when the world was better than
now. Some of today’s conservatives look to
the days of yore when homosexuals were
closeted, and the family meant Adam and
Eve. This long held belief in the perfect
past leads to a simple line of thinking
regarding change: do it so slowly, I'll be
dead before it happens, or kill it with fire.

Astudy conducted by More in
Common showed that conservatives on
average have a better understanding
of liberal policies, ideas, and goals

 

Have an idea for a story?
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The caution and skepticism that prevails
the Reade statement call into question
another oft used liberal call: believe all
women. Suddenly it appears that activists
no longer truly think all women are to

be taken as automatic truth sayers due

to their femininity. It appears that now,
prudence, fact weighing, corroboration,
and skepticism are the way to engage
these accusations. This time, we are not to
immediately yank the path to power and
office from a man accused of sexual assault,
this time we can politely ask a woman

to hold that thought indefinitely or not
publish her story at all. Never mind that
Tara Reade has been able to prove portions
of her story in a manner unlike Blasey
Ford before her, and forget that Reade has
been able to show without a shadow of a
doubt that she was in close direct contact
with Biden as an intern; ignore that family
members recall her recounting allegations
before this public announcement.

than liberals do of
conservatives. However,
in a strange twist of fate,
some conservatives have
coupled an incredibly
clear-headed analyses of
their opponent's desires
with a mind-numbing
ability to apply wrong
and frequently incoherent stereotypes
to their opponent's motives. As someone
who has read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged,
some conservative explanations for liberal
motives look like a caricature of Rand’s
antagonists. People too lazy to work and
all too happy steal from the hardworking,
degenerate knuckle-draggers whose sole
goal in life is to oppose those who wish to
make better for themselves and the world
around them.

Granted, the progressive insistence
on taking from the rich because all wealth
is ill begotten certainly forwards these

¢ How much power can we grant before
we regret it?

¢ Does having no opinion increase quality
of life?

..and more

 

Photo of Joe Biden via Obama White House on Flickr

Apparently, the #BelieveWomen law is
much more flexible than its champions
originally let on.

The “vote blue no matter who” sect
have found a simple and flimsy stance
with which to defend their champion:
he’s hurt less than Trump has. But is that
really the characteristic we want to back
a presidential candidate with? That he’s
comparatively less awful? To put a scale
down and say “eight shoulder rubs and
a little unwanted groping is less horrific
than bragging about pussy grabbing” is to
reassure perpetrators that some access is
still granted while confirming to women
that they are only to be heard when it is
politically expedient for someone else. It’s
this willingness to adjust for the individual
that makes many a liberal seem so odious.
Backing off because ousting an enemy
sometimes requires unsavory actions is a
testament to the highest levels of hypocrisy.

 

impressions, but it’s not the mindset of all.
There are times when caution and
slow change are necessary and even with
that in mind, there are times when no
change is the best bet. Still, those ardently
argue that climate change is not real or that
God sends down sickness and typhoon
to punish us for allowing gay sex are too
opposed to change for the benefit of us
all. And when one’s beliefs are so closely
held that they permit expelling family for
their transgressions, we must question the
importance of those views. Don’t be fooled
though, the left is far from perfect and they
will be the topic of next week’s rant.