Everyone Deserves to Live Under the Biden Standard

It’s just basic American due process, so why is Betsy DeVos getting slammed?

Why should Joe Biden get due process, but not others accused of sexual misconduct?

That’s the question raised by the progressive reaction to Tara Reade’s accusation against Biden on the one hand, and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s new rules for handling sexual-harassment cases on college campuses on the other.

There have been voices on the left who believe Reade, but generally the note has been one of skepticism about her allegation, along with admonitions that the evidence must be considered carefully.

Many of the popularizers of the phrase “believe women” have climbed down to simply saying that women’s accusations should be heard and then evaluated in light of the facts.

In other words, what any fair-minded person has maintained throughout the #MeToo era, including during the Brett Kavanaugh battle.

And yet there is still progressive outrage over the new Title IX rules developed by DeVos that seek to bring balance and fairness to the consideration of accusations against people who aren’t the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the United States.

The actor/activist Alyssa Milano, an erstwhile vocal advocate of “believe women,” has now modulated her view to accommodate her continued support of Biden. She explains that we need to shift our mindset “to believing women. But that does not mean at the expense of giving men their due process and investigating situations, and it’s got to be fair in both directions.”