With Al Franken added to the list of gropers and Bill Clinton's sins being revisited, this overdue reckoning for millennia of male sexual predation rings hollow as long as the Groper in Chief reigns undisturbed. Imagine: one case after another being subjected to intense public scrutiny and shaming, while Donald Trump careens on, unmolested so to speak, despite 16 documented cases of sexual harassment, coercion or even rape.
This is the beginning of a revolution. But Trump's impunity mocks it.
In 1998, I was the only liberal columnist to call for Bill Clinton's resignation. I believed then—and now—that Democrats were making a colossal moral and tactical error by defending Clinton. Had he resigned, Al Gore would have likely won easily in 2000. More men would have thought twice about harassing or assaulting women.
If this revolution is to be real, justice cries out, not just for Weinstein, Cosby, Moore, et al, but for Donald Trump to be held accountable.
As for Franken, we will soon see if this sleazy episode was a one-off or a pattern. If it was a pattern, he needs to go. Two of the best feminist writers—Joan Walsh and Michelle Goldberg—make the case for allowing him to stay, or demanding that he go.
The case of Franken is a close question. Trump's sordid and serial history is not.
