Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York has found that engaging in the social justice oppression game isn’t all rainbows and gender-neutral sunshine.
Gillibrand ran for her party’s presidential nomination with a campaign solely dedicated to giving shoutouts to as many aggrieved groups as possible: gays, women, blacks, immigrants, transgender people, and so on. Her biggest splash in Washington, D.C., to date is that she was the first Democrat in the Senate to call for the resignation of her former colleague, Al Franken, following accusations of sexual misconduct from several women.
But Gillibrand is apparently no longer interested in carrying the social justice banner. Now that her state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, another Democrat, is facing a seemingly endless line of women accusing him of inappropriate behavior — one former aide claims he reached under her shirt while in the governor’s mansion — the cat has Gillibrand’s tongue.
“Asking every female elected in our state when a person should resign or not resign really isn’t the conversation we should be having,” Gillibrand said in an interview on Tuesday. “And I have to say; it’s exceedingly frustrating because so many men who are also in public leadership aren’t asked these questions day to day. The women in our state are not meant to be judges, jurors, and executioners.”
This is from the woman who once said to “believe women” when they come forward with such accusations. This is from the woman who once, with a straight face, said that “the future is female.”
Several New York Democrats have since called for Cuomo to resign. Many of them are men. But the female future came a little too quickly for Gillibrand, it seems.
