And amazingly, there are some who would support that idea
Not that this is definitely going to go anywhere, but since the announcement has been officially made I suppose we’ll need to address it. Convicted traitor and former Leavenworth resident Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley) has filed to run for the United States Senate in Maryland. Promising to run as, “a strong and unapologetic progressive,” he would be taking on incumbent Democrat Ben Cardin in a race where the GOP may not even bother to put a serious candidate up with any funding. (Washington Post)
Chelsea E. Manning, the transgender former Army private who was convicted of passing sensitive government documents to WikiLeaks, is seeking to run for the U. S. Senate in Maryland, according to federal election filings.
Manning would be challenging Democrat Benjamin L. Cardin, who is in his second term in the Senate and is up for reelection in November. Cardin is Maryland’s senior senator and is considered an overwhelming favorite to win a third term.
Manning declined to speak about her filing or to say why she might be running when reached at her home in Bethesda on Saturday.
She said she might release a statement in the coming days.
“Our only statement on the record is ‘No statement,’ ” Manning said.
I suppose I could waste your time writing about whether or not Ben Cardin is “progressive” enough and if the Berniecrat wing of the party might start pumping money into a Manning candidacy to push the party further to the left. But I’m not going to bother. There’s really only one question here which needs to be addressed.
Manning has become something of an iconic figure on the far left in recent years. Originally he was most famous for supposedly being a “whistleblower” who sought to bring transparency and accountability to the United States government and our military. That was, of course, absolute nonsense. As I’ve written here in the past, if Manning was actually concerned with that he could have just released the two videos of the air attacks in Baghdad and Afghanistan which allegedly upset him so much. Instead, he dumped roughly three quarter million restricted documents into the public sphere, causing damage which we may never be able to fully quantify. Despite all of this, Manning has built a remarkable following of supporters among liberals and it’s not ridiculous to believe that many of them would actually vote for him.
The well-known result of all those transgressions was a set of convictions, including violations of the Espionage Act, and a 35-year prison sentence. No matter how you may feel about Manning personally, how you view the value of Wikileaks, or what your position on the various wars we are engaged in might be, I would ask you to consider this single question. Precisely how bad of a violation of the law is required before you would consider someone unfit to hold office even if they are technically qualified under constitutional requirements?
George W. Bush very nearly lost his bid for the presidency when an 11th hour November surprise revealed that he’d had a DUI in his youth. More candidates than I could name here have seen their bids derailed when it was revealed that they had failed to promptly and accurately pay their taxes. We’re seeing members of Congress fall like leaves from the trees in autumn over allegations that they may have sexually harassed (not even assaulted) someone, with some of these allegations having never been examined by law enforcement. Traditionally this is where the bar is set for such things.
Chelsea Manning was convicted (not suspected or alleged) of a laundry list of acts of espionage against his country. He is a traitor. Were it not for the generous (not to mention insulting) nature of our last president, Manning would still be rotting in a jail cell where he would have remained until he was nearly old enough to collect Social Security. Is Treason not a greater evil than tax evasion or driving while intoxicated? No matter how much you may love his “progressive” attitude or whatever you think it is he stands for, are we really at the point where you could, in good conscience, go out to the polls and cast your vote to put someone with that level of criminal record in the United States Senate?
Perhaps your answer is yes. And if so, I truly do weep for this nation.
