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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' new rules for handling sexual-harassment cases on campus 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 examined and all such cases vetted carefully.
Many of the popularizers of the phrase 'believe women" have climbed down to simply saying that women's accusations should be heard — which no one seriously disputes — and then considered in light of the factual record and the credibility of the accuser and accused. In other words, what any fair-minded person has maintained throughout the #MeToo era, including during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation 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 Joe 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."
This is an unassailable position, and one that obviously has implications for the Title IX debate. Even if it doesn't entail supporting every particular of DeVos' reforms, it should mean an openness to them and a willingness to move in their general direction. Nonetheless, late last year Milano slammed DeVos over the proposed changes in highly personal terms, and has yet to say that she regrets it in light of her newfound respect for due process.
The upshot of Milano's inconsistency is that a famous and powerful man, whom she happens to know and support, should get more consideration than a young, politically powerless, unknown student somewhere.
A piece at Vox on what 'believe women" means in the context of the Reade allegation quoted Sage Carson, manager of an advocacy organization called Know Your IX. According to Carson, the concept has been twisted 'into this idea that you never provide a fair process for folks to go through."
OK. But her organization has declared war on the DeVos' changes, saying they 'will make schools more dangerous and could push survivors out of school entirely."
An article in Mother Jones reported that anti-sexual assault activists who are continuing to support Biden have a number of reasons. One of them is 'an eagerness to replace Trump's cabinet, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, whose overhaul of campus sexual-assault policy has prompted outcry from survivors."
In other words, Biden gets the benefit of the doubt on Tara Reade explicitly as a means to continue to deny the accused on campus any such benefit of the doubt.
The DeVos changes are meant to inject elementary fairness into campus proceedings that went off the rails in response to Obama administration guidance in 2011. The campus adjudications became so absurdly tilted against the accused that aggrieved students were having considerable success taking their cases to the courts for redress.
The DeVos rules reverse the single-investigator model that empowered one person to investigate a case and recommend a decision.
Now the investigator and adjudicator must be different. Students must have access to evidence, and the accused must know what is alleged and by whom and when.
There must be a live hearing and an opportunity for cross-examination by both sides. Both the accuser and accused should have equal opportunity to present witnesses and evidence.
There can't be any gag rules on the parties, which have often gotten in the way of students trying to defend themselves.
Title IX coordinators and investigators can't be biased one way or the other.
These measures are so in keeping with basic American traditions it's hard to believe that anyone could oppose them.
The ultimate irony is that Joe Biden was a prime mover behind the Obama-era Title IX rules that short-circuited due process on campus. As Robby Soave of Reason magazine notes, 'If the allegation against Biden were being decided by the kind of adjudication system that he helped enshrine of college campuses, it's quite likely that he would be found guilty."
There's a lesson there, although it's doubtful anyone — including Biden himself — is willing to learn it.
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