Joe Biden has been accused on a podcast of sexual assault. The accuser is Tara Reade, a 1990’s staffer for the then Delaware Senator who describes the encounter in great detail.
According to Reade, in 1993 she encountered Biden whilst on an assignment to deliver him some items he required. Reade says Biden began kissing her without her permission, he pushed her against a wall, reached under her skirt, and penetrated her with his fingers.
“For me, it was like, everything shattered. I looked up to him, he was like my father’s age, he was this champion of women’s rights, in my eyes. I couldn’t believe it was happening. It was surreal.”
So what do we do with this accusation? Well, those on the left of politics have given us the road-map to what’s next thanks to the #MeToo movement and the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court.
When Christine Blasey Ford brought forward her accusations of sexual assault against Brett Kavanaugh there were several main points put out by the supporters (of which I was one) of Blasey Ford as to why she was believable.
- What’s in it for her?
- Why would she put herself up for attack by a sector of the public?
- Coming forward wasn’t going to gain Ford anything.
- And of course the much criticised, ‘believe all women’
Many are not on board with the ‘believe all women’…maybe if the hashtag was ‘believe all credible stories’ many would be better as a way to support victims of crimes, but ‘all’ women is seen as silly to many as ‘believe all men’. Some men lie, some women lie, some men are mistaken, some women are mistaken…so we weigh up the context of the accusation and then decide whether we believe them or not…however this might be a minority position on the left as many do take on the mantra…believe all women…including one Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.
On the Blasey Ford case, Joe Biden stated…
“For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is real,”
So here is where politics has a chance to continue to be at it’s worse, or maybe we get to show that not all political movements are equally fucked.
To the left, if the catch cry of ‘believe all women’ was good enough for supporting of Blasey Ford, then it is for good enough to support Tara Reade and her story now. If you now change your position on why to support a story, just because it may affect your political candidate then you are no different to the GOP supporters that threw Blasey Ford under the bus.
You cannot have your cake and eat it too. If you’re not consistent in these situations your position means nothing.
