The list just keeps growing and growing…Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Louis C.K., Dustin Hoffman…and that’s just Hollywood, and that list is far from complete.
Every day it seems we have another politician’s name added to the same list. Dennis Hastert, Anthony Weiner, Mel Reynolds…more than one U.S. President.
Some are pretty clear cut – the Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey sexual accusations are so numerous and specific (not to mention those men have admitted their awful behaviors) that the court of public opinion has essentially closed those cases. Though actual courts may yet punish Weinstein and Spacey, the court of public opinion cannot fine or jail people, so the rules, as we’ve discussed in this column previously, are different.
The punishment in the court of public opinion is shaming and admonishment, or at the very least (or worst, to some people), to stop talking about that person forever. They are banished from public discussion, at least in any positive way.
When Bill Cosby’s name is brought up publicly now and forever, it’s about his numerous rape allegations, not his contributions to comedy and American culture. The judge and jury in the court of public opinion is indeed the public, and those rules evolve and change as our culture does. And these rules are clearly evolving, as we speak.
Sexual harassment and extremely inappropriate behavior in the workplace are often (but not always) about power. Many women have not spoken up about men’s bad behavior in the past because they didn’t want to lose their jobs, or even their entire careers. When you’re talking about politics though, the rules (up until very recently) seem to bend.
If the accused politician is on “your side” the immediate reflex for many is to defend. If it’s one of the other ones, he needs to resign (or be publicly admonished) immediately.

Yes, each case is different. Repeated patting or grabbing of a girl on the rear end (what George H.W. Bush has been accused of, now by dozens of women, some while he was president) is objectifying and offensive, but it doesn’t deserve the same public opinion punishment as, say, allegedly raping a woman in a hotel room (what Juanita Broaddrick has accused Bill Clinton of doing in 1978). But the immediate jump to the defense of a politician “on your team,” I believe, is what’s now coming to an end.
Can this be taken too far? Of course. A woman (or a man for that matter) can always make up an allegation out of thin air for a variety of reasons. Three Duke Lacrosse players in 2006 were falsely accused of rape. Rolling Stone magazine recently was punished (in an actual court) for fabricating key parts of a rape-on-college-campuses story. And for politics, it’s not difficult to imagine someone from the other side making something up, without evidence, to take down any particular politician.
Ted Cruz, for example, was accused without evidence during the presidential primary last year of an extramarital affair by a solitary accuser, but that story soon disappeared.
The court of public opinion must hear each case separately, but the standards should be the same. If there’s a preponderance of evidence that ‘Politician X’ did very bad things, the public opinion court has a duty to convict (again, not in the form of jail but of public shame, removal from office, etc.) Politician X. And yes, that preponderance of evidence can often take the form of multiple accusers.
As for the most contemporary stories, I believe the accusers in both cases. There have been too many women (seven and counting) in Alabama Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Roy Moore’s past to believe they’re all just making it up. For Minnesota Democrat U.S. Senator Al Franken, there are only two women at press time who have accused him of extremely inappropriate behavior in separate incidents, but there’s physical evidence — an actual photograph of him pretending to grope a woman’s chest who was sleeping on a plane.
I think what we’re hopefully seeing right in front of our eyes, with both the Moore and Franken stories, is an untethering of politics from accusations. When (not if) a future politician is accused of something really bad, the court of public opinion needs to try that case based on the evidence and accuser(s) stories, not on any political allegiance.
 That’s not only fair to the concept of intellectual honesty and integrity, but most importantly, to the victims of these behaviors.

Michael Koolidge lives in Rochelle and hosts the regionally syndicated radio program The Michael Koolidge Show (www.koolidge.com) heard daily on ten radio stations statewide, including Rockford’s 1440 WROK from 9 to 11 a.m. live every weekday morning. Mike will be broadcasting LIVE this Wednesday at Salt 251 in Rochelle from 9 to 11 a.m., and will later that day co-host the Thanksgiving Eve Bash with The Vodka Boys & Burn N Bush from 7 to 11 p.m., where Chicago Bulls, Cubs and Kenny Chesney tickets will be given away as door prizes. Public officials and citizens can reach the show anytime at radio@koolidge.com or 815-561-7130.