Hypocrisy of Democracy

How Joe Biden’s cult of personality harms women

As Joe Biden’s political campaign was
resurrected just over a month ago, so were conversations about his
inappropriate touching. From YouTube compilations to firsthand accounts, the
stories are impossible to ignore. But that’s exactly what the Democratic party
and his supporters are doing.

The allegations against Biden date back to
2019, when Lucy Flores, a lawyer and former member of the
Nevada legislature, described how Biden smelled her hair and gave her a “big
slow kiss” on the back of her head at a 2014 campaign event. After Flores’s
account, seven other women came forward with their own stories of inappropriate
touching. All of them became punchlines, Biden was labeled as clueless, but
harmless, and he went on to dominate the Democratic election.

In dismissing Flores and the other women’s
claims, Biden supporters and the Democratic party took a page out of Trump’s
playbook, shrugging off their concerns as being part of a political hit, a
concerted effort to hand the election to the opposing party. The women became
the aggressors, and Biden was their victim. Flores described how it felt to
watch friends and members of her own party turn against her in an interview
with ***The Washington Post***.

“It has been hurtful (and) disappointing to
see so many people who claim to uphold this higher standard, who claim to be
feminists, who claim to be pro-woman and yet will turn a blind eye to
inappropriate behavior if it’s done by someone they really like,” Flores said.

Then, one of the women who initially came forward
shared more of her story.
Tara Reade talked about her sexual assault at the hands of
Biden during a podcast. Reade’s account described how Biden pushed her up
against a wall and penetrated her with his fingers in 1993 when she worked in
his senate office. Reade said she hesitated to come forward
because there were no witnesses. She was afraid of not being believed, and
that’s exactly what happened. A friend and her brother later confirmed that she
disclosed the assault to them. Just as soon as Reade’s story broke, she was
again dismissed — this time as a Russian agent.

Internet sleuths discovered a post Reade had
published on Medium professing her adoration of Russian President Vladimir
Putin’s leadership as well as the country itself. Reade said that while she did
support Putin for a short time, she stopped once she discovered how domestic
violence was being handled in the country.

Reade’s support for Russia shouldn’t have
caused her story to be dismissed, but it was easier for Biden supporters to
grasp at straws and lay the accusation to rest rather than risk seeing the
outcome of a thorough investigation. Reade disclosed to two people and said she
filed a complaint before leaving her position. In the era of #MeToo, one would
expect Reade’s voice to be amplified, but instead she was silenced by a party
that claims to believe women.

The all-too-common excuses used in these
dismissals are that the victims waited too long to disclose, don’t have a
consistent story or appeared to be comfortable in Biden’s presence, a defense
lodged against Flores when photos from the 2014 campaign event where Biden
touched her showed Flores smiling alongside the presidential candidate. These
women didn’t act the way a victim should, so they’re not believable. He didn’t
mean harm when touching them, so it’s all good. They shouldn’t be so hung up on
their feelings after being touched without consent; after all, we have an
election to win, right? They should fall in line as the man who diminished
their sense of agency comes closer and closer to a position of power. It’s
hypocritical at best and misogynistic at worst. It’s also a story that Anita
Hill is all too familiar with.

Biden led the judiciary committee that forced
Hill to go into graphic detail about the sexual misconduct she endured at the
hands of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearings
in 1991. Biden blocked witnesses who corroborated Hill’s
account, and had stories of their own, from testifying, according to ***The New York Times***. While Biden said
he “regrets” what happened and had a phone call with Hill just before announcing
his candidacy, Hill said she’s still waiting for a real apology.

That seems to be a common thread in Biden
allegations. Although he says what he did was wrong, he seems to stop just
short of saying “I’m sorry.” He excuses himself from the conversation without
ever understanding why what he did was wrong, and “social norms” are no excuse
for this type of behavior. Wherever Biden goes, he leaves a trail of demeaned —
and in one case, assaulted — women.

The most confusing aspect of this debacle is
the fact that his supporters have rallied around him even more in light of the
accusations, as if they can’t wait to elect another predator as president. The
election has become a sick competition between Biden and Trump over who has
received fewer accusations. It’s a competition in which women and survivors
always lose.

According to a 2010 study published in Violence Against Women, a peer-reviewed
academic journal, 5% of reported rapes are false accusations. When accounting
for unreported rapes, that figure drops down to 0.005% of all rapes. I believe
Tara Reade and will continue to believe her unless a thorough investigation
proves otherwise. I believe that all of the women who have come forward have
raised valid concerns. I believe Biden owes them all an actual apology and I
don’t believe he is fit to run for president. After years of being silent,
women are starting to speak out. It’s about time we listened.