On Thursday, Dan Joseph of Media Research Center uncovered an old column written by 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VA). In that column, Sanders bestowed upon the world his wisdom with regard to men and women:

A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused. A woman enjoys intercourse with her man – as she fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneously.

The date: February 1972. The place: the Vermont Freeman. Mother Jones called this charming description of male-female sexual differences “a stream-of-consciousness essay on the nature of male-female sexual dynamics.” Thus far, Sanders’ abuse fantasies and his own fantasy that women dream of rape by multiple men have been covered by precisely zero mainstream news outlets. Mother Jones didn’t even bother quoting the essay directly, instead choosing to embed a screenshot. That’s because rape fantasies are funny and charming when they come from an aged socialist hippie.

Welcome to the 2016 presidential race, where Republicans are targeted for scandal when the media deliberately misquote them, but Democrats get away with behavior that would make Caligula blush.

Yesterday, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was quoted speaking about the benefits of ultrasounds, which he said were “a cool thing out there.” The media spun the quote as though Walker had called it “cool” to mandate transvaginal ultrasounds when Walker wasn’t even talking about transvaginal ultrasounds.

Two days ago, actress Rose McGowan took to Twitter to vent her spleen over a fake quote from Ted Cruz: “While there may have been an age difference, Josh Duggar’s transgressions are far less an affront to God than what gays do with each other.” She called Cruz a “blight on the soul of humanity.” One problem: the quote was entirely fabricated. When confronted with that inconvenient fact, McGowan reacted with class: “I could give a f***.”

Meanwhile, Democrats and media members continue to ignore the following raft of stories that would sink any Republican candidate for dogcatcher, let alone president of the United States:

Sex Slave Island. Imagine a candidate whose spouse flew to the private island of a convicted sex offender who trafficked in underage girls. Imagine that contact information for the candidate’s spouse popped up 21 times in the sex offender’s contact list. Imagine an underage sex slave telling the media that the candidate’s spouse hung out with her at dinner. Imagine that that candidate’s foundation accepted a $3.5 million donation from that sex offender after a probe into his underage sex slavery trade began. Imagine that the sex offender took the Fifth when asked about his relationship with the candidate’s spouse. And finally, imagine that the so-called “social fixer” for the sex offender came to the wedding of the candidate’s daughter. Would that effectively end a Republican candidacy? Because it hasn’t gotten serious play with regard to Jeffrey Epstein and Hillary Clinton.

Laughing About Child Rape. What would the media’s reaction be to revelations that Marco Rubio had defended a child rapist in his youth? What if he hadn’t just defended that child rapist, he had then laughed about slandering the child victim on tape? That’s precisely what Hillary Clinton did in 1975, on tape, talking about how she successfully plea bargained on behalf of a child rapist and laughing that she knew he was lying about his innocence: “I had him take a polygraph, which he passed, which forever destroyed my faith in polygraphs.” Clinton, as defense lawyer, also pushed the narrative that the 12-year-old girl “sought out older men” and was “emotionally unstable.”

Targeting Victims of Sexual Assault. What if Carly Fiorina’s husband, Frank, had been accused of rape, sexual assault, and been convicted of perjury? What if Carly had done her best to slander all the women who made the accusations? Bill Clinton allegedly sexually harassed Paula Jones, allegedly sexually assaulted Eileen Wellstone and Kathleen Willey and Cristy Zercher, allegedly raped Juanita Broaddrick. When any such allegations hit the press, Hillary went into full attack mode against the women. She attacked Gennifer Flowers, with whom Bill had an affair, as “trailer trash,” Monica Lewinsky as a “narcissistc looney toon,” and targeted Willey, who later said, “She is the war on women, as far as I’m concerned, because with every woman that she’s found out about…she’s orchestrated a terror campaign against every one of these women, including me.” Broaddrick has claimed Hillary threatened her two weeks after she claimed rape. Here is Broaddrick’s account of the encounter:

She came over to me, took ahold of my hand and said, ‘I’ve heard so much about you and I’ve been dying to meet you. … I just want you to know how much that Bill and I appreciate what you do for him.’…This woman, this little, soft-spoken — pardon me for the phrase — dowdy woman that would seem very unassertive, took ahold of my hand and squeezed it and said, ‘Do you understand? Everything that you do.’ I could have passed out at that moment and I got my hand from hers and I left. … She was just holding onto my hand. Because I had started to turn away from her and she held onto my hand and she said, ‘Do you understand? EVERYTHING that you do,’ I mean, cold chills went up my spine. That’s the first time I became afraid of that woman.

Magical Seances With The Undead. Wasn’t it weird when Nancy Reagan brought astrologers to the White House, it became the subject of jokes for the next two and a half decades, with Barack Obama even mocking her. But Hillary Clinton actually held séances with the undead in the White House, according to legendary journalist Bob Woodward. She chatted with Eleanor Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi. She did feel it would be over the top to talk to Jesus, however. Presumably she’s just not that into him. Hillary brought Jean Houston, co-director of the Foundation for Mind Research, into the White House; Houston urged Hillary to write It Takes a Village and “virtually moved into the White House” to help the First Lady with the project. Hillary actually wrote about her tete-a-tetes with the undead Eleanor: “She usually responds by telling me to buck up, or at least to grow skin as thick as a rhinoceros.”

These are your 2016 Democrats. Fortunately for them, that label absolves them of rape fantasies, defense of rapists, association with sex criminals, and even insane chats with undead historical figures. It’s sure good to be a Democrat.

Ben Shapiro is Senior Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the book, The People vs. Barack Obama: The Criminal Case Against The Obama Administration (Threshold Editions, June 10, 2014). Follow Ben Shapiro on Twitter @benshapiro.