The sexual harassment hysteria that shifted with such convenient alacrity from the entertainment industry and the news media to Capitol Hill has nothing to do with protecting women, “rape culture,” or radical feminism. It isn’t even about destroying President Trump, though his downfall is ever a consummation devoutly to be wished by the left. #MeToo, in its partisan permutation, is instead a movement cynically co-opted by Democrats desperately seeking an issue — any issue — that will save them from disaster in next year’s midterms. Its only goal is to save “the party of Jefferson and Jackson” from annihilation in 2018.

But wait, you say, our cultural and political “elites” say it’s the GOP that is rotting. And haven’t the Democrats just won victories in Virginia and New Jersey? Isn’t it true that the Republicans haven’t passed a single piece of major legislation this year, and the GOP President is unpopular? Well, the Democrat victory in Virginia, a state long since seduced by the blue side, surprised no one. And New Jersey is a blue state where the only surprise has been that a GOP governor somehow managed to survive two terms. As to Republican legislation, that dry spell is about to end with tax reform and the repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate.

Meanwhile, the alleged unpopularity of Trump hasn’t harmed a single Republican. Despite 5 well-funded Democrat assaults on GOP House districts in 2017 special elections, the Democrats failed to flip a single seat. These elections — in Kansas, Montana, Georgia, South Carolina, and Utah — were all billed by the Democrats as referenda on Trump. The Democrats managed to lose them all. Finally, it appears likely that the most controversial candidate endorsed by Trump thus far, former Alabama Judge Roy Moore, will beat Democrat Doug Jones in tomorrow’s election and win the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions when he became AG.

And 2018? Statistician Nate Silver points out that the Democrats must defend 25 of their 48 Senate seats while the GOP has to defend a mere eight of their 52. Silver goes on to explain that the death grip the Democrats have secured on the electorates of large states like New York and California adds little to their power in the Senate, where each state controls only two seats: “Meanwhile, Republicans have made huge advances in small rural states… that wield disproportionate power in the upper chamber.” Nor do the Democrats stand much chance of taking back the House in 2018, according to a study by left-leaning FairVote:

FairVote’s model makes high-confidence projections of the winners in 374 of 435 U.S. House races. Of these 374 projections, 208 races are safe for Republicans and 166 are safe for Democrats. Of the 61 seats our high-confidence model did not project, 22 favor Republicans and another 21 are toss-up seats, and Republicans need only win 10 of these to maintain their majority. We project that Republicans are likely to maintain control of the House.

All of which means that, in order to avert yet another midterm disaster, the Democrats must resort to some characteristically dishonest strategy. Thus, we find them offering up human sacrifices like John Conyers and Al Franken as a prelude to the Stalinesque show trials they and the “news” media no doubt have planned for congressional Republicans next year. Congressional staffers are reportedly compiling a creep list, and it probably contains the names of Republicans as well as Democrats. Oddly, it is the latter who have recently decided to solve the “creep problem” now rather than a decade or two ago. CNN gleefully reports:

Rep. Jackie Speier of California and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, both Democrats, unveiled companion bills in the House and Senate to reform the sexual harassment complaint process on the Hill and boost transparency around the sensitive issue.

Interestingly, Rep. Speier has been a member of the House since 2008, and Senator Gillibrand has served as a congresswoman and Senator since 2007. Many voters, and even a few journalists, have wondered aloud and in print what caused their sudden epiphany concerning sexual harassment and the method by which Congress handles such matters. This is particularly true of Senator Gillibrand, who spent most of her political career cozying up to the man Monica Lewinsky dubbed, “the Big Creep,” yet suddenly decided to call for his resignation 17 years after he left office — and a year after his chief enabler had been defanged:

Gillibrand displayed no outward signs of gripping internal conflict when she often appeared alongside the former president on the campaign trail in 2016. Presumably, no one blackmailed her into expressing how “truly honored” she was to receive Bill Clinton’s assistance in her campaigns dating back to 2006.

It’s a little difficult to believe that such an intelligent and opportunistic… er … astute public servant simply failed to notice sexual harassment on Capitol Hill until now. Gillibrand’s sister in the struggle against patriarchal hegemony, Rep. Speier, has been nearly as brave as the Senator. Speier screwed up her courage enough to accuse Joe Holsinger, the chief of staff for former Rep. Leo Ryan, of sexually harassing her when she was in her twenties (i.e. about 40 years ago). “[He] held my face, kissed me — and stuck his tongue in my mouth.” Holsinger was not available to defend himself against the charge, having died 13 years ago.

So, what’s going on? Or, as Enid Strict might have asked, “Could it be … POLITICS?” AFP reports that the Democrats see the sexual harassment scandals as a real opportunity. “Today’s crisis could flip to an opportunity, particularly if Democrats can show they have taken steps to root out the cancer while Republicans are circling the wagons around Trump and US Senate candidate Roy Moore.” And the legacy media is, of course, doing its best to support the cause. “Time magazine on Wednesday honored the women exposing the pervasiveness of sexual harassment, naming such ‘silence breakers’ as their Person of the Year.”

Will accusing dead men of sexual harassment help the Democrats obscure the reality that they have nothing to offer other than obstruction, programs that don’t work, and implausible conspiracy theories? At least one Democratic strategist, told the Hill that she doubts it: “There’s no good way to message ‘Our side’s sexual harassment isn’t as bad as your side’s.’” But what else have they got? For all the GOP’s faults, it at least has a few ideas about what’s good and bad for the country. The Democrats have sex and the single goal — survival.