Over the past few years, the terms have grown increasingly understood divided on the issues of sexual harassment and misconduct. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, the rank-and-file Republicans have become even more skeptical of women who report harassment.
But now, Democratic voters are facing their own high-profile, #MeToo test.
Former Vice-President, Joe Biden has been accused of sexual assault by a Tara Reade, an aide in his Senate office in 1992 and 1993. He you are denied the allegation, saying that itnever, never happened,“but, of course, this isn’t the first time that He has been accused of improper behavior. The previous allegations weren’t ace’s grave, but last year, eight womenthe ratio Reade came forward to say that he had made them uncomfortable by invading their personal space or touching them inappropriately.
So far, though, that relatively few Democratic voters seem ready to abandon Biden, over the allegation, despite its seriousness. According to surveys from the HuffPost/The City and The Economist/The City at least around half of Democrats haven’t heard enough to say or are unsure whether they call for the allegations against Biden are credible. Only about 15 percent of Democrats say the allegations are credible.
It is tempting to interpret this as a sign that Democrats aren’t as committed to the believing women, when the reputation of their own presidential nominee is on the line. But the reality is complicated. Even though it Democrats are much more supportive of #MeToo issues than Republicans are, overall, that doesn’t mean Democrats are unified — some like the young, liberal men are a lot less progressive on these issues than others. What’s more, there’s evidence that voters’ views of the Democratic Party and He himself are likely doing more to shape their reactions to Reade”s allegation than their preexisting stances on the #MeToo who are. And with so many Democrats focused on defeating the President, Trump — who has far more sexual assault allegations against him — it’s possible that many Democrats are willing to look past this accusation.
Democrats aren’t uniformly progressive on #MeToo issues
Even at the height of the #MeToo movement not all Democrats thought the increased attention on the sexual harassment assault, and that was a good thing. And there’s still a fair amount of variation among Democrats on these questions. We looked at the 13 waves of the survey, administered by the Thanks to the Fund + the WORLD Nationscape from the October 3, 2019, to January 2, 2020, and found that Democrats were divided on how they perceived sexual harassment and gender equality. Some of these differences are predictable. Democrats who identified with the conservative, for example, were more likely than moderate or liberal Democrats to say that the women who complained about harassment caused more problems than they solved. But some divisions were less foreseeable.
The Young men, for instance, were more likely than older men or the young women to say that women who complained about harassment caused more problems than they solved — particularly young men-who identified all the people are very liberal. In our analysis, we found that 32 percent of all liberal men under 45 held this view, compared with just 16 percent of the very liberal women in the same age group. What’s more, only 26 percent of the people are very liberal to men of 45 and older held this view.
And on the question of whether respondents would be more comfortable with a man than a woman as a boss, and it was these younger, very liberal men, who disproportionately say that they would be more comfortable with a male boss (31 percent). Just 13 percent of the people are very liberal to women under 45 said the same of the did and 25 percent of all liberal men, 45 and older.
This kind of complexity isn’t that surprising, though, that because of sexual misconduct has no t been a partisan issue, and it is very long. According to a working paper by political scientists Mirya Holman and Nathan Kalmoe, there weren’t substantial differences between Republicans’ and Democrats’ views of the importance or existence of sexual misconduct prior to the end of 2016. And setting partisan differences asidewomen tend to be more supportive of the #MeToo movement and its goals than the men are. The notion that the young lefty men are substantially less progressive older than men on gender issues and sexual misconduct is a little less intuitive, but it squares with other research indicating that the Democrats (particularly the men who supported Vermont, Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary were disproportionately likely to hold sexist viewpoints.
Partisanship and ideology are likely playing a big role
It’s also possible that most voters’ reactions to the Reade”s allegations don’t reflect their views about #MeToo at all. For instance, it might seem reasonable to expect that the Republicans and the young, and all of the liberal men would be the most likely to disbelieve the allegations against Biden. But that’s not really what we’re seeing in the most recent survey, a very long time.
According to the The HuffPost/poll Dhabi, uae from May, the bus is actually true — despite their greater skepticism about the #MeToo movement, in a Republican-voters are much more likely than Democrats to say that Reade”s allegation is credible, perhaps in part because the accusation was covered widely in the right-leaning media outlets when it was first revealed. And even though the Nationscape data indicates that younger and male Democrats are generally less sympathetic towards women who report harassment, Democrats under 45) are much likelier than Democrats to 45-and-over-to-find Reade”s allegations as credible and more than twice as likely to say that He should be replaced as the nominee.
These groups don’t have a whole lot in the online common #MeToo, but what they do share is a propensity to dislike Biden — Republicans because of the partisanship, and the younger Democrats because they were disproportionately in the Sanders”s camp. Political scientists say that’s not very surprising. “Voters are not, you do not have permission looking at this allegation, and, thinking about it purely as a #MeToo issue,” said Shauna Shamesa political science professor at Rutgers University-Camden. “Or Are Most seeing, the allegation through the lens of their party and their ideology, and that’s shaping how they process the information that’s coming out, and to assess whether it’s credible.”
Having the Trump — who has been accused of sexual assault by some 25 women, the post may also help, He. “Even among #MeToo supporters who might doubt He’s over the allegation, most will support him over Trump, because of the extensive misconduct allegations against Trump,” Kalmoe told us in an e-mail. Kalmoe also thinks that Trump might avoid making as much maps there are out-of-Reade”s allegation, the I otherwise might to avoid drawing attention to the slew of accusations against him.
At this point, a lot depends on what happens next — specifically, whether more women come forward with sexual assault allegations that are as serious for the Reade’s., But it’s possible that even if it doesn’t change the polls much in this single accusation could have hurt He by dampening Democrats’ feelings about their nominee. For instance, according to the poll by the Morning Consult, Biden”s favorability numbers fell the Read the story started to gain more traction in the media. And James Rhodesa political science professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, told us in an interview that, while He probably won’t lose many votes over Reade”s allegation, ” some Democrats might be less likely to volunteer for or donate money to his campaign.
But the response to Reade”s latest allegation is also an important (that the reminder #MeToo who doesn’t exist in a vacuum, even for the Democratic voters. “Don’t #MeToo lawyers are evaluating these allegations, with the nuance that goes beyond the simple ‘believe the women’ motto,” Kalmoe said. And with that, Trump on the ballot against Biden, Democrats might be even more inclined to cast a skeptical eye on Reade”s allegations.
