This week, unfortunately, reminded all of us that Republicans don’t have a monopoly on shitty men.

First, there was Eric Swalwell. I will say, there was always something that didn’t sit right with me about that guy. I am not going to claim I have unique divinations, as it wasn’t that he was a possible rapist/murderer, just that he seemed kind of plastic. That’s the polite version; the frank version is that I sort of felt he was full of shit on some level, but still, he was much better than any Republican.

Or so I thought. The rape accusations are bad enough, but there are also accusations of choking a woman. And this is not just a single accuser, but multiple. The man’s career is more or less over.

As bad as that was, another Democrat accused of sexual assault made the news for all the wrong reasons. You might remember former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, who was one of the so-called Future of the Democratic Party before sexual assault allegations brought him down. Yesterday, Fairfax made the news again in a horrifying way, a murder-suicide of his wife.

The details of the story are horrifying. Their two teen children were home when it happened. Despite going through a messy divorce, they still lived together. As part of an agreement, there were cameras throughout the house, which are a major part of the investigation.

These are tragic stories, but I want to highlight the difference in how the Democratic Party and the Republican Party deal with bad men in their midst. First, the Democrats.

I noticed that at first, Swalwell got plenty of defense. Given that Swalwell is a so-called establishment Democrat, the very early reaction was that these were lies spread by left-wing influencers. However, this quickly faded as other victims came forward. Demands from heavy hitters like Nancy Pelosi for Swalwell to drop out of the California governor’s race and to resign from Congress grew.

Now let’s look at the Republicans. Instead of the easiest target here, the rapist in the White House, I’ll first mention Tony Gonzalez. To refresh your memory, this is the guy who had an affair on his wife, and then the young staffer he had the affair with killed herself by self-immolation, which is just plain awful. A terrible story that should have been treated from the get-go as reasons for dismissal.

While he has finally resigned, what did the Party of God and Family Values do for months? Basically, defended him.

The party itself is led by a man who has openly bragged about how his position of power enables him to sexually assault women, has been found in civil court to have raped writer E. Jean Carroll, and, for the moment, only God knows everything horrible he did with girls when partying with his ol’ buddy Jeffrey Epstein.

This is quite a stark contrast. It doesn’t excuse the individual Democrats, but it sure casts a stark light on how each party views women, right down to the bare minimum: not supporting sexual assault. At the most charitable, one can say that the party views it with indifference.

The final thing I want to say is that there were scattered bullshits around the Interwebs that the “timing” of the Swalwell accusations was bad, as if a woman who has experienced a violent rape should wait for some better season to speak up (which would be never). Okay, how about this: Maybe the MAN WHO DID THE RAPE should have perhaps thought about how his actions wouldn’t just greatly and deeply harm his direct victim, but also how it would hurt his party. The onus isn’t on the women; it’s on Swalwell.

In any event, can we please not have any men who are rapists run for office ever again? That would be a nice bare minimum.

The last word goes to Femi Kuti.