While Republicans call for “uncancelling" America, Democrats continue to “cancel” each other out

 

The theme of the ongoing Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) meeting is “Uncancel America.” What this means is the “freedom” to express anti-science views and climate change denial, pandemic denial, QAnon conspiracies, false election fraud claims, white nationalism, xenophobia  etc. and ad nauseam. All of these and more were embraced full-throatedly by Donald Trump, who has replaced Ronald Reagan as the “idol” of the right. The “upbeat” message of “Morning in America” has been replaced by the “Make America Great Again” shibboleth that has had the opposite effect at home and abroad, its “message” one of ignorance and hatred.

But while The New York Times has ignored what should be an important story—Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ deliberate efforts to disguise the true extent of pandemic in his state, and the arrest of a health data analyst, Rebekah Jones, for “illegally” trying to expose the truth—it is off on another “cancel culture” quest that Democrats and “liberals” in general do when they get the urge to eat their own. Gov. Andrew Cuomo—already under fire for claims that he “mishandled” the pandemic response despite previously being lauded for it—is now facing claims of sexual harassment.

The Times published what in some people’s minds may seem to be a pretty lame accusation by a former executive assistant named Charlotte Bennett, and exploded it into a “scandal.” Bennett claimed that on June 5 of last year, Cuomo asked her about her “sex life.” This is how you interpret someone asking you if you are currently in a relationship if you want it sound as if you are being “victimized.” Bennett asserted that Cuomo told her that he was “open” to “dating women in their 20s,” which only sounded "weird" in the context of their age difference, and only seemed to be an inquiry into her level of "interest," and apparently never went beyond that. Bennett claimed that she spoke to two other individuals about this “incident,” as if this was supposed to “confirm” its grievance nature. Bennett stated that she was transferred to a position of health policy advisor, but also admitted that she enjoyed her time in that position and didn’t see it as “punishment.”

Cuomo claimed he never made any “advances” on Bennett or went beyond the suggestion that he was “open” to a relationship, but the Times seems intent on creating another sex scandal out of what most people would see as a man’s “responsibility” to make the first “move,” and if the woman says “no,” then that is the end of it, and that is clearly what happened here. Where’s the story? We are told that Bennett’s claims was treated with all due “sensitivity”  by those on Cuomo’s staff, which is just another way of saying that even the most "innocent" of interactions are subject to the highest level of scrutiny to find an infraction.

There are those who say that men should “know all the rules” in their interactions with women, but  what we may also be talking about is making the mistake of interacting with women who are more “sensitive” than others, and who like to get their names and faces in newspapers and on television. To be honest, men in positions of authority (especially in politics) should never make any kind of “advance” on a woman who works for them; they are just playing with fire and asking for trouble if it isn’t the woman who makes the “first move” or doesn’t immediately reciprocate the invitation.

But if Bennett’s claim simply does not rise to the level of “sexual harassment,” then the accusations of Linda Boylan is a bit more problematic for Cuomo. Boylan, who worked in Cuomo’s office for three years, claims that he kissed her on the lips after a meeting, and had suggested on a plane trip that they play “strip poker”—clearly a “joke” since there were others sitting near them.  These charges and more were published in Boylan’s post in the Medium, which frankly has a low bar for truthful news and commentary, and will print anything socially radical or salacious; Boylan probably felt safe to embellish some things that might not stand up in a court of law on that website. Boylan’s claims of sexual harassment and bullying seems to refer mainly to herself and another person who confided in her (probably Bennett), and the “bullying” not by the men in her office, but by women who thought she was just an overly “sensitive” troublemaker.

Nevertheless, if what Boylan claims in her post are substantially true, then it is clear that Cuomo has been weaned on too many teen sex movies in his youth, and hasn’t put away childish things yet. Why would Cuomo--who has not been accused of sexual assault but of unwanted touching and “attention”—see someone like Boylan as being “interested” in him if she claims that she gave off vibes that the opposite was true? In her post, Boylan never actually claims she said “no” to him at any time, but insists that she went out of her way to avoid him. This “attention” never advanced to the point where it crossed the line into “forcing” himself sexually on her, and the reason for that may be that Boylan was married with children, and Cuomo certainly knew that; if Cuomo was still allegedly “interested” despite that, then what exactly was going on here is of further interest.

For his part, Cuomo is apparently taking a chance that these accusations will be perceived to be overblown or even not “true,” and has called for the state attorney general to conduct an “independent” inquiry into the matter. With the Covid-19 controversy and some off-color remarks to local lawmakers, the sharks were certainly circling around Cuomo, and efforts of the “left-wing” media to “cancel” him out is in full force. In fact a lot of the most "damning" commentary about this is coming from people who seem to have a personal grudge against Cuomo, and seem especially gleeful about the situation he is in. Are those commentators to be trusted with providing fair testimony? 

This of course is in stark contrast to the Republican attitude when one of their own is accused. While bad publicity affects local office holders to a greater degree, since they have to face people on the street everyday who point fingers and whisper, the higher up the food chain one goes, the less willing partisan constituents are willing to eat them alive. Accusations just seem to be vindictive and cheap efforts to “cancel” those on the wrong side of the political dividing line, and there seems to be a lack of  "fairness" in the current cultural climate, one that gives the accuser “power” over the accused without necessarily providing proof of wrongdoing. Brett Kavanaugh, for example, was practically accused of sexual assault to “cancel” him out, but it didn’t work because Republican senators were more interested in the “future” than in something that may or may not have happened in the past.

Republican lawmakers from Trump on down have been playing by rules quite different than the ones Democrats are playing by in this “cancel culture” world. They just deny accusations and call accusers flat-out liars when it really “matters,” like in getting a reliable, youthful right-winger on the Supreme Court for a long time. Trump has a record of sexual misconduct a mile long and it just doesn’t seem to matter to his supporters. This works most of the time, because in this day and age Trumpist-types not only either don’t believe the accusations, or don’t care if they are true, because they see them as part of the left-wing “hate syndrome” plot  to deprive them of their chosen leaders.

“Cancelling” only works—as we have seen time and time again—when liberals target and eat their own. This isn’t even a matter of Democrats claiming that they are not “hypocrites” like Republicans on ethical and moral issues; in many cases this is simply women or others who view themselves as victims of society who revel in having the “power” to be “somebody” and destroy someone’s career or life no matter how committed to progressive policies—deservedly, or not. If Cuomo was a Republican, this would be seen by the right as eye-rolling leftist propaganda only worthy of snide remarks from Tucker Carlson and a barrage of attacks on the accusers’ credibility.