WHEN asked how he went broke, Mike Campbell, a drunken lout in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises”, replies, “Two ways…Gradually and then suddenly.” That is how the ongoing spate of sexual-misconduct scandals feels: the sudden breaking of a dam held too long in place. It went six weeks ago, after the New York Times and New Yorker reported multiple, decades-long allegations of sexual assault, harassment and rape against Harvey Weinstein, a film producer. The waters remain roiled. In the past week more women have accused Al Franken, a Democratic senator from Minnesota, of groping and John Conyers, a Democrat who has represented Detroit in Congress since 1965, of sexual harassment (he denies doing anything wrong). Glenn Thrush, a reporter, and Charlie Rose, a television host, were suspended and fired respectively after sexual-harassment allegations. More cases are doubtless coming.

In the past, sexual misconduct in politics tended to be ignored, disbelieved or excused. Bob Packwood, a Republican senator from Oregon, was accused of assault for years before at last resigning in 1995—but only after the Senate Ethics Committee had voted as one to expel him. Anita Hill faced humiliating interrogation before a panel of white male senators; Clarence Thomas, whom she accused of sexual harassment, still sits on the Supreme Court.

Democrats and feminists defended Bill Clinton against allegations of sexual assault, which one aide memorably derided as “bimbo eruptions”. Mr Clinton, the thinking went then, was a rogue, not a predator. Such attitudes have not entirely vanished. Mr Rose, for instance, reportedly walked semi-clothed around his young female employees, and regaled one with his fantasies of watching her swim nude; his executive producer, says one former employee, dismissed such behaviour as “Charlie being Charlie”.

But, at least in the leftish enclaves of media and entertainment, that sort of thinking is on its way out. Mr Thrush is in professional limbo because of what the headline of the article detailing accusations against him describes as a “history of bad judgment around young women journalists”. The wave of scandals is too big, broad and unpredictable to write off with scepticism, or as the isolated peccadillos of a few bad actors. Feminists have long held up culture change as a goal, and it now appears within reach. Social media have amplified the whisper network into a tribune of institution-shaking power.

Congress is getting its house in order. Sexual-harassment training is mandatory, as of this month. Not a moment too soon: Jackie Speier, a Democratic congresswoman from California, says she knows of two sitting members of Congress who have “engaged in sexual harassment”; Barbara Comstock, a Republican congresswoman from Virginia, says a member of Congress exposed himself to a young woman who worked for him. According to a survey by CQ Roll Call, our sister company, in 2016, one in six womenworking in Congress has been harassed. Four in ten said sexual harassment is a problem. Ms Speier has introduced a bill to overhaul a tangled and onerous reporting procedure. Mr Franken has called for an ethics investigation into his own actions. Attending to the beam in their own eye before turning to motes elsewhere, plenty of Democrats have ruefully urged him to resign.

Republicans have not been so quick to punish offenders. True, Bill O’Reilly, a caustic talk-show host, stepped down, but only after advertiser boycotts, millions of dollars in settlements, a federal investigation and the ousting of his boss, Roger Ailes. But in Alabama Roy Moore may win a Senate seat next month, despite allegations that he dated and assaulted teenage girls while he was in his 30s. And of course more than a dozen women have accused President Donald Trump of sexual misconduct; he has suffered no consequences.

Democrats hope they can change that, or at least maintain pressure on Mr Trump, by acting swiftly on allegations of sexual misconduct. That strategy may pay long-term dividends, changing the culture in a way that feminists have long wanted, and keeping faith with liberal voters. But in the short term it means that accused Republican lawmakers can copy Messrs Moore and Trump—deny, obfuscate and blame “fake news”—while Democratic ones fall on their base’s sword.

Since Mr Trump’s election, Republican attitudes towards sexual misbehaviour have grown more instrumental than they were during the Clinton years. Many evangelical voters enthusiastically supported the thrice-married libertine president, who probably reads the Bible about as often as he tithes, because he promised to appoint conservative judges. Asked whether Mr Trump supports Mr Moore despite allegations of child-molesting, a presidential spokeswoman replied, “We want the votes in the Senate to get this tax bill through.” This attitude may incur long-term costs, turning women away from the party. But if Republicans start responding seriously to accusations of sexual misconduct, they will then have to explain why the president gets a pass.