Morning Consult has found that public support for the resignation of elected officials credibly accused of sexual misconduct has slid by a staggering 18 points from December of 2017 until now. This is yet another poll that confirms a disturbing trend, indicating that public support for the #MeToo movement began to erode after the confirmation fiasco of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Among Republicans, support for politicians’ resignations fell 13 points, from 48% to 35%. But the overall drop was driven more by the fact that Democratic support decreased by 20 points, from 62% to 42%. Support among independents fell the most, from 58% to 36%. Overall, the same proportion of voters says that credibly accused elected officials should not resign as those who say they should.
We can pretty much pinpoint the moment of Republican backlash to the #MeToo movement to October 2018, when Morning Consult also found that that Republican support for the movement as a whole fell by seven points in just five months. By contrast, support among Democrats increased by two points in that amount of time. But now, Democratic voters are reaping the standards that their party leadership has sown. As Joe Biden faces a credible sexual assault allegation backed by at least one contemporaneously corroborating witness, far more evidence than any of the claims against Kavanaugh ever had, Democrats have begun to run away from the #MeToo movement.
The #MeToo movement initially was not about some bogus and obviously made-to-be-weaponized “right” to be believed but rather the understanding that victims of sexual misconduct have the right to be heard and taken seriously and if their claims came with sufficient evidence to see their assailants face real social consequences. One of those consequences was obviously the resignation of public figures, including credibly accused politicians.
And it’s not just a handful of Morning Consult polls. As I wrote a year ago:
“Prior to the Kavanaugh hearings, PerryUndem found that fewer than one in five Republican men were more inclined to believe a man accused of assault than the woman accusing him. Today that figure has spiked to more than one in three.”
Now, Democrats seem to have followed suit.
Good faith conservatives warned Democrats that perverting #MeToo evidentiary standards to that of considering allegations in and of themselves to be clear proof of wrongdoing would come back to bite them. Now, it finally has, and the Democratic Faustian bargain to destroy Kavanaugh has come full circle, murdering the #MeToo movement in the process.
