Then came the predation accusations against Republican Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, and just like that, the issue was jerked back into more familiar, more partisan territory. Two women have accused Moore of sexual abuse, three others have said he pursued them when they were teenagers and Moore was in his 30s. Tribal lines were drawn, the wagons were circled, and familiar positions were staked out. Moore’s fan base (heavy on religious conservatives) blamed the liberal media, Democratic haters, the Republican establishment, and, of course, those lying women—all of whom Team Moore set out to discredit. In Washington, Republicans on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue issued tortured statements about how Moore needed to leave the race “if” the charges proved to be true. Fox News generally tiptoed around the erupting scandal, while Sean Hannity in particular treated Moore with such gentleness that his advertisers began to balk. Donald Trump remains uncharacteristically quiet even now.

All of which stands to benefit Democrats in any number of ways. Most narrowly, Moore could stay in the race but prove so toxic that Alabama’s typically blood-red Senate seat goes blue. Or, Republican leaders’ efforts to recruit a write-in candidate could wind up splitting the vote, not to mention widening the existing rift between party leaders and some in their base. Or, Moore could emerge victorious, saving the seat for his party but damaging the GOP brand for years to come. “What do we do with him if he becomes the face of the Republican Party?” lamented GOP strategist Katie Packer Beeson, whose focus is improving her team’s standing among women.

Regardless of what happens in Alabama, Moore has the potential to drive gals to the polls nationwide to register their displeasure with his party—this year’s version of Todd “legitimate rape” Akin. As Beeson noted, Trump’s sexist image has already galvanized many women against the GOP; having Moore ascend to the Senate would be like pouring kerosene on a campfire: “The Democrats could basically run on, ‘Look at what the other party has become: the party that protects sexual harassers and child molesters!’”

Here’s hoping it does not come to that. Whatever your political leanings, the polarization of sexual harassment and abuse is not a positive development. As has been driven home so graphically of late, this is a widespread, crosses-pretty-much-every-demographic-line problem. To make meaningful progress addressing it, no political or ideological cohort can be in a defensive crouch. Everyone has to face distasteful realities “and call out bad actors on both sides,” said Beeson. As Caitlin Flanagan so eloquently noted, this means acknowledging that Donald Trump and Bill Clinton have abhorrent track records with the ladies.

Ironically, the particular ickiness of the Moore allegations may prevent this situation from sinking into the swamp of tribalism. As Beeson put it, “This isn’t about disrespecting women in the workplace. This guy clearly had a strong attraction to young girls.” Even in this society’s not-so-nuanced culture wars, plenty of people draw a distinction between an alleged sexual harasser and an alleged child predator.