"By Deserting Franken, Democrats Show They Dont Understand Gender Politics, or Maybe Politics in [View all]

General"

snip..."It’s hard to fathom that, as public policy disasters surface from all directions and engage decent Americans of both parties in a desperate game of whack-a-mole, the Democrats decided to draw their “line” at the behavior of Senator Al Franken. How different this week might have gone if Democrats had asked their base about the moral high ground instead of taking their cues from Republicans.

But Democrats didn’t ask us, and by deserting Senator Franken, they confirmed they don’t understand gender politics or much about sexual misconduct in the workplace at all. There is no greater disservice to women than creating an equivalency—a completely false equivalency—between the behavior of which Senator Franken is accused and the accusations against (Senator-to-be?) Moore, which include abduction and assault of a child. And yet this is the the false equivalency affirmed by Senator Gillibrand when she called for Franken’s resignation."

snip

..."It was awfully sad to see Senator Gillibrand, my hero for her past work on sexual assault policy, lead the charge to get rid of Senator Franken. Instead of using the Franken case as an important moment to open a national dialogue about how to define, view, and classify different types of sexist behavior, harassment, and sexual misconduct, she just took the Republican bait and equated Franken with Moore.

The Franken episode reveals that Democrats are in the dark about gender politics at this rare moment when the topic of women in the workplace is actually trending. While we seem to have a vague understanding that sexual misconduct is rooted in power dynamics, we’re still not connecting it to pay equity, or access to opportunities. These are core issues that ensure men have the power that frankly creates the conditions for harassment and misconduct."

snip

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/by-deserting-franken-democrats-show-they-dont-understand_us_5a2aa209e4b022ec613b8146

I wish I could paste the full column here but we have a 4 pgh. limit. The author raises a LOT of good points, IMHO.