Sexual Misconduct Is A Bipartisan Issue

I’m a tech writer. I write about #nerdstuff. As a rule, I don’t write about politics. But this isn’t political. This is about sexual harassment and assault, something we should have zero tolerance for in our politics.

Let’s look at recent events:

· Eight women claimed various forms of sexual misconduct against Minnesota’s junior senator Al Franken.

· 12 women accused Roy Moore, (running for the senate in Alabama) of misconduct, 4 of which are actual sexual assaults.

· At least six women accused the former representative John Conyers of Michigan of making inappropriate sexual advances, forcing him to step down.

· Representatives Blake Farenthold and Ruben Kihuen also settled claims or are fighting similar accusations.

· On the state level, there are one to two cases in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, and Minnesota. I suspect there will be dozens more, globally.

· 19 women accused President Donald Trump of sexual misconduct.

I didn’t list the party of any of the men above because it doesn’t matter. It’s not about parties; it’s about character.

I’ve never seen any mention of party affiliation for media royalty, such as Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Garrison Keillor, Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly, Harvey Weinstein, Louis C.K., Kevin Spacey, Roy Price, Bill Cosby, Michael Oreskes, Andrew Kreisberg, or Danny Masterson. Most were summarily fired, written off shows, had shows cancelled, or even had every affiliation with them in their fields cancelled. Again, despite their political affiliations.

If a member of a political party resigns, a party fears it will have less power. The loss of Franken will certainly negatively impact the Democrats during a tumultuous time for that party. But not calling for him to step down would be a loss of honor, which is more important than short term influence over legislation. Conservatives need to wake up and realize that anyone who is banned from shopping malls should clearly also be banned from serving in the Senate. And while Conyers did great things for the civil rights movement, he ultimately had to leave office — and Farenthold, and Kihuen should do the same.

All of these basically end up with about an equal net loss for each party. Because the perpetrators are split equally down party lines. Which proves the members of all political parties commit these acts. It isn’t a majority party or minority party problem; nor a government versus opposition party issue. It’s not a problem exclusive to politics, just as it isn’t a problem exclusive to entertainment. But it is a problem.

We have zero tolerance for sexual harassment and assault in the workplace; we should certainly expect the same from our politicians.