For starters, Democrats were prepared to lynch Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on far slighter evidence than Tara Reade has brought against Biden. First off, three witnesses recall having conversations where Reade expressed related concerns not long after Biden's purported assault; to one she confided the alleged assault itself. Additionally, there's the worried, if vaguely detailed, contemporary phone call Reade's mother made to the Larry King Live show. Finally, I noticed one striking corroborating detail that hasn't received attention elsewhere: the words Reade attributed to Biden as she was (purportedly) pushing him away. "Come on man, I heard you liked me" sounds so much like Biden's speaking style that Reade would require the talents of a world-class novelist to invent it. (Of course, her being an admiring staffer who hung on his every word might alternatively account for her spot-on accuracy in replicating his unique "voice print.")
Knowing Biden's documented history of inappropriate touching, the details just cited make Reade's allegations at least credible. And, it would hardly be the first time the fatal male "fire triangle" of power, lust, and opportunity, dating at least to King David, erupted into flaming misdeeds. For Democrats so professedly ready to embrace the Me Too standard of "believing women"--especially in Kavanaugh's case--the hypocrisy surrounding Biden's is absolutely breathtaking.
For a great summary of all of this, read the new story in The Nation. Given The Nation's longstanding stature as an iconic liberal publication, its keeping alive and crediting Reade's allegations may very well serve as a wake-up call to liberals that Biden needs to be toast. But even if that happens, the validity of the finger-rape metaphor (for reasons we shall soon explore) remain as strong as ever.
But another aspect of Democrats' hypocrisy is far more damning. For reasons that partially track my own (but are considerably shallower), the Dem establishment has long tried to persuade us that Trump is Hitler incarnate, and then some. If the future of civilization itself hangs in the balance, why then circle the party wagons around a deeply damaged candidate like Biden, one exhibiting credible signs of progressive dementia even before the finger-rape charges emerged?
Why indeed? The answer, I suspect, lies in a talk Biden gave to wealthy donors at a ritzy Manhattan fundraiser. Like Hillary Clinton before him, Biden is the quintessential establishment candidate. Also like Hillary, Biden speaks with a forked tongu e, having one position for Wall Street intimates and another for the poor rubes of the general public. If you want the Gospel truth, simply follow the fork that speaks to Wall Street. In Biden's case, that fork proclaimed "no one's standard of living would change, nothing fundamental would change" if he was elected president. You can literally takes those words to the bank, and Biden's expression of unfeigned love to Democrats' deepest-pocketed donors seems a sufficient and satisfying reason why Democrats would risk handing humanity over to Hitler's demon spawn for such a flawed candidate.
That's simply wrong in too many ways to name, a level of moral malpractice analogous at least to finger-rape, if not to the rape "full monty." But I reserve "full-monty rape" (and then some) for Trump and Republicans, which brings us to the heart of our discussion.
Finger-Rape: Our Most Astute Political Metaphor
When it comes to organizing around the slogan "You Felt the Bern, Now Feel the Finger," the truth of the finger-rape allegations against Biden is almost irrelevant. Leaving the rape aspect aside, Democrats have been "giving the finger"--to progressives, the working class, the poor, and the common good--from what now seems time immemorial. Involuntarily, Tara Reade did progressive agitators who "felt the Bern" a profound favor in drawing attention to fingers, for nothing feels more to us like "getting the finger" than the sudden, brutal, all-encompassing way the Democratic establishment circled its wagons around such a flimsy vessel as Biden.
Now, considering the serious allegations--ignored for weeks by Democrats--even further damaging Biden's deeply flawed candidacy, this suddenly feels less like getting the finger than finger-rape. Stopping Bernie at all costs (evidently for the benefit of Biden-loving Wall Street donors) was such a priority that risking handing a second term to a president Democrats routinely stigmatized as Hitler-on-steroids simply carried no weight. Often stigmatized by leftists as a "sheepdog" for Democrats, Bernie unwittingly served as a bird-dog, flushing establishment Dems' contempt and hatred for progressives into well-lit clearings for everyone to see.
While the finger-rape metaphor well captures progressives' and Berners' current feelings, its political significance goes far deeper. On the one hand, it pinpoints Democrats' moral irresponsibility--a level of recklessness much worse than "giving the finger"--toward humanity's common good by placing all bets on Biden, thereby risking the monstrous Trump's reelection for sake of pleasing Wall Street. On the other hand, it beautifully captures the relative evil of our two major parties. Democrats now commit the political equivalent of sexual assault--a pretty grievous crime--and are like finger-rapists. Republicans, by contrast, are in Noam Chomsky's words, "the most dangerous organization in world history," performing at minimum brutal outright rape, though rape-murder may be a better analogy.
Vote Biden 2020: Make America Safe for Revolt
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