By Madeleine Jones

“Till blood rolled down our chins. / For bounded mouths cannot speak of parting.”

Eric Swalwell, once the favorite Democratic hopeful for the California governorship, has dropped out of the race and announced his resignation from Congress in the wake of allegations of assaulting multiple women, though, notably, he denies these allegations. Above is, in retrospect, a particularly alarming section of “Hungover From Burgundy”, a piece of poetry Swalwell authored as a young man. His resignation in the wake of these accusations has sparked a House Ethics Committee investigation into his actions, a shake-up in the California race for governor, and, for what seems like the millionth time, a broader conversation about sexual harassment, power, and compelled silence in the United States. It isn’t enough.

One of the most vexing parts of Swalwell’s swift exit from politics is the fact that it seems to have been a benefit to his party in the race he had once hoped to win, rather than a dark mark on their record. From the beginning, the California gubernatorial race has had one clear problem: too many Democrats. In the state perhaps most synonymous with liberals in the entire country, the two Republican nominees have held a steady lead in polling due to the Democratic Party’s inability to pick one (or two, or three) candidates.

However, in the wake of this scandal, Swalwell’s former supporters have shaken up the race; they seem to have turned not to billionaire Tom Steyer or even Katie Porter, but to former congressmember Xavier Becerra, once a distant fourth. While the two Republican candidates are still polling highest, the most recent Democratic Party tracking poll showed that Becerra had surged from 4% to 13%, leading the Democrats in the field and narrowly beating out Steyer (and his self-bankrolled campaign). Perhaps, then, Swalwell’s precipitous fall from grace is a blessing in disguise for a Democratic Party too fractured to pick a favorite. 

Nonetheless, the idea that such a circumstance is a boon to anyone is a disturbing reminder of the current state of politics in this country. While Swalwell’s name has dominated headlines, less attention has been paid to Tony Gonsalez, the Texas representative who resigned on the same day after admitting to an affair with a former employee who died by suicide. This all occurs in the broader context of a Congress that investigates accusations against its members through internal, and often reticent and sluggish, Ethics Committee reviews that can often be evaded. For example, according to the National Women’s Defense League, 137 accusations of harassment have been made against 49 members of Congress, with many of them resigning and thus avoiding the committee’s jurisdiction (and the penalties associated with a formal ruling on their behavior) while keeping the benefits they gained from serving in Congress. A number of others still hold their seats. Now, obviously, due process is of the utmost importance, and investigations into these actions should be held before action is taken.

However, the fact that the House Ethics Committee’s most recent statement claimed they had investigated 20 instances of sexual misconduct in the last decade while releasing a list of 15 publicly disclosed investigations, thus implying at least five instances of sexual misconduct that have not been publicly disclosed, is worrying at best. The American people have the right to know when one of the people entrusted to represent them has been accused of any kind of misconduct, but especially something as serious as sexual harassment or assault.

Some have opined that this is a moment for hope: two members of the House of Representatives have resigned in disgrace, with their colleagues, including Mike Johnson making statements about accountability and clarity, sans any plan for reform. I am not so hopeful. We have seen moments of outcry like this before. I will remind readers that two current members of the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas, were very publicly accused of sexual assault and confirmed anyway. Our current president was held liable for sexual abuse in civil court. This is a multi-generational, bipartisan, all-American problem. It is one that demands much more than the culture of silence we continue to perpetuate and that actors like Swalwell seem to relish in their melodramatic poetry. It demands stronger public disclosure rules at all levels of government that alert the people whenever an accusation is made and allow investigations to continue even when members of Congress attempt to dodge them. It demands stronger anti-SLAPP legislation that prevents retaliatory suits against victims who speak up. It demands bravery, a reckoning with the entrenched nature of this culture of silence, and leaders who are prepared to treat reform with the gravity it deserves, and not as a political stepping stone or a way to weed out gubernatorial competition. I truly hope that this will be the moment that reignites not just debate but progress; I doubt it will be.

Photo Credit: Anna Moneymaker-Pool/Getty Images