Why Hasn’t The #MeToo Movement Taken Down Trump?

Men of all colors, shapes, and ideologies are dropping off like flies. Here one day, gone the next. Movie stars, directors, musicians, congressional leaders – watching people fall off their pedestals has become a daily sporting event, with all the excitement of underdogs and upsets.  Graphic accusations of pedophilia against Roy Moore pushed a Democrat into an Alabama Senate seat last week. Sunday, Politico published a piece about how the “wave of misconduct” allegations is reshaping the 2018 election. Did I mention that a Democrat won a Senate seat in Alabama last week? God, is that you?

Accused child molester and Senate Candidate Roy Moore rode to the ballot box on a horse. He became the first Republican to lose to a seat to a Democrat in Alabama since 1990.

But as of this very moment, as I type these words, the man sitting in the Oval Office has yet to answer for his own allegations of sexual misconduct lodged by at least 19 different women. That’s 19 individual women who claim Trump sexually harassed or assaulted them, and he’s still the president. Hell, he’s basically being investigated for treason and, to this day, he’s managed to sidestep (many) accusations of being a sexual predator.

How is that a thing?

If you were holding out hope that Trump too would face his moment of reckoning, today’s statement by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia probably makes you feel about as good as a night of heavy Tequila consumption on an empty stomach. In an interview on CNN’s New Day program, Manchin said he’s “moved on” from the president’s allegations. In his view, the people already held court during last year’s election. 

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.

Approximately 25 percent of eligible voters cast ballots for Trump in 2016, which is roughly 19 percent of the total US population. Somehow just one-fourth of American voters decided that despite Trump’s accusers, he was fit to hold the highest office in the land.   And Manchin agrees with them.  The fact that Senator Manchin is up for reelection in 2018, in a largely Republican state, may have something to do with his assessment. And that there is the mathematics of political convenience (cough, hypocrisy, cough). Standing up for victims of sexual misconduct is the right thing to do…until your own job may be on the line, then it becomes an inconvenience. Okay, got it.

What message does this send to people who have taken the risk to come forward, and to the countless others who haven’t yet spoken out?

I’ll tell you what it says. It says, “Bitch, please.”

Please, go on long enough to let us respond with shock and horror, thoughts and prayers, and make it look like we actually give a shit about your plight. And please, shut up when it’s convenient and we think you’ve served your political purpose. And please…you didn’t really think we’d hold the most powerful man in the world accountable for touching some woman’s vagina without her permission, did you? Really? Bitch, please.

you didn’t really think we’d hold the most powerful man in the world accountable for touching some woman’s vagina without her permission, did you? Really? Bitch, please.

It says that there’s an end, there’s a limit to what we, I, can complain about. Because if you’re not willing to take the swatter of accountability on up the chain to the person who sets the tone for the nation, what exactly are you doing? What are you ensuring us? Nothing. You’re telling us that we matter, but only to a certain extent.

Trust me, people affected by sexual assault already know that’s there’s a short point to which we matter. We live with that knowledge. Every. Damn. Day.

Will the movement do more harm than good if it turns out that all this support is just for show, if we cherry-pick who should be held accountable and who should not? Will we be left feeling deflated and defeated, again? If the train of reckoning stops short of the White House, we’ll know exactly where we stand – right back in the shadows of powerful men. All that hope for sustainable change could be tossed aside like so many victims before.

I offer up this nugget of advice for those playing politics over people: make sure that what’s good for the goose is just as good for the gander. If you investigate one, investigate them all. Simple.

Because at the end of the day, a pig is still a pig regardless of whether it wears a donkey or elephant suit, whether it works in a corporate cube farm or holds the highest office in the land. If you’re really worried about your reelection, take a moment to realize that women outnumber men in the United States and that we turn out more consistently to vote. Now, consider the power of a woman scorned and multiply that by millions.

Bitch, please.