Progress for women is stalled until Democrats and Republicans agree Bill Clinton and Donald Trump are both pigs

— AND IT MATTERS!

I’m so sick of my Facebook newsfeed, I’m ready to become a luddite until 2017 arrives and offers a sliver of hope. The defensive statements about Bill Clinton and Donald Trump are particularly troubling.

I’m a Democrat, who’s so sick of Democrats AND Republicans AND the third party candidates that now when I read a political story I can feel the bullshit squirting out my ears. I hit a wall with this nonsense about a month ago.

Yes, America, I will very reluctantly be voting for Hillary Clinton in the November election because I believe for me that is the best of five options (Clinton, Trump, Stein, Johnson or writing in Bernie, who I voted for in Michigan’s primary election).

I’ll waste no time defending my voting decision or urging you to agree with it because I am writing to address the two elephants in the living room of this election named Donald and Bill. Both of these men have been close associates of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein (Flight logs for Epstein’s “Lolita Express” show Bill flew 26 times, ditching his security detail for 5 flights; Donald is accused of raping a 13-year-old associate of Epstein. Both Bill and Donald have been accused of rape. And both men’s alleged victims articulate credible claims against them.

This isn’t the 1990s anymore. As our country is on the verge of electing its first female president, it would seem to me that at the very least we could just get honest about sexual predators acting in and around the Oval Office. Can we agree on that?

Even if you don’t believe Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey and Eileen Wellstone — who all have accused Bill Clinton of rape or sexual misconduct (dating back to 1969 when he was a Rhode’s Scholar at Oxford), certainly you should be able to admit that his role in the Monica Lewinsky scandal was reprehensible. Thankfully we no longer accept behavior we excused in the 1990s.

I don’t care about the infidelities of former or future presidents and I don’t care about the degree to which Hillary Clinton spoke harshly about women with whom her husband had affairs. That’s what wives do when their husbands cheat — and Hillary is not responsible for Bill’s cheating. I do care very much about sexual misconduct, rape and abuse charges leveled against anyone associated with the Oval Office. And make no mistake, Hillary has been abundantly clear about how Bill will have a prominent role in her administration. He will be her top advisor on the economy. She selected a vice president through a lens of “who will be able to handle my husband’s expanded role as a first spouse.”

I am sorry fellow Democrats, Bill’s sexual misconduct issues are our issues. As we cast our votes in November, I hope you can stop excusing the inexcusable. Bill Clinton and Donald Trump are birds of a feather when it comes to treatment of women. Don’t stop being outraged at Donald Trump. But understand as you rail against him that we have our own perverted narcissist headed toward a very prominent role in the next administration.

In the 1990s Bill Clinton said he played a passive role in the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. The sex was actually done to him, so he explained. His 21-year-old intern was a marriage-threatening Jezebel and he just kind of got caught up in it. Bill has never taken responsibility for what he did to the reputation of the young intern who worked with him, was in love with him and idolized him. That alone should be enough to make our skin crawl in 2016.

For some reason I don’t understand when we decide to vote for someone, we feel compelled to explain away our candidate’s shortcomings. When questioned about our own candidate’s shortcomings, we pivot to an attack on the opponent. We all do it.

I suggest we use the 2016 election as an opportunity to stop that practice — particularly with regard to sexually predatory behavior. There’s no excuse for sexual misconduct. Stop excusing it.