It's depressingly telling and also not surprising at all that this thread is largely being ignored or being turned into yet another attempt to guilt trip sexual assault survivors into voting for Biden. The people who need to gain some understanding and empathy will not, of course.
I'm going to be open and honest about my assault, so if this is triggering for anyone possibly reading this, here's a heads up.
When I was around maybe 10 or 11, I had someone who I thought was a friend hold me down and pretty much do to me exactly what Tara Reade has said Biden did to her. I did not tell anyone because I was a stupid kid who did not want to lose that friend and, thanks to how things were back then, I'd largely been socialized to believe that stuff like this was something that the opposite sex just did to you sometimes, in the same vein of how it's a trope that the more a boy treats you like shit, the more it means he just likes you. It wasn't until I was much older that I realized just how horrific it was that I allowed that to happen to me and didn't even say anything to anyone about it, or that I kept trying to be friends with the guy even though he kept trying to avoid me after doing that.
Does that invalidate what happened to me because it didn't hurt me as much as it should have back when it first happened? No.
There is no hope of any recourse for me, and if there was, seeing the way thing are, nobody would believe me anyway and just accuse me of trying to ruin his life. It would be, 'I waited too long to bring it back up again, why didn't I say something back then, why are some of the details inconsistent after 20-odd years', and so on and so forth. When I see how Reade is being treated, I see how I would be treated if I tried to come out against the person who assaulted me.
Watching the Dems close ranks and smear Reade using the exact same tactics republicans used to defend Kavenaugh and smear Ford has been incredibly depressing and aliening to watch. It's not just how badly this site has handle the situation, but it's everywhere. The smearing, the burying, the downplaying. Everywhere I go it's people calling her a liar and hurling abusive language at those who cannot bring themselves to vote for a creep. And then it becomes my fault for getting hostile because I'm not nice while pointing out rape apologia. It's bad enough that people do it, but then they go in circles trying to convince themselves that what they're doing isn't exactly what it is. YOU can't possibly be a bad person throwing assault victims under the bus in an attempt to downplay Reade's allegation, no, it is the assault victims who are wrong.
I mean, it's real life too. I had someone catch the smallest whiff that I'm not okay with voting for Biden and she dug in on me. She doesn't know about my assault and I can't comfortably bring it up to her at this point anyway. There is no empathy or understanding. Instead of trying to push the dem party to do better, the onus is pushed on us to make a sacrifice. We're expected to get in line 'for the greater good' while enduring all of the rape apologia and backhanded bullshit and we're apparently not supposed to resent that.
It's this frantic effort to white-wash Biden and paint all of his detractors as bad people or bad actors. It's disgusting to watch dems act no better than republicans. Rather than owe up to the flaws in their candidate, they demonize everyone else. On this site alone I've seen so many posts not-so-subtly imply what terrible people we are for not wanting to vote and give power to an assaulter, and any push back they receive usually ends with the person pushing back getting banned instead of the rape apologia. Sexual assault victims will be blamed if he loses. Hell, we're already being blamed, and I fear for what might happen to Reade if he loses.
Despite never really liking Biden in the first place, I was willing to hold my nose and vote for him 'for the greater good' despite knowing about his history of being touchy and his racist voting record, the same way I convinced myself to vote for Hilary despite not liking her or her polices very much either, but after a credible allegation and watching Dems close ranks and treat Reade and the people who believe her like shit, I can't do it anymore. If it comes down to two racist rapist, I'm bowing out. I lost friends convincing them to vote for Hilary, because I knew how bad Trump was. I partook in the browbeating at one point, not understanding how much it could hurt. Well, now I understand perfectly well how much it hurts.
I pretty much have to do everything in my power to keep my brother informed and drag him to the voting booth for every election, big or small. I will never bother again. I've been voting in every single election, no matter how small, since the day I hit voting age. I was proud to have been among those who voted to recall Scott Walker, even if that ended in failure. Instead of demonizing me, maybe consider what your party is doing to alienate a life long voter like me. Earn my vote by doing better, instead of browbeating me like you are owed my vote.
My plan was to vote down ballot in November, but I'm not even sure I can bring myself to vote at all anymore. I don't consider myself a democrat anymore, not after seeing how thoroughly they were willing to throw people like me under the bus. Neither party stands for people like me and I don't owe them my vote after how they have acted. I'm probably going to distance myself from politics all together going forward. It's just this black pit filled with terrible people. I got into politics thinking that I could help to make things better, but now I see that's mostly just a farce. We've got the evil party and the party that does evil things while convincing themselves they're good only because the other side is completely blatant in their evil. No matter who wins in the upcoming election, it will still be a dark day for me, because an abuser is going to get into power or remain in power and neither will ever see any consequences.
