Responding to the charges of sexual misconduct against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo that seem to be emerging on a daily basis, in her Washington Post column Ruth Marcus wonders what we’ve learned in these 30 years after Anita Hill’s charges against then-Supreme Court appointee Clarence Thomas?
Every high-profile sexual harassment case raises, and helps resolve, questions of crime and punishment: what behavior is acceptable, how workplaces should respond and what price must be paid.
At this late stage, in 2021, one could be forgiven for wondering, with no small degree of exasperation, whether the perpetrators will ever learn. So it is possible to examine the stream of allegations about Cuomo and ask: Really? Has nothing changed?
But there is another, more hopeful interpretation: What once was commonplace — bosses asking out subordinates, co-workers making crude sexual remarks — is now understood to be forbidden, a career-killer.
To be truthful I don’t think that’s what we’ve learned at all. I think there have been major transformations in private workplaces but for elected officials we’ve learned that as long as you don’t resign and the press doesn’t turn against you, you’ll weather the charges.
There are multiple reasons the press might not turn against an elected official accused of sexual misconduct including
- They like you
- They like what you stand for
- They’re afraid of you
- They harnessed their own fates to yours
What we have learned I think is that if a politician just holds on they can count on voters to mostly forget. When it happens and gets covered is much more important than what the press does. Also, it is only a career killer if you get caught. With these guys it is pretty rarely just one incident. They manage to do it over and over and nothing happens, then act all indignant when they get caught.
Steve
Bill Clinton, John Kennedy, Eric Swalwell and Andrew Cuomo walk into a bar and order a drink from Coon Man…….