Earlier this afternoon the news broke in that the longest serving member of the House of Representatives, John Conyers, lacked the courage to either fight or own the allegations of sexual assault and harassment. Allegations that held such veracity that they required tax-payer dollars to keep under the proverbial rug.

Conyers still denies any wrong doing even as he is set to announce his failure to seek reelection. On a parliamentarian and political level, his announcement leaves Democrats without a powerful figure on the House Judiciary Committee. A committee that has had United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions on his heels of late over claims of the Trump administration colluding with Russians during the 2016 election.

If the two sources claiming Conyers won’t seek re-election in 2018 prove to be true, it will shake the foundation of progressivism and the Democratic Party unlike anything since the November 9th, 2016. Many things will be said. Ugliness will most certainly abound. The character of the accuser, who has already been paid for her tribulation, will be called into question. And this will all be politicized in the fashion we have all became accustomed to in the age of identity politics.

The race of the accused and the accuser will be an issue. The timing will be an issue. The partisan motivations will be an issues. But what crawls and claws under the skin of most Americans is the fact that public dollars were used to keep this ordeal from public purview. Public money, the money OF THE PEOPLE was used to lie to THE PEOPLE. 

Now, this isn’t an uncommon occurrence, as the government frequently keeps information from the public for the sake of the public. The best examples can be found in National Security and Foreign Policy … policy. Sometimes it’s best to keep efforts quiet for the greater good. But never — and “never” is fervently stressed — should those funds be used to cover up the debauchery and poor decisions of elected officials.

When one thinks of the reasons Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was recalled three times one scoffs at Conyers “not seeking reelection”. Michigan isn’t that far from Wisconsin, why isn’t there a recall effort forming now?

The People indeed.