Its spirit is still around, but it only operates in one direction. If you’re accused, you’re guilty… unless you’re a Democrat. Even if they do believe the claims of sexual harassment are true, you don’t have to worry about comeuppance. You get a pass.

At this moment, New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo is in the crosshairs for sexual harassment allegations. They arose on Sunday after former aide Lindsey Boylan tweeted out claims against Cuomo and naturally, the mainstream media maintained silence about it with exceptions from some outlets including Fox News. Cuomo has, of course, denied the claims are true.

The news item has immediately caused people to retreat into their respective political corners. If you don’t like Cuomo (understandable) then you’re set to immediately believe the stories are true.

And why not? Cuomo isn’t exactly known for his upright behavior. He’s a known liar and will confidently tell you even his biggest mistakes are some of his most glorious accomplishments. I don’t know many people who can pat themselves on the back with a book about leadership during a pandemic when he’s directly responsible for the deaths of an entire swath of elderly New Yorkers.

On the flip side, I don’t know much about Lindsey Boylan except that she’s currently running for Manhattan borough president. Those inclined to protect Cuomo will note the timing as well, plus the fact that she’s refusing to elaborate on what exactly it was that he did, just that he’s been doing it for years and everyone saw it and said nothing.

Again, how you see it may depend on your political views, but I want to take politics out of it for a second.

Two things can be true at the same time. Firstly, Cuomo may very well have sexually harassed this woman and if it is true, then someone in his position should be investigated so that it doesn’t happen again. It could be happening now to some poor soul and it should be stopped. Men in powerful positions get away with a lot, this should not be one of them.

That said, neither Cuomo nor Boylan are presenting any evidence to back up their case. We’re just having to take them on their word. It’s here that we, as a society, need to draw a line.

The last thing we want to do is get into the habit of just believing someone because they accused someone else of something. Especially on the right, we should use evidence and rationality as a way of deciding something, especially something as serious as a sexual assault allegation. If Boylan presents evidence for her claim then it needs to be talked about, weighed, and measured so we can find the truth and give her some measure of justice.

If she doesn’t, then we play a dangerous game.

One of the things we should do is encourage allegations to flourish in a vacuum. The left has done this for decades and too many innocent people have been hurt because of it. Today it might be Cuomo, a textbook political villain, but tomorrow it might be you or your son.

We can’t open the door for this kind of thing to become a standard in a land where we’re innocent until proven guilty. The left would love for that to happen, especially since they control all of the major platforms at this point in our history. They can write it off. But if we regular Americans begin adopting this as a standard it will not go well for us at all.

Believe the evidence, even when it’s against someone you hate. We shouldn’t stoke the witch hunt that became the #MeToo movement again because it might benefit us today. That fire may start consuming everything if you do.

With all that said, perhaps the media can do their job and investigate Cuomo the way they did with Justice Brett Kavanaugh.