Opinion: Political party should not matter when it comes to sexual misconduct

When allegations of sexual harassment came to light against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, there was a noticeable lack of fervor associated with investigating it as there has been for other politicians. Cuomo is one of the top Democrats in the U.S. and has been one of the main political figures when it comes to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. Thankfully, there have been plenty of people, outside of politics and some in the Democratic party, calling on Cuomo to resign. The situation is reminding of the allegations of sexual misconduct that were levied against President Joe Biden, during the presidential campaign. The only major difference is that Cuomo has now apologized for his behavior, but has resisted resigning as of now. It seems that Cuomo hopes to just ride out the storm and wait for the problem to go away. This strategy has worked for Governor Northam in Virginia when he faced calls to resign due to his participation in a racist picture in his college yearbook. Likewise, Biden rode out the storm of his sexual misconduct allegations and they are hardly a topic of discussion.

I would like to compare this now to how former President Trump was attacked for his alleged sexual misconduct throughout the years. To be clear, I 100% think that all of these situations should be completely investigated and if guilty, the people in question should at least resign and probably be prosecuted. There seems to be a double standard for when a Republican is accused of sexual misconduct versus when a Democrat is accused of the same. Political party should not matter in the slightest when it comes to sexual misconduct. If it does, the negative reactions to them are not based on values and are instead based on whether my team did it or not. It goes without saying that this is morally abhorrent. No one should ever be sexually mistreated in any way and it should not matter who the perpetrator is or what political party they belong to. Sexual misconduct is always wrong and those guilty should be taken to task. Full stop.