In the past few days Politico published a story on past sexual harassment allegations against Presidential candidate Herman Cain. Mr. Cain's campaign website released the following message in response the the Politico article.
---Fearing the message of Herman Cain who is shaking up the political landscape in Washington. Inside the Beltway media have begun to launch unsubstantiated personal attach on Cain. Dredging up thinly sourced allegations stemming from Mr. Cain's tenure as the Chief Executive Officer at the National Restaurant Association in the 1990's, political trade press are now casting aspersion on his character and spreading rumors that never stood up to the facts. Since Washington establishment critics haven't had much luck in attaching Mr. Cain's ideas to fix a bad economy and create jobs, they are trying to attack him in any way they can. Sadly, we've seen this movie played out before - a prominent Conservative targeted by liberals simply because they disagree with his politics. Mr. Cain -- and all Americans, deserve better.---
Last night, Mr. Cain appeared on 'On the Record with Greta Van Susteren' to discuss the previous allegations against Mr. Cain. The link for the video of this interview is available here. Cain recounts these previous allegations with Greta and gives "his side" of the story. At this point, he is the only party to come forward since Politico broke this story a few days ago. It is unclear at this time whether or not his accusers will come forward and talk to the media.
I want to discuss a few of the issues underlying both the "thinly sourced allegations" against Mr. Cain while he was CEO at the National Restaurant Association, and the personal attack by the "Inside the Beltway media". First of all, the charge of sexual harassment is a serious one, and I think it has been largely taken out of context in last 20 years or so. I want to be clear, this is not to say that there are not credible allegations of sexual harassment in our society today. However, I do think that what we think of today as sexual harassment and what legally defines sexual harassment are somewhat different. By in large, our desire as a society to constantly be politically correct in our speech is to blame for this. Political correctness has driven individuals apart such that we cannot communicate with each on some 'normal' level without constant fear of saying the 'wrong thing'.
But why settle the dispute? This has been a common question circling these allegations. If Mr. Cain denied the allegations against him, why did the company choose to settle with the supposed victims? Simply put - it's what corporations do. For those who may not know, court cases are not only expensive and time consuming, but they also put the organization behind the accused directly into the media spotlight. Contrary to popular belief, not all media is good media.
While the media would like you think this is not an issue about race and political party, I argue it is. This is not the first time we've seen this happen to African American conservatives. As the Associated Press pointed out in a recent article, quoting Atlanta Tea Party leader Debbie Dooley who stated:
---I think the left is totally and completely terrified of a conservative black man coming to power and prominence...they are trying to do the same thing to him that they did with Clarence Thomas---
For those who may be unfamiliar with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, he faced similar accusations during his confirmation hearings roughly two decades ago. Rush Limbaugh also weighed in on his radio program stating:
---This is about blacks and Hispanics getting uppity...(liberals) cannot have a black Republican running for office, can't have a Hispanic, the Left owns those minorities, those two groups can't be seen rising on their own.---
Limbaugh makes a valid argument for the motivation of the left. Historically, the conservative movement has always advocated for rights of the individual, and has always been on the side of equality - not social equality and redistribution the progressive left believes in - but the equality of opportunity to succeed, the very same equality Jefferson spoke of in the Declaration of Independence.
---We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal...---
If you actually read history, and not just believe what you learned in high school, the left did not fight to end slavery or segregation, that was the conservative movement. More on this to come in later posts...
My take home message for you is this. Ask yourself, what motivated this kind of story against Mr. Cain? IF the allegations were deemed unsubstantiated in the 1990's, why bring them up now? What possible purpose could they serve in the vetting process of this man as a candidate for President of the United States? Could it be they seek to damage his image and what he stands for, because they cannot attack his ideas? What does history have to tell us about this incident? Is it an isolated event, or have we seen this before? I always find it helpful to analyze what potential gains an organization like Politico has to gain from digging up this nugget from Mr. Cain's past. Maybe they have no direct gain, however, taking a step back, I believe there is a case that the political left has much to gain.
No comments:
Post a Comment