Senator Bob Menendez collects signatures for last-ditch bid | The Gateway expert

New Jersey and the Senate may not have seen the last of Senator Bob Menendez.

The senator is facing ongoing federal corruption charges after serving 19 years in the Senate.

The politician is accused of accepting cash. gold barsa Mercedes-Benz, and home mortgage payments, among other possible bribes.

Nevertheless, Menendez maintains his innocence and is confident that he will be found innocent in court.

However, that doesn’t change the fact that running for office amid bribery allegations is like running a marathon wearing ankle weights (perhaps made of gold bars).

“Unfortunately, the current accusations I am facing, of which I am innocent and will prove it, will not allow me to have a dialogue and debate with opponents who have already made this the cornerstone of their campaigns,” he said during a YouTube video. video in March.

“That is why I will not be running for the Democratic primary in June,” he said at the time.

“I am hopeful that my exoneration will take place this summer so that I can continue my candidacy as an independent Democrat at the general election.”

In order for Menendez to file as an independent candidate, he needs 800 registered voters to sign his petition by the June 4 filing date.

The filing will give him a chance to maintain his position or at least give him more time to consider his options before the August 16 withdrawal date.

But things haven’t been so simple for the longtime Democrat.

According to the New Jersey Spherethe senator has since spent nearly $5 million indictment to support his campaign.

He also begins to rely on a group of old friends to distribute petitions for him, friends like Matteo Perez Sr., owner of a furniture store in the city where the three-term politician launched his career.

It is unknown how many signatures he has collected so far, but the clock continues to tick.

Additionally, while he is trying to get his petition signed, he is also dealing with his trial, which is currently on a one-week break.

The break began Tuesday, giving Menendez time to handle personal business and observe the events 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 is clear that the accusations alone have done enormous damage to his political career.

If he can get this petition signed, it will undoubtedly put him in a better position, as it threatens to shift votes away from the Democratic candidate, putting the seat at risk of being stolen by a Republican.

While it is a better position, it is still far from good.

Beyond the actual politics of the situation, voters should be asking how Menendez ended up where he is – accused of serious crimes born of serious (again: gold bars) greed – how likely it is that other politicians will do similar things, and whether one of them will probably have to pay a significant price.

Corruption is endemic to the human condition, but for most of its history the US, as part of the English-speaking, Christianized West, has boasted remarkably upstanding leaders – at least as far as leaders go. But as situational ethics infects absolutes and the postmodern virus takes over our vital organs, America and the West are beginning to rot from within.

Bob Menendez is not the real problem. He is a sign of the problem – an elite class convinced that because of its superior liberal morality (found in philosophy, not history) it has no obligation to tamper with matters of traditional right and wrong. And after all, they tell themselves, given how hard the work is to fundamentally transform a country, don’t they deserve a few bonuses here and there from the books?

This virus infected Americans while we slept, enjoying dreams of prosperity, impregnable security from without, endless entertainment from within, and drugs everywhere. If we don’t wake up now and start purging the poison, we are done for.

If we are really sick (and we are), hopefully Bob Menendez and the societal rot we see everywhere will wake us up with that horrible nausea that only comes on in the middle of the night, and then we will cleanse ourselves of him, who like him , and the viral stew of wickedness that got us to this point in the first place.

This article originally appeared on The Western Journal.