Left Wing Vox: Democrats have a sexual harassment problem

[polychronopolous]

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/28/16704580/democrats-sexual-harassment-conyers-franken-moore

The party’s leaders can't keep protecting sexual harassers and claim they’re the party of the resistance.



Democrats have a sexual harassment problem.

Al Franken (D-MN) currently stands accused of groping multiple women before and after becoming a US senator. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has stepped down as the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee after reports surfaced that he’d paid a former staffer $27,000 to settle a 2014 sexual misconduct complaint.

The problem is not, obviously, unique to Democrats.

Over the past six weeks, it’s become clear that many of America’s most powerful and most respected institutions have housed and protected repeat sexual harassers and predators, while shutting up or shutting out their victims.

“Has a sexual harassment problem” is a dubious distinction that the Democratic Party shares with Hollywood, Fox News, prestige television shows and networks, the restaurant industry, America’s most successful massage chain — and, of course, the Republican Party, which is currently running a Senate candidate who stands accused of assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

But the ubiquity of the problem doesn’t make it any less real. The Democratic Party — which has for years positioned itself as the defender of gender equality and women’s rights against Republican attacks — hasn’t taken a stand by pushing out the alleged offenders. There are open ethics committee investigations in both houses, but there’s no expectation that the allegations already voiced against Franken and Conyers should be firing offenses.

There are, as many reporters have pointed out, institutional imperatives at play here. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was reportedly wary of pushing out Conyers because she feared blowback from the Congressional Black Caucus. Democrats in both chambers are reportedly deferring to the ethics committees in part because they want to set an established pattern for how these allegations are addressed — because they know that such allegations, against Democrats and Republicans alike, are going to keep coming.


But if the Democratic Party chooses to continue to protect its members against harassment allegations, it needs to be honest about the choice it’s not making: the choice to be an institution that actually reflects the better world it says it wants to create.

For months, Democrats have identified themselves with the diffuse cultural energy known as “the resistance.” Now that public outrage is actually beginning to create change, by pushing serial predators out of positions of power, the Democrats — and other progressive political institutions — are facing a moment of reckoning. It can be an ally of the emergent social movement against a culture of serial harassment and “open secrets,” or it can be a partner of convenience.

[BR]

No surprise, after all, they're the party of rape & pedophilia.

[Soul Crusher]

NPR Chief News Editor Departs After Harassment Allegations
kedm.org ^ | November 28, 2017 | Merrit Kennedy
Posted on 11/29/2017, 8:21:17 AM by rdl6989

NPR Chief News Editor David Sweeney has left the company following allegations of sexual harassment filed against him by at least three female journalists.

"David Sweeney is no longer on staff," Chris Turpin, acting senior vice president of news, said in an email to staff.

(Excerpt) Read more at kedm.org ...

[Soul Crusher]

Matt Lauer allegedly sexually assaulted staffer during Olympics
New York Post ^ | 11/29/2017 | Emily Smith
Posted on 11/29/2017, 8:24:48 AM by Dr. Scarpetta

Matt Lauer allegedly sexually assaulted a female NBC staffer during the Rio Olympics, sources told Page Six.

The staffer, who has not been named and wishes to remain anonymous, complained to NBC bosses yesterday, prompting NBC News bosses to move fast and fire him.

A source told Page Six, “An NBC staffer come forward with a claim that Matt sexually assaulted her at the Olympics.

There have been rumors about Matt having affairs with subordinates at NBC for years, but those were believed to be consensual. This incident in Rio was not.”

Another source tells us that the decision to fire Lauer was made late last night by NBC News chairman Andy Lack.

Lauer’s firing comes amid rumors that numerous news outlets were working on stories about the Today anchor alleged sexual misconduct.

(Excerpt) Read more at pagesix.com ...




GOOD.   F THESE LIBERAL PERVERTS