LogFAQs > #890599457

Panthera posted...

Inviso posted...

MY thinking though is that, if half the options available to the Senate involve getting fired from your job (either with some dignity via resignation, or in a disgraceful expulsion), there should be some discussion of nuance with regards to which actions could be considered bad enough to warrant one of those two options.

So why have you been harping so much on the idea that saying something is worthy of expulsion is comparing to anything else worthy of expulsion instead of arguing that Franken doesn't deserve to actually be punished by the Senate beyond the borderline irrelevant censure? This doesn't add up with your constant claim that Rock was equating Franken and Moore just because he thinks their respective actions both make them unfit for office.

If he's saying both are unfit for office, then that is black and white. No nuance, no discussion. THAT is why his arguments felt like they were conflating the two men. IF the Senate has limited options for punishment and his argument was to expel (using it as a verb, not saying Rock was advocating expulsion for Franken) both men, then it is very easy to view that as creating an equivalency. We're talking about the Senate as though there are four options for punishment. Really, there are only two. No Action/Censure: you stay in the Senate. Resignation/Expulsion: you're out of the Senate.

Now, Censure is not the same as No Action, but as several people have said, it's the equivalent of getting scolded with no REAL punishment. And Resignation is not the same as Expulsion, but both wind up with the Senator out of a job and carrying a certain level of disgrace over his head. So if there are only two statuses you can have(in or out), going off the archaic system of punishments the Senate can dole out, if you say "both men should go out", it does not allow for ANY distinction, even if you personally believe their cases are completely different.

Maybe I'm extra sensitive because I'm already seeing signs of OTHER people (not on this board) making an equivalency, or excusing Moore's behavior because he didn't apologize or admit to it. Or hell, just look at SaHuckSand using Franken to deflect from Trump's multiple assault allegations. If you make an issue black or white ("if you are even remotely accused of sexual assault, no matter how small, you should be punished SIMILARLY, given the Senate's available punishments, to ANY other person accused of assault"), then it inadvertently creates an equivalency (there has gotta be another fucking word than that...I'm using it a lot.)
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Touch fuzzy. Get fuzzier.
Inviso