It seems there is a certain pattern surrounding #MeToo survivors in politics. Recently, Senator Al Franken spoke about his resignation while pointing out the irony that we have a president who bragged about sexually assaulting women along with a senator candidate, Roy Moore, who is an accused child molester and has the support of the Republican party.

There cannot be this disconnect between our morality and our political party. We must hold politicians accountable for their actions regardless of their politics.

In the case of Moore, eight women have come out with allegations of sexual assault. Most of these women were teenagers at the time of the crime. And yet, Mitch McConnell, who at first was hesitant to endorse Moore, has now given him his unwavering support. President Donald Trump has told the people of Alabama to “get out and vote for Roy Moore.”

Ironically, the Republican party prides itself on being the party of family values, but it has chosen to abandon those values for a seat in the senate.

Moore claims that these accusations are false, blaming Democrats and the LGBTQ community for cooking up a “conspiracy” to ruin his campaign. However, Beverly Nelson, who accused Moore of sexually assaulting her at age 16, was a Trump supporter, making it unlikely that she would lie so that a Democrat could obtain the Senate seat.

Unfortunately, Moore has still maintained support from Alabama voters, convincing them to vote for him and put their morals aside. He is using the fact that his opponent is pro-choice, or as Moore calls it, “pro-abortion,” to rile up his voters and make them forget about his accusers.

The Democrats had a different approach to dealing with sexual misconduct, specifically in Franken’s case. Franken’s actions are inexcusable and it was right for women in the Democratic party to call for his resignation. They chose not to put their morals aside and stood up for survivors.

Still, Franken never even apologized to his accusers in his resignation speech, which poses a big issue. Even if it is true that, by definition, there was no sexual misconduct, he still could have apologized to the women and stated that their feelings are valid.

However, even with Franken, the issue of people not believing accusers still exists.

In a recent news segment, Mika Brzezinski inferred that in the case of the first woman to accuse Franken, Leeann Tweeden, posing for Playboy and voting for President Trump had something to do with her allegations. This could be true, but using such harmful rhetoric and reasoning is furthering our victim-blaming rape culture.

While it may have been a strategic political move, the Democratic party made the right choice in calling for Franken’s resignation. Meanwhile, the Republican party will most likely have an accused child molester in the Senate.

Hopefully, these incidents will force us to question why we still have a president who has not only been accused of sexual assault himself, but has also shamelessly bragged about it.

Our society is still trivializing sexual assault for political gain. It is time we take a hard look at what we are doing here and change how we view sexual assault within politics.

Jaime is a sophomore in LAS.

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