In answer to Chappaquiddick:
What's funny about this is you admit too much, and what you do admit is shocking.
I object (mostly) to the lionizing of his clan. That he is held up as a paragon is a scandal--the Chappaquiddick incident was a criminal act for which he was excused by dint of his grandfather having amassed a lot of money.
But you said, "It's true and tragic that a young woman died because of TK's negligence and/or substance abuse." a length to which I do not need to go for my shock and horror at the event.
He went back home and didn't report it until the next day. It's possible she was killed because of his substance abuse... I think it's probable that this is the case, but even if it was a sober accident, he left her at the bottom of a lake while he sobered up and massaged the story.
So I ask you: What act of moral horror would you not excuse because a person went on to push for liberal legislation? Direct murder? I would hope so, but what would you demand if Jenna Bush (is she the drunk?) did the exact same thing? Would you allow that it would be okay for her to run for and gain the Senate and go on to a life of great privilege and honor as long as she voted with the Democrats? In fact that's precisely what you just said.
Should he have been whipped and left in chains for his entire life? No, but as a child of privilege he was given a pass for behavior that all those poor and underprivileged he advocated for would never in a million years be allowed to enjoy.
My annoyance is also the pass the behavior the males in his tribe have been given for generations. We paint the family with the broad brush of heroism when the truth is that if they lived in your neighborhood as a family of shop owners, they'd be the family that shocked and horrified you and would cause you to move from the neighborhood. Consider the number of them who allowed alcohol and drugs to cause the death or rape of other people? In two generations they have been an engine of horror and suffering. Oh, but they *did* write some nice legislation...
I mention Mary Jo Kopechne because it's the right thing to do, not as some joke to tickle the fancy of my Republican friends. She is a symbol of the moral lapse of Democrats--anything is excusable if we get a Democrat in the Senate for 40 years. This is not so very much different than those non-fundamentalist Republicans getting in bed with the Christian far-right in order to get another big-R in office.
What's funny about this is you admit too much, and what you do admit is shocking.
I object (mostly) to the lionizing of his clan. That he is held up as a paragon is a scandal--the Chappaquiddick incident was a criminal act for which he was excused by dint of his grandfather having amassed a lot of money.
But you said, "It's true and tragic that a young woman died because of TK's negligence and/or substance abuse." a length to which I do not need to go for my shock and horror at the event.
He went back home and didn't report it until the next day. It's possible she was killed because of his substance abuse... I think it's probable that this is the case, but even if it was a sober accident, he left her at the bottom of a lake while he sobered up and massaged the story.
So I ask you: What act of moral horror would you not excuse because a person went on to push for liberal legislation? Direct murder? I would hope so, but what would you demand if Jenna Bush (is she the drunk?) did the exact same thing? Would you allow that it would be okay for her to run for and gain the Senate and go on to a life of great privilege and honor as long as she voted with the Democrats? In fact that's precisely what you just said.
Should he have been whipped and left in chains for his entire life? No, but as a child of privilege he was given a pass for behavior that all those poor and underprivileged he advocated for would never in a million years be allowed to enjoy.
My annoyance is also the pass the behavior the males in his tribe have been given for generations. We paint the family with the broad brush of heroism when the truth is that if they lived in your neighborhood as a family of shop owners, they'd be the family that shocked and horrified you and would cause you to move from the neighborhood. Consider the number of them who allowed alcohol and drugs to cause the death or rape of other people? In two generations they have been an engine of horror and suffering. Oh, but they *did* write some nice legislation...
I mention Mary Jo Kopechne because it's the right thing to do, not as some joke to tickle the fancy of my Republican friends. She is a symbol of the moral lapse of Democrats--anything is excusable if we get a Democrat in the Senate for 40 years. This is not so very much different than those non-fundamentalist Republicans getting in bed with the Christian far-right in order to get another big-R in office.
2 comments:
Re: Chappaquiddick. It was, nobody but conspiracy theorists contends, an accident. From what we know of TK at the time, and his behavior afterward, it's quite likely he was drunk. But still, it was an accident. Presuming what he says is true -- that he tried to get her out of the car, and failed -- he could not have done any more. A submerged person can't survive more than five to ten minutes, and they were quite remote. So while it would have been better (much better) had he called the cops right away, it would not have altered the outcome in any way.
So for that reason, I have little "shock and horror" at the event. It was terrible and tragic, and probably very negligent. But he didn't kill her deliberately, and he didn't allow her to die when she could have been saved. He did freak out afterward, which is bad but not uncommon, even for the sober. But it's not the grave crime so many would make it out to be. She was already dead.
As for the clan, that I can agree with you on. They were (are) grating and obnoxious, and by and large they are a wonderful example of the corrupting influence of wealth and status on young people.
If anything, the greatest praise I can think of for TK was that he managed to rise above the clan and do great good for the world. Note that in the last forty years of his life, he was free of any sort of scandal, and an unwavering force for social justice. I don't know whether that would expiate a heinous crime, but in my view, his crime was not heinous, and perhaps that's where we differ in the view of things.
I didn't mean to ever imply it wasn't an accident, I referred to the alternative to his drunkenness as a "sober" accident. This would reduce the negligence of the actual accident, but not his subsequent actions.
it would not have altered the outcome in any way.
Wasn't he was likely sobering up from alcohol or other drugs? I can't imagine it wasn't a more calculated move than the more charitable way you phrase it.
She was already dead.
Yes she was. I never accused him of murder or any kind of intentionality.
If anything, the greatest praise I can think of for TK was that he managed to rise above the clan and do great good for the world
I would argue that his good was not so great, but this is a political difference between you and me.
What is inarguable is that he held a job for forty years which afforded him great fame, power and legacy. This hardly seems a sacrifice.
In a sort of conclusion, I'm not sure I think his crime was heinous, but I think it is enough that I don't need the unending and obsequious praise of him heaped on me like he was something other than he was: a privileged power broker excused of crimes for being wealthy.
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