Some interesting grist for the mill, as partisans on both sides shriek at each other over tribal hypocrisy regarding sexual misconduct allegations. Democrats' zeal for blasting political figures like President Trump and Roy Moore has been met with cries of "what about Bill Clinton?" from Republicans, who can't stomach shameless lectures from erstwhile loyal wagon-circlers for the 42nd president. But now that allegations of sexual harassment and abuse are breaking into the open across multiple prominent industries, a cultural watershed has arrived. Many liberals who'd run interference for Bill Clinton for decades are now having second thoughts, cranking out columns and statements that we've been covering. Better late than never, I suppose -- and the rapid (quasi) abandonment of Al Franken by lefties suggests that the tipping point may be real -- but Allahpundit and Ben Shapiro can't abide the self-serving cynicism of it all. AP:
The stench of opportunism is so thick, it’s suffocating. Only now, 20 years later, with the Clintons at the nadir of their political influence and a storm of sexual misconduct allegations in the media raging against left- and right-wingers alike to provide cover — only now is it safe to say, “Yeah, in hindsight, that wasn’t very woke of us”? Democrats had an opportunity just 18 months ago to reckon with Bill’s behavior and Hillary’s enabling of it by denying her their party’s nomination and they punted again. There’s not a right-winger from coast to coast who believes this sudden moment of candor about Bill’s scumbaggery would be nearly as candid if he and Hillary were in the White House today, assuming the moment came at all. Despite proudly proclaiming themselves the party of feminism, most Democrats would have approached it the same way most Republican voters approached the sexual assault allegations against Trump and the same way most Alabama Republican voters will approach the allegations against Roy Moore — the party simply has too much invested in this particular person to believe the accusations against him, no matter how credible.
The Democrats aimed at Roy Moore, but Bill Clinton was standing in their way. So Bill Clinton is now a smoldering husk of humanity. After Hillary Clinton’s presidential loss, it became both convenient and useful to discard her alleged sexual predator spouse — a man the media feted repeatedly last year as a halcyon of decency. Now, Bill could safely be relegated to the semen-stained ashbin of history. And so Bill Clinton has become the Barry Bonds of politics: a once-celebrated superhero, now disgraced...Ygelsias says that Republicans shouldn’t have bothered going after Clinton for perjury. Instead, they should have used the feminist line that Lewinsky had been cudgeled into her affair — they should have said that Clinton’s seduction of Lewinsky was “morally bankrupt and contributing, in a meaningful way, to a serious social problem that disadvantages millions of women throughout their lives.” Which, of course, wouldn’t have worked, since the Left at the time suggested that Monica was a slut who wanted Bill, not a victimized innocent pressured by the most powerful man on Earth. Had the Right suggested that Bill used his superior position to get Lewinsky to service him, the Left immediately would have called them sexist for depriving Lewinsky of “agency.” That’s the beautiful convenience of Leftist sexual morality: it’s utterly malleable to the political needs of the moment.
Times have changed, some liberals say, waving away concerns about Democrats' behavior vis-a-vis Clinton in the 1990's. It was years ago. But as AP noted above, and others are pointing out, the party's protection and celebration of their longtime hero carried on until about seven minutes ago:
This might be vaguely convincing if any of this new generation had thought to say any of this, say, 12 months ago. https://t.co/RwvUT4i43q
— (((Megan McArdle))) (@asymmetricinfo) November 15, 2017
Sure, but WJC spoke at every DNC between then and now and was a major force in I'm With Her. https://t.co/nuBTSee391
— Daniel Foster (@DanFosterType) November 15, 2017
With all that as a backdrop, here's a new poll indicating that a slim majority of Democratic voters are finally willing to countenance the reality of Bill Clinton's serial scumbaggery:
Now that dumping on the Clintons is politically safe, Democrats are willing to do so. Not exactly a profile in courage. But try these survey results from Trump voters on for size. Partisanship is a powerful, powerful drug, friends:
Trump voters saying these sexual harassment claims are credible:
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) November 16, 2017
Bill Clinton 84%
Harvey Weinstein 74%
Bill O’Reilly 18%
Trump 6%
YouGov
Kirsten Powers asks: If you want Franken to resign, why not Trump, too? Yes, there's hard photographic evidence implicating Franken, but there's also hard audio evidence of Trump bragging about getting away with groping women's genitals because he's famous. And O'Reilly? The guy paid one woman (of several) $32 million out of pocket to stay quiet about whatever happened between them. If that's not prima facie proof that the alleged victim's complaint was credible, I don't know what is. A lot of people believe only what they want to believe, period.
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