New Jersey and the Senate may not have seen the last of Sen. Bob Menendez.
The senator faces ongoing federal corruption charges after 19 years in the Senate.
The politician is accused of accepting cash, gold bars, a Mercedes, home mortgages and other potential bribes.
Despite this, Menendez maintains his innocence and is confident he will be found not guilty in court.
However, that doesn’t change the fact that running for office with bribery charges is like running a marathon with ankle weights (probably made of gold bars).
“Unfortunately, the charges I am currently facing, and my innocence, which I will prove, do not allow me to engage in dialogue and debate with an opponent who has made this a cornerstone of his campaign,” he said in a YouTube video in March.
“Therefore, I will not be filing for the Democratic primary this June,” he said at the time.
“I hope my acquittal this summer will allow me to run as an independent Democrat in the general election.”
For Menendez to file as an independent, he will need 800 registered voters to sign his petition before the June 4 filing date.
The application would give him the chance to maintain his position, or at least give him more time to consider his options before the August 16 withdrawal date.
But for the longtime Democratic congressman, things are not that simple.
According to the New Jersey Globe, the senator has spent nearly $5 million to aid his campaign since being indicted.
He also began relying on a group of old friends to circulate petitions for him, including Matteo Perez Sr., a furniture store owner in the town where the three-term politician began his career. boss.
It’s unknown how many signatures he’s received so far, but the clock is still ticking.
Additionally, while trying to sign the petition, he is also dealing with a trial that is currently on hold for a week.
The furlough began on Tuesday to give Menendez time to attend to personal matters and celebrate the Memorial Day weekend, but it will resume again on May 28 and is expected to last until at least the end of June.
Whether the New Jersey senator is innocent remains to be seen, but it’s clear the accusations have done huge damage to his political career.
If he could sign the petition, it would undoubtedly put him in a better position, as it could potentially take away votes from Democratic candidates and put the seat at risk of being stolen by Republicans.
While this is a better location, it’s still far from ideal.
Beyond the circumstances of politics itself, voters should ask how Menéndez ended up where he was – accused of a serious crime stemming from gross (again, gold bullion) greed – and the likelihood that other politicians would do something similar How big, and if there are any they could cost huge amounts of money.
Corruption is a universal human phenomenon, but for most of its history, the United States, as part of the English-speaking, Christianized West, has been able to have leaders of remarkable integrity—at least as far as leaders go. But as situational ethics infects absolute values and the postmodern virus attacks our vital organs, America and the West are beginning to rot from within.
Bob Menendez isn’t really the problem. He is emblematic of the problem—an elite class that believes that, because of its superior liberal morality (found in philosophy, not history), it has no obligation to grapple with traditional questions of right and wrong. After all, they said to themselves, given how difficult the job of fundamentally changing a country is, shouldn’t they deserve some off-the-books bonuses here and there?
The virus infects Americans while we sleep, enjoying dreams of prosperity, impenetrable outer security, endless inner entertainment, and ubiquitous drugs. Now, if we don’t wake up and start clearing out the toxins, we’re screwed.
If we do get sick (and we do), hopefully Bob Menendez and the social rot we see elsewhere will wake us up like a horrible nausea that appears in the middle of the night, and we purge ourselves, get rid of him, Those like him, and the spread of the atheist virus that got us to this point.
This article originally appeared in Western Daily News.
