Virginia residents were left shell-shocked after Gov. Ralph Northam (D) admitted to wearing blackface were probably not expecting the situation to get any worse.

Unfortunately for them, that is exactly what happened.

Later that week, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) was accused of sexual assault by two women. Virginia’s attorney general, Mark Herring, admitted at about the same time that he also wore blackface, USA Today reported.

The reactions to Northam’s confession were largely negative, as expected. But it was the reaction of Democrats after the first woman came forward against Fairfax that left me incredibly disappointed, but not at all surprised.

Democratic senators — including Elizabeth Warren, who just announced a 2020 presidential run — stayed silent when the accusation first broke, despite the fact that just months ago they spoke up when similar allegations were raised against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Tina Tchen — Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff and co-founder of sexual assault movement Time’s Up — said she had “no comment” when asked about the allegations against Fairfax, according to Politico. She also said she did not know enough about Virginia politics, as if that has anything to do with allegations of sexual assault.

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, meanwhile, told CNN Tuesday that “with respect to the situation with the lieutenant governor, I just don’t know enough information.”

“Enough information?” Really? Where was this response with Kavanaugh, or any of the countless men who were accused of assault during the #MeToo Movement? It also makes one wonder how these same Democrats would have reacted if Republicans had said the same thing about Kavanaugh’s allegations.

To understand why Democrats are acting this way means to understand the serious political dilemma that the party has put itself in. The party, for instance, was unsuccessful in electing Hillary Clinton as the first female president, and has not found any strong front-runners to lead the Democrats for years to come. Despite this, the Democrats — and Republicans as well, in their own way — continue to use one-sided politics that lack any new inspiration or plans to improve bipartisanship.

That brings us to present day Virginia, where it took a second woman coming forward for Democrats to finally condemn Fairfax — as opposed to their quick exile of Kavanaugh.

If these politicians truly believed in the validity associated with #MeToo, they would either believe or not believe all accusers, regardless of the party of the politician being accused.

It is clear from the Democrats’ handling of this issue that the party has no real way of reaching the entire American population; instead, the Democrats in power consistently come across as desperate to recover approval and maintain some sort of relevancy with younger liberals.

The party’s selective condemnation of suspected abusers takes away from the seriousness of allegations, and plays into the hypocritical stereotypes that people have developed toward both sides.

The Democrats can try to explain the difference between Kavanaugh and Fairfax until they’re blue in the face, but it is important to recognize the difference as what it really is — a huge double-standard.

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