He may be guilty of coming from a family background and/or culture in which it’s okay to touch people. He may have come from a long line of huggers. People who, when a photo is suggested, put their arm out and pull you in by the waist. People who kiss to say hello and goodbye.
I don’t come from such a culture. I come from a WASP background, and I react negatively to people who are more touchy-feely. I don’t mean to react negatively (and I do try to be polite), but I do have a certain visceral ‘no’ response that I can’t quite talk myself out of.
However, the fact is that WASP culture is somewhat isolated in this. More people worldwide, I’d guess, are good with the hugging and kissing than WASP people can imagine.
The accusations against Franken fall into the chasm of misunderstandings created by these two basic orientations: WASP and non-WASP.
Leaving aside for the moment the largely-discredited Tweeden accusations, the accusers all made some variation on the story that they were with Franken in some voluntary situation (radio interview; posing for a photo) and he made physical contact in a way they found objectionable.
This, by the way, is what’s been said of Biden. About neither man has it been said that they follow women around the grocery store or into an elevator and then pounce. About neither are there any stories about the man calling a woman into his office and then asking for sex or such. Instead, social niceties—taking a photo; thanking someone after an interview—are the occasion for physical contact that the woman feels goes beyond the level of social niceties she finds culturally acceptable.
For example, the last woman to come forward said this, describing how she was attending
Tina Dupuy: I Believe Franken’s Accusers Because He Groped Me, Too - The Atlantic
All the accusations are like that. He kissed a woman’s cheek and she felt the kiss was too wet. He posed for a photo at a woman’s request and, she says, held the side of her breast. (The photo doesn’t show that.) He posed for another photo and the woman later stated about the 2010 encounter that Franken
https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/20/politics/al-franken-inappropriate-touch-2010/index.html
As a WASP, I’m dismayed by these kinds of acts. I would never do such things. I don’t like it when others do such things to me (or try to). And I believe that politicians should not do such things. It’s clearly unwise, if nothing else.
But what’s missing here is reasonable certainty that these were deliberate acts of sexual harassment. What’s missing here is reasonable certainty that Franken did these things with the intention of demeaning the women.What’s missing here is reasonable certainty that those taking the anti-Franken position are correct to label these incidents as “groping.” Or as “disgusting” or as any of the other leaps-to-judgment we’ve seen in this thread and elsewhere.
There’s a cultural factor here that is being ignored. Does it play a role? Can we rule out the idea that what these women were defining as offensive conduct, may not have been intended as such?
That’s what an investigation would have gotten us close to: a greater chance of reasonable certainty.