By Zephyr Teachout
I
care passionately about #MeToo. Women are routinely demeaned,
dismissed, discouraged and assaulted. Too many women’s careers are
stymied or ended because of harassment and abuse. In politics, where I
have worked much of my adult life, this behavior is rampant.
I
also believe in zero tolerance. And yet, a lot of women I know — myself
included — were left with a sense that something went wrong last week
with the effective ouster of Al Franken from the United States Senate.
He resigned after a groundswell of his own Democratic colleagues called
for him to step down.
Zero
tolerance should go hand in hand with two other things: due process and
proportionality. As citizens, we need a way to make sense of
accusations that does not depend only on what we read or see in the news
or on social media.
Due
process means a fair, full investigation, with a chance for the accused
to respond. And proportionality means that while all forms of
inappropriate sexual behavior should be addressed, the response should
be based on the nature of the transgressions.
Both
were missing in the hasty call for Senator Franken’s resignation. Some
might point out, rightly, that Congress doesn’t have good procedures for
dealing with harassment accusations. In fact, the congressional process
to date has gone something like this: Lift up the rug and sweep the
accusations underneath. It’s delay, deny, pay hush money and avoid the
consequences.
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Source: The New York Times (via The Empire Report)
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