THE
PFODUCED BY YASH WADW EKAR, NEIL PATIl, AND MICHAEL BENDOK
SCOPE The Dark Horse: Social Media's Impact On The # MeToo Movement US Intervent ion: W here It Went Wrong W hat 's Next For t he U.S.-China Trade War?
SEPTEM BER 1, 2019
The Changing Face of Policy exual abuse and harassment scandals seem to infiltrate some of the most beloved industries such as woman?s gymnastics and Hollywood film making. W hen these came to light and were exposed to the public, the United states seemed to halt everything and focus on the impact of the abuse, but we, as citizens of the United States, didn?t quite recognize policy making going on afterwards on how to halt these scandals from happening in the first place. This article isn?t another outspoken piece on what policies are best but how the 2020 presidential election could happen to change the face of sexual abuse and harassment prevention policy.
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W ith the 2020 presidential election approaching quickly you can recognize some of the most outstanding amounts of candidates on the democratic side we have ever had in history. This is important to note because that means we have a lot of choices and how those choices view policies of the United States, specifically, sexual abuse and harassment policies. W ith this article we are going to analyze the workings of campaign management specifically on the democratic side because it?s the most prevalent on acting on issues of sexual abuse and harassment. We are clearly going to see that this opportunity will most likely cause a cultural impact on sexual abuse and harassment in America. We have to start at the #MeToo movement. This movement used the power of social media and support from victims to speak out on the issue that is sexual abuse and harassment. W ithout this movement people would still be hiding in the shadows of fear. Not only this, it sparked a movement within government officials and sponsors to target sexual abuse and harassment as a focal point
of campaigns. W hen you talk about the #MeToo movement you can see it changed the viewpoints of major officials within the government. This is a major development in what officials are going to target when coming to the 2020 presidential election. Not only that, but when the candidate is chosen for the presidential election this may be the tipping point for them being chosen as President. Campaign management is a huge part of any candidate at any state of the race for presidency. W ithin campaign management there is also political consultants that direct what your campaign should aim for changing. They also help draw support for your campaign. One of the biggest political consultants for this upcoming election is one named Bright Compass. It is a Democratic consulting firm that is providing 2020 campaigns with services around sexual harassment prevention. This was started by Dallas Thompson because she was influenced by the #MeToo movement. She was also in the political campaign field for a while and saw how she was harassed in that field and felt a consultant like this is imperative during our country?s transitioning point revolving sexual abuse and harassment. Bright Compass specifically looks at policies of candidates by performing policy reviews. This is basically a questioning tool to see where the candidate?s
campaign lands in the spectrum of what they are trying to achieve policy wise, but with Bright Compass they?re looking at sexual abuse and harassment policy which surprisingly is on a lot of candidates campaign list. According to a Greenwich Times article posted on July 14, 2019, The campaigns of Sen. Kamala Harris, President Donald Trump, Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, Sen. Elizabeth W arren, and Sen. Bernie Sanders confirmed to INSIDER that their campaigns have specific harassment policies. According to BuzzFeed, Sen. Amy Klobuchar has also developed specific harassment policies (I would like to clarify that not all listed are partnered with Bright Compass). W hen Bright Compass can define what policies the candidates are firm on, they create live situations to look at the gray areas and how a candidate would handle the situation. According to Thompson. "We come in, and we train the staff on these policies. We believe that you need live, engaging training with hypotheticals and discussions about the gray areas that exist, particularly, in politics because it's not your average nine to five," she said. "You're going to be working long hours, a lot of your employees are going to be very young, it may be their first job. We make sure that people have definitions of what harassment is."
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ow issues and questions of conflicts of interest do arise because forming these policies and enacting them is easier said than done. People worry that companies such as Bright Compass would prioritize business over the individual who was harassed. Thompson assessed the situation by saying that these businesses would maintain their own lawyers, and that they would assess the response and infrastructure of those situations she stated, "We are there to offer guidance on making sure that, not only is the campaign protected, but the victim is protected and that the workplace remains safe."
Many professionals found that having this additional HR would help campaigns because of the management resources of policies. Dr. Matt Dallek, a political historian at George W ashington University says the step of introducing a third party is probably better than pre-existing structures that handled HR issues on campaigns. Having conflicts of interest "would be true probably of an HR office embedded within the campaign itself," Dallek noted. This is potentially a good step for campaigns. They will have management resources to back up and watch the candidates helping them stay true to what they stated before. In conclusion, political consultants such as Bright Compass could most likely shape the political culture of the upcoming election. This all depends on if they can stay true to what their mission is. It also comes down to the ?tone?and ?culture?set forth by the candidate in relation to Bright Compass, but if this can work out sexual abuse and harassment policies will have a new meaning coming up in the presidential election in 2020 and maybe scandals will not pop up so often. Reid Pinckard