As quickly as it began, Matt Gaetz’s splashy bid to be Donald Trump’s attorney general is over. Gaetz’s nomination scandalized Washington for many reasons unrelated to his alleged sexual involvement with an underage girl, but that one certainly topped the list of public excuses to denounce him.

Gaetz made himself notorious with his theatrics on the House floor, where he infamously sacked Speaker Kevin McCarthy in an entertaining but mostly pointless spectacle. The news of Gaetz’s political demise is being celebrated not only by Democrats but McCarthy allies on the Hill, which is finally safe from Gaetz’s rabble-rousing.

The Gaetz saga was essentially an intraparty feud, but it showcased the weaponized sexual politics that Democrats repeatedly have used against men of the right to enforce the left-wing consensus. The familiarity of this playbook, most infamously deployed against Brett Kavanaugh, has led many to instinctively dismiss sexual accusations that surface at politically opportune moments, almost invariably against white male conservatives. While there is not much of an appetite to defend Gaetz, the treatment he received fits the general pattern of previous “guilty until proven innocent” witch hunts—a pattern now certain to be repeated in the future.

Consider that the Justice Department investigated accusations of misconduct against Gaetz for years, yet even they could not find enough merit in them to bring criminal charges. This is the same Justice Department that tried to send Donald Trump to prison, and which Trump would have tasked Gaetz with cleaning up. If the Justice Department could have charged Gaetz, it certainly would have. But the central witnesses, two young women and alleged prostitutes, were not credible even in the eyes of prosecutors.

If it’s true that Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old, even unknowingly, such conduct is obviously disreputable. Yet, it is also true that the left has sought to stigmatize the perfectly normal male desire for women. The totalitarian policing of male sexuality is clearly part of the story in the rape accusations against Trump nominee Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth’s  accuser, an unidentified married woman, alleges  Hegseth was a “creeper” who was flirting aggressively with some women in a hotel bar. But witnesses and video cameras suggest she was not an unreceptive object of attention, as she is seen smiling while walking to Hegseth’s hotel room with him.

The accuser also had a public argument with Hegseth before the encounter, which could be viewed as a moment of sexual tension. All that is known for certain is that a married woman had sex with a TV star in his hotel room. It may be unsavory for a man in a high position to have an affair with a young groupie but if it were everywhere and always disqualifying, the pages of history would look rather empty.

Speaking of powerful, wrongfully maligned men, I do not know of any other person, living or dead, who has been called an “adjudicated rapist” except Donald Trump. This craven phrasing is meant to create the impression that Trump was found guilty while hiding the fact that Trump was not actually found liable of rape by any standard used in the civilized world. In a unique twist on the old presumption of innocence, Trump was found liable for defamation because he called his accuser a liar.

A key piece of evidence in Trump’s show trial was the now infamous Access Hollywood tape, which was opportunistically leaked to inflict maximum political damage during Trump’s 2016 campaign. The controversy over Trump’s boorish remarks is a classic example of the mantra, “repeat a lie enough, and it becomes the truth.” Trump was stating a politically incorrect truism: that power is an aphrodisiac to otherwise unyielding women. “When you’re a star, they let you do it,” he said. He never boasted about sexual assault, but that interpretation is blithely repeated as a fact in the press to this day.

Given the rampant abuse of sex charges for political ends, many understandably assume Trump’s Cabinet picks have been targeted not for their conduct, but because of their agenda. Gaetz is a radical who would have brought a “burn it down” mentality to an out-of-control Department of Justice, while Hegseth has pledged to tackle “woke” influence in the military. As a veteran, Hegseth has encountered the emasculating influence of the modern military firsthand. Part of the media campaign against Hegseth has focused on a tattoo evoking the Crusades that had him flagged as an “insider threat.”

Despite Trump’s male-driven re-election, Western society still caters toman-hating women. The first battle of the new Trump era showcases the smear tactics that have been deployed by our feminized, woke institutions with impunity against powerful men—and even, sometimes, women like the alleged “Russian asset” Tulsi Gabbard. We shouldn’t fail to notice that these allegations always have an ulterior motive: to punish those who challenge the status quo.