The allegations against Biden are credible. The only acceptable response is an independent probe of documents related to his tenure as Senator. That those documents remain screened from the public domain is absurd to begin with. There is either documentation of her complaint or there isn’t. That is the only relevant fact to investigate. Not how many landlords a woman with financial troubles managed to piss off.
Once again I'm going to stay away from a debate about their credibility on the existing evidence but note I disagree with your personal assessment here.
Perhaps you could say how you would like to have seen things go from the beginning? I'm hoping to collaborate on a general understanding of what to do instead of what not to do or what to do from here.
When you say "independent probe of documents", who would have such authority?
Personally, I see a big part of the problem in these situations being that there is limited framework in the law to vet candidates for office, and for something like this candidates already in office. My first inclination is some sort of legislation which would provide some recourse for such complaints to be evaluated in order to have a name on the ballot. Unfortunately, I see major red flags here about this being possibly politically weaponized or else engaging in a fair process for example through civil suit taking years to resolve. Still, civil court would be the avenue I'd most be interested in at least providing the option for. I think it is flatly wrong that there be statute of limitations for acts of sexual violence criminally or civilly.
Separately, in a country with free speech, we really don't have the grounds to stop a media circus. Notably, the more personal details about Reade which are being brought up are published in non-major sources. Thankfully, major publications have stayed away and, instead, done their independent investigation, and published or not based on that assessment. Although, it appears to me that Fox News, notably, has acted much differently.
I also imagine a role for a victim's advocacy group in providing a service to evaluate and advocate for victims in telling their story when it meets their criteria for credibility. If we have some avenues which are strong and publicly visible (victim's advocacy group, civil actions), this will help the public and press immensely in weighing on these cases as lack of utilization of these routes would signal questions of integrity of complaint. This would be a boon despite the lack of teeth such groups would have in enforcing anything themselves.
Sanders, Gabbard, Bloomberg or Yang.
I also prefer governors to Senators in terms of the candidate pool for POTUS, so would easily vote for Baker or Newsom, especially given their leadership during the COVID situation.
Thanks for this. With the exception of Bloomberg (notably for more egregious sexual harassment history than Biden among others), this is a great list to me. I would like to note here that this conversation is indicative of the reason I continue to engage with you despite our often vastly different and irreconcilable perspectives. You have an uncommonly clear guiding principle worthy of much respect. What I would ask as a fellow sharer of this principle is that we both work harder to communicate what we value, who embodies these values, and paths in which people could act which more accurately represent those values. This I think would be far more productive than the more easily expressed critiques of what we judge to run contrary to those values. It also helps clarify a common interest where we are simply more likely to find differences in perspective than enemy.
That you see this as unrealistic is a function of the tribalism infused throughout this thread.
After having written that last paragraph I am changing my response to this. I will say that I agree that such tribalism is the wedge which keeps us from honoring our ideals. And for me, honoring does not mean achieving. But it also wouldn't be empty in results. How do we break the tribalism? My suggestion is in the paragraph above.
Thanks, if nothing else, for leading me closer to a truer look at what is important to me. I feel there is much there which we share, and not feeling so lonely is a blessing.