Suppose you’re the kind of thoughtful liberal who concluded from Donald Trump’s election that you’ve been living in a bubble and need to better understand the causes of America’s distemper. Suppose, too, that you have friends who voted for Trump – and who you know for a fact are neither bigots nor buffoons.
Why are they so angry? How could they feel so desperate, politically speaking, to cast their ballots for him?
For a sense of the answer, look no further than Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ recent announcement that her department would revisit the Obama administration’s Title IX guidelines on campus sexual assault. The guidelines, she said, had “failed too many students” by radically curtailing due process. She’s right.
In April 2011, the department’s Office of Civil Rights sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to campus administrators effectively demanding new procedures when it came to handling sexual assault cases. The letter arrived without the usual “notice-and-comment” period that is supposed to precede formal rule-making. Instead, as Lara Bazelon notes in Politico, “hundreds of schools were placed under federal investigation for failing to be tougher in handling allegations of campus sexual assault.”
Campus administrators got the message. Henceforth, the accused would be judged on a “preponderance of evidence” basis to determine guilt, sometimes known as the “50 percent plus a feather” standard. Accusers would be able to appeal “not guilty” verdicts. Efforts would be made to spare the accuser from being faced with direct cross-examination by the accused.