Liberal consensus Puns

I see it repeated in liberal circles all the time that Al Franken should have resigned and what he did wasn’t ‘that bad’ despite it being more than just the girl from one photo. Seven or eight women accused him of sexual harassment and groping and he chose to resign.

Saying that Al Franken ‘didn’t do anything wrong’ is implying that there is a low level of sexual harassment that women should be expected to put up with and if anyone complains about it they should just shut up and deal with it which is atrocious.

Edit: I’m seeing some people say there isn’t a consensus that what Al Franken did wasn’t that bad. I agree for the most part when it comes to liberals and progressives but there’s definitely a group of dems that believe those things. Look at this post in r / democrats for example

Edit: ok I’m muting this, the al franken defenders have clearly come out of the woodwork to attack me and I don’t have to waste my time responding to them.

To all the people who responded to this post early and in earnest thank you for providing interesting points to think about.

So I got into a discussion on this topic in another thread and I was hoping to get a bit more broad response on the topic. It really feels like free trade has gone from a center-left talking point to a GOP talking point, and I'm quite confused about it. Even progressives don't seem to have a consistent viewpoint on it. Bernie Sanders prefers trade agreements that do a better job of protecting American jobs. AOC wants free trade linked with environmental milestones to stop climate change. Charles Schumer, who is no progressive, voted against Nafta and its successor. Abroad, I think a lot of countries engage in some form of protectionism toward certain countries.

I personally think that trade agreements need to do a better job of protecting American jobs in the near term, while giving us some time to transition those workers into other sectors. I think the rise of Chinese manufacturing caught people off guard with its size, scope, and swiftness, and as a result a lot of people were quickly left without a job, with no real alternative prospects.

Yet I hear a lot of otherwise liberal people that believe that free trade is a good thing and that we should embrace the change, and hope to cover the negatively impacted people through social safety nets. It seems to be a bit inconsistent to champion market forces internationally, but be ok with government intervention locally.

Anyway, I'm open to new ideas on the topic.

Apologies if this breaks a guideline, I tried not to include any moralistic statements in my question but I didn't know a better way to frame my question.

It first happened with manufacturing jobs, then it happened with entry-level clerical jobs, and now it's happened with degreed non-STEM jobs. That is the 'you don't want to be stuck living with your parents scraping by for the rest of your life? Do this instead' excuse the liberal-conservative consensus tells you. Right now, it's 'get a STEM job' but as someone who got a computer-engineering degree at a top-ten university and had six years experience as a technician who, in 2015, was only able to get a job after months of searching at 65k let me just say LOL. And it's only going to get worse.

It happens with all jobs. Degreed engineers are considered sub-middle class drones in Korea/Japan/China/Singapore. Which is unsurprising, because about 30 years ago there were hundreds of non-degreed blue collar workers in STEM industries for every degreed engineer. Now it's more like 3-4.

Liberalism (orthodox liberalism, not the weird dishonest liberalism of the Americas) of course can't admit this, so they'll always be on the lookout for more 'are you suffering a systemic problem? Do this individualistic bullshit and you'll be okay for a few years' excuses.

I expect the next excuse is going to be 'hm, have you looked into getting your project manager cert and learning another language' or 'have you considered doing contract work from home on the side'.

I know many of these studies have flaws and it’s impossible to know for sure, or even to objectively measure it.

But in general, is there any consensus or study showing that the majority of economists agree with the DNC or GOP when it comes to the economy?

https://www.reveddit.com/r/neoliberal/comments/kq3gs1/discussion_thread/gi3e1ta/

Full comment:

"Our abortion laws, which are among the most liberal in the world despite the utter absence of a consensus on the matter, are non-negotiable"

"Why are we capped at 50 seats in the Senate?"

It’s almost as if he’s so good, prepared, and precise with his debate responses that he needs to be a little less perfect to be more authentic. I think it’s an interesting take, and probably has some merit when people want to see humans up there.

Tulsi is hated by most Dems atm. I love the idea but Yang needs to win the primary first and then add her to the ticket afterwards. They would be a good team to take on Trump in the general election but if they announced themselves as a ticket during the Dem primaries, Yang is done for.