Thinking this over.
-The statute of limitations has passed, which speaks again to the necessity of reporting incidents when they occur.
-Even in this day and age, she's being harassed online for talking about it, which speaks again to the difficulty of reporting incidents at all.
-Vice President Biden called her a liar through his spokesperson. I don't believe him. I believe her. She has no motive and seems credible.
-The difference between how the media and the Democratic Party addressed accusations against then-candidate Donald Trump and these accusations is an indication of the media's and the Democratic Party's lack of genuine investment in women's equality. There was another candidate to choose; that was Senator Sanders. It's true that the basis of the U.S. system is to presume innocence until there is proof of guilt. However, the media and the Democratic Party almost totally ignored Ms. Reade, when there should have been questions and there should have been discussion. Vice President Biden was protected from the level of scrutiny that Ms. Reade's allegations should have brought about, especially considering concerns mentioned by other women before.
-The message that's being consistently sent, year after year, is that committing sexual assault does not preclude success at anything as long as nobody finds out about it in time for a prosecution, or too many people think of you as being valuable for them to agree to have you treated like anyone else, or you have enough money to defend yourself in court for years while your victim's life is destroyed, or any number of combinations of these markers of inequality.
-I think it's also worth saying now that there just aren't a lot of stories out there about impoverished, socially insignificant men sexually abusing wealthy, powerful women. There aren't stories about them getting away with it. It just doesn't happen that often. Maybe that's why so many wealthy, powerful women have no empathy for people who are abused that way. You'd think they'd want to help, but most of them don't care any more than their male counterparts do. Since wealthy, powerful men are more prone to listening to wealthy, powerful women than any other kind of women, that silence and indifference have had more force for centuries than people who make generalizations about men and women tend to recognize.
-The worst possible result of our current political situation, in which the Democratic Party and the media have sadly proven what I've been saying about their hypocrisy since the 2016 election, is for all discussion of sexual assault and the dynamics of gender and power to cease.
