Al Franken - Giant of the Senate, and the man who should be out next president.
In an age of political correctness on the left, Al Franken was one of its victims. I will not focus on his resignation from the Senate, nor will I focus on this man's comedic past. Instead, I will focus on a man who won the respect of people, and is more qualified than our present president to hold that office.
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When Al Franken decided to run for the Senate, many people didn't take him seriously. Because of his previous career in comedy, they thought he'd be making fun of the Senate and its institutions. Even though many people didn't take his candidacy seriously, he won his first election by 312 votes - forcing a recount before he was seated.
During his first term, he barely cracked a joke. When he did, it was not in public. He was spending all of his time earning the respect of both his fellow Senators and of his fellow Minnesotans. By the time the votes were counted in his second election, he won with 53.8% of the ballots cast.
An avowed Liberal, Franken favors a single payer health care system. He has also addressed conflicts of interest in the issuance of financial securities, by creating an independent board to choose which ratings firm would be used to rate a given security. I could go on and on, but it would sound more like a rehash of a Wikipedia entry than a detailed list of things this man had worked on during his tenure as a Senator.
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Sadly, Al Franken was forced out of office by the puritanical wing of the Democratic party. Although he has showed remorse for his actions (unlike our president), the "Me Too" movement needed sacrificial lambs, and he was chosen. Yet, he still has the respect of more people in the Democratic party than those who would keep him from running for office again.
Franken's sense of humor (as a politician) can be summed up by two jokes about Ted Cruz:
- When an average American thinks of a bad cruise, they think of Carnival.
When a Senator thinks of a bad Cruz, they think of Ted. - I'm Ted Cruz's closest friend in the Senate.
And I Hate Ted.
Years ago, Charlie Chaplin said that if he knew how evil Adolf Hitler was when he filmed The Great Dictator, he'd never have made the film. Mel Brooks takes the opposite tack. He tries to belittle and make fun of Hitler every chance he gets. He feels that people that evil do not deserve respect. As for me, I wish I could have told Chaplin to make the film, as all dictators need to be taken down, and the best way to do so is with humor. Franken is the type of person who can and will use humor as a weapon if needed. And he is the only one who could burst Trump's bubble of invincibility with a well placed gag during a debate.
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Given the man who is POTUS now, we know that Franken is good enough to be president. We know that he is smart enough to be president. And he is still well liked by the majority of Americans. Hopefully, he will throw his hat into the ring, and be elected our 46th president in 2020.
Al Franken for President - 2020
