Al Franken and sexual harassment

People who sexually abuse or sexually harass women should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and they should be publicly shamed. However, I do not agree that we should all become single-issue voters, and that a single instance of inappropriate behavior towards women should automatically disqualify a man from public office, no matter how good he is on the issues.

Faced with a choice between a politician who is known to have made unwanted advances on women, but who will be good for the climate, health care policy, income equality, and other important issues, and a candidate who favors policies that would be horrible on all important issues but whose record with women is perfectly virtuous, it seems we are being told to vote for the political dinosaur. It seems that if Richard Nixon were running against Bill Clinton, we are being urged to vote for Nixon. Is that really a good idea?

This story was originally published December 6, 2017 at 2:23 PM with the headline "Al Franken and sexual harassment."