Jay Kuten: Power without due process

FALLEN STAR: Once a rising Democratic star, Al Franken is set to resign from the Senate following alegations of sexual misconduct. PHOTO/ AP PHOTOS

Facing evidence of global warming's effects in three devastating hurricanes and California wildfires visible from space, Republicans, in majority, are stealthily reforming taxes to benefit the 1 per cent and simultaneously punishing renewable energy schemes and rewarding fossil fuels.

Not content with the ultimate destruction to democracy by increasing income inequality, Republicans (my former party) are fiddling with taxes falsely claimed to benefit the middle class while the country literally burns.

Meanwhile, Democrats, powerless in their minority role, are enacting Goya's depiction of Saturn in devouring one of their own.

A campaign which began with legitimate calls for consequence for sexual predators has devolved to one of moral absolutism and false equivalence that makes no distinction between behaviour that is crass from that which is criminal.

Every society needs to work out the ground rules of gender interaction. Manners exist to create safe social barriers, and there are remedies when borders are crossed, either mistakenly or deliberately. The criminal sanctions apply for the latter, and it used to be that the former was met by some degree of reprimand, not life-changing status and job loss.

Minnesota Senator Al Franken is a former comedian, turned serious, hard-working supporter of women, minorities and the disadvantaged.

His rising star contained plausible credentials as a presidential contender. Then he was accused by former entertainer and Playboy model Leeann Tweeden of having forced an unwanted kiss during a performance for military personnel in 2006, before his senate run.

Six other women, three anonymously, accused Franklin of behaviours that were crude but not criminal. These accusers are perhaps believable but may be tainted as they are acknowledged Trump supporters.

Franken apologised to Tweeden and agreed to co-operate with an ethics committee investigation which would have allowed him to face his accusers and for the facts to be established.

That investigation would have provided natural justice (due process) with a search for just outcome. Senators all take an oath to the US Constitution, whose explicit terms and principles contain safeguards of due process, the right to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty and the right to face one's accusers.

Instead, 30 Democrats, led by New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, pressured Franken to resign immediately.

The rationale for their unseemly haste, as given by Gillibrand, is to enable Democrats to have "the moral high ground" wherewith to criticise the sexual predations of Trump, an admitted sexual assaulter, or Senate candidate Roy Moore, an accused paedophile.

The moral high ground and politicians is oxymoronic. When I hear politicians use that phrase I open the safety tab on my anti-nausea pill-bottle — especially in the US Congress, where the running stream of pollution from corporate lobbying offers no high ground, moral or otherwise.

Gillibrand has occupied Hillary Clinton's senate seat since Hillary left for the State Department. Her actual legislative accomplishments are few and she has tried to distinguish herself in the sex field through an unsuccessful campaign to have the Department of Defense allow an independent panel to judge military members sexual assault allegations.

Many of her constituents might have been better served had she expended equal energy to get the Department of Justice to convict and jail the Wall Street crooks whose assault on the financial system cost a lot of New Yorkers — and other Americans — their jobs and homes and savings. Never mind.

Gillibrand is burnishing her credentials for ruthlessness in time for 2020. Something in that senate seat makes its occupant eager for higher office, much higher office. And if you google Gillibrand's name the second link that pops up is Gillibrand 2020.

A growing angry opposition sees Franken's removal in political not moral terms.

Gillibrand has removed a potential rival and made herself seem the champion of women.
Her denial of due process to Franken is seem by critics as a raw grab for power. The backlash may be beginning already with two new mantras being tweeted: #Never Gillibrand and #No Resignation Before Investigation.

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