Sexual Harassment Epidemic.

When the rules change, history crawls back to bite you.  The question is, who is getting bitten? 

Democrats and the progressive left have been having a good run, pointing out sexual harassment abuses.  

It feels right, but it may be backfiring.

America has rediscovered sexual harassment with the revelations of Harvey Weinstein's behavior.  "Casting couch seduction" is a familiar cliche, basis of jokes, and even a genre of pornography.  Apparently Weinstein made the cliche a practice.

Women have risen up.  Sexual harassment in the workplace is both wrong and pervasive.  There is a round of accusations in newsrooms, in offices everywhere, in government.  Prominent men are accused, shamed, and fired.

A State Senator in Oregon was stripped of his committee assignments last week.  Today an Oregon House member got publicly shamed.

It appears to be a victory for new rules.  

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A news story in the Oregonian newspape describes Oregon House member David Gomberg being accused of "inappropriate" behavior, the response to it by the House leadership, and Gomberg's own response: immediate submission.

The circumstances were that two people brought complaints to House Speaker Tina Kotek saying involving some unrevealed incidents of several years prior of "inappropriate humor or inappropriate touching" and "invasion of personal space."   Kotek said the actual incidents needed to be kept confidential at the request of the complainants and that "legal advisors did not believe the behavior rose to the level of formal workplace harassment, we nonetheless took these incidents very seriously."

The article said Gomberg met with Kotek and took "serious and immediate steps to adjust my behavior," and would get counseling.   "I want to say to anyone in the Capitol community that I may have offended or made the least bit uncomfortable that I am fully and sincerely sorry."

The House speaker considered the matter completed for now:  The article reported "Kotek said her goal has always been to resolve problems 'to the satisfaction of the person who's brought the complaint' and said she believes her office has done that.

Apologies.  Shame.  Ask forgiveness.

Meanwhile, a prominent local Democratic activist did an online confession on Facebook, which engendered an outpouring of positive responses.

The Facebook confession and apology makes sense in this wave of heightened awareness and consciousness.  He has been re-educated and is remorseful.  It is clearly heartfelt.

This Facebook post may be the front edge of a larger wave of good, serious discussion of an uncomfortable past.  Our consciousnesses have been raised, and for the better.  Right?

The Democratic and progressive left is using shaming as a tool.  Public identification of moral error--shaming--is a powerful weapon.  The left feels confident. Justice is justice.  Right is right.

I hear alarm bells.  

Donald Trump was caught red handed abusing women in a predatory and vulgar manner, yet won a majority of the vote of white women. White women had a candidate who expressed and embodied the interests and values of modern feminists on reproductive issues, on job equity issues, on child care and health care equity, but they voted for Donald Trump.   

It seems strange.  Something unintuitive must be going on.  Maybe the shaming isn't working.

An on-going theme of his campaigns and rallies was "political correctness." He did not walk on eggshells, carefully avoiding making offense and discomfort.  He took the opposite tack from that contrite Oregon House member. He represented rejection of contrition.  He represented freedom from eggshell walking.  Mexicans?  A bunch of criminals.  Muslims?  A bunch of terrorists.  Women accusers?  A bunch of liars.  

Still for sale at full price.

Trump counterpunches.  He does not apologize or submit to the shaming.  He does not express remorse for making others "the least bit uncomfortable."  He denies.  He accuses his accusers of bad motives and hypocrisy.  

His electoral reward was victory.  

Trump understood something about the electorate that Democrats may be underestimating:  most people do not like being shamed. A great many voters felt shamed by the progressive left for having feelings that have become forbidden, including feelings of racial resentment, feelings of discomfort and fear of Muslims, feelings of confusion over the changing landscape of acceptable conduct.  They were deplorable.

The fact that there may in actual fact be racism and prejudice doesn't make things better.  It makes things worse.  Feelings of guilt makes the accusation sting all the worse.  The human response is to deny, minimize, or divert to accusations of the accuser.  Hillary Clinton represented the mean schoolmarm, the scold, the accuser. The accused were delighted to think she was crooked, because it diverts the guilt.  People under suspicion included nearly everyone:  white people, males, heterosexuals, even Democrats of high consciousness.

In this context Trump was not defined as a grievous sinner and offender. Trump was their rescuer.

Most people don't like having their inner thoughts, behaviors judged harshly. They were told they were bad and they didn't like it.