TWO FRONTRUNNERS, MULTIPLE ALLEGATIONS

With Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders now officially out of the running for the Oval Office in November, the lineup for the next phase of fiery election debate is all but guaranteed.

Ex-Vice President and very likely Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden has not slowed in his continued rise in popularity among “blue” voters, and President Donald Trump’s determination to win re-election has not been discouraged by “red” voters, either.

While they might not be as far apart as many voters may wish in terms of policy, at the end of the day both candidates are backed by very different groups of people with very different beliefs and priorities. While it is true that Biden was by no means everyone’s first choice as the nominee, it seems as though that is beside the point now, unfortunately.
However, a troubling similarity appears to be present among these two men.

During the 2016 presidential election, discussion on the numerous sexual abuse allegations against then-candidate Trump reached an explosive peak when, late in his campaign, a tape-recording capturing his bragging about his habitual assault of women’s bodies became public. One could have easily assumed this would spell the end of his potential political career; and many observers did, in fact, predict this with a disturbed confidence. And quite disturbing the bragging was, to put it as lightly as possible.

Of course, this predicted collapse was not to be the case.

As we all will never forget, Trump successfully won the office with the help of a much-criticized electoral college advantage. And all that we seemed to see come of the assault furor from his followers was a viral image of a female supporter showing off home-made “TRUMP CAN GRAB MY [PUSSY]” T-shirt.

The voting citizens of the United States had all heard him proudly confess his disregard for an entire gender’s personal safety, and our 45th commander-in-chief he became, regardless.

It is a possibility in 2020 we may be making this mistake again, on the opposite side of the partisan aisle.

Biden’s strange, clearly personal-space-invading behaviors have long been observed by those in both parties. Many recorded instances of his insistent touching and cryptic/creepy comments are now online, for anyone to search and see for themselves. Though he has recently spoken on this issue and implied an admission of missing out on modern social cues – until corrected – Biden remains rather unapologetic.

This makes potentially much-more-troubling allegations seem more likely to hold truth, in many’s eyes. Allegations such as the one recently disclosed by a former staff worker in his Senate office that seems to be gaining further traction every day, whether properly founded or not.

Both candidate’s shared personal demographic, that being older, straight and cis white men, has been commented on frequently. Perhaps it is relevant in this circumstance: Is it a place of privilege more likely to leave each man blind to potential offense? Or further evidence of a position from which it is easier to take advantage of others and walk away practically unscathed?

Or perhaps the specifically-political aspect is a larger part of the picture than we know. Regardless, the closer we get to that fateful November night, the more judgment becomes that much more important in our country’s final decision.