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Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Principles, Schminciples

For years we've been told by the left that we have a duty to believe women when they make an accusation of some sexual impropriety perpetrated by a powerful male.

For years we've been told by the left that "It's my body, it's my choice" when a woman wants to abort a child.

For years we've been told by the left that no one who is not in the same circumstance as a pregnant woman (i.e. men) have no business dictating what women should be allowed to do with their bodies.

Now, in just the last month or so, we've seen the left all but abandon each of those "principles."

In the last month the Democrats' presidential candidate, Joe Biden, has been accused of having sexually assaulted a woman named Tara Reade when he was a U.S. Senator and she was a staffer in his office. Until just recently the liberal media completely ignored the accusation.

However, when Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was accused of having jumped on top of a woman at a party when he was a young student the Democrats and their media allies were adamant that the FBI should investigate the accusation, that no stone should be left unturned to demonstrate his guilt, that the accusation was itself enough to prove Kavanaugh's depravity and unfitness for such a lofty office.

Now it is a presidential candidate who has been accused of pressing a woman against a wall and "penetrating her with his fingers" and the media and the Democrats have until just recently gone completely silent. They don't know what to do or say and are eager to sweep the whole business under the rug. All the feminist organizations so apoplectic over the Kavanaugh nomination that they were willing to destroy his life to keep him from sitting on the Supreme Court are unfazed by the prospect of a sexual molester becoming president.

Their concern for women only applies, it seems, if the lout is a Republican. Democrat louts like Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton and, allegedly, Joe Biden are on occasion embarrassing, perhaps, but are otherwise fine.

The principle is only a principle when it suits one's politics.

The notion that I should have the right to do with my body as I please has also been shown to be a sham, at least by many on the left. There are millions of Americans who desire to risk illness and maybe even death in order to return to work, but Democrat governors across the nation are refusing to let them. They're insisting that people don't have that choice even if it is their own body they're putting at risk.

Of course, the argument is that no one has the right to risk the well-being of others by getting out and mixing with people when they may be contagious, but isn't that the same argument pro-lifers make when a woman insists on the right to do with her body as she wishes? Don't pro-lifers argue that there's another person involved and you don't have the right to kill that person just because you want to be able to do with your life what you wish?

In other words, the liberal shibboleth "My body, my choice" only applies when it's convenient.

And how often have we heard it said that men have no business opining on abortion, unless they support the pro-choice position, because men can't get pregnant. Pro-life men, we've been told for four decades, should just shut up about abortion. The principle seems to be that if you're not suffering the emotional distress of an unwanted pregnancy you should have no say on what those who are suffering do with their bodies and their lives.

Very well, but then why is that principle not applied to those suffering both emotional and economic distress from the nation-wide shutdowns. Those who want and need to get back to work and who have been protesting and otherwise making their displeasure known to their political leaders have been strongly criticized by talking heads in the media for their impertinence. Don't they know they're a hazard to others? They should bite the bullet and stay at home for the greater good, these media mavens sniff.

Now virtually all those who are saying this on television and elsewhere are themselves still getting their hefty paychecks. They're not at any risk of losing their homes, their jobs or their businesses. So, let's apply the principle to these critics. If you're still getting paid, if you're not suffering economic distress while others are losing their livelihoods, then you should just shut up.