Who knew?

For the last few years there has been an increasingly loud drumbeat that America is trapped in a “culture of rape.”

Take this story in Time from 2014 by Zerlina Maxwell titled “Rape Culture Is Real.” It opens:

“You were drinking, what did you expect?

Those were the first words that I heard when I went to someone I trusted for support after my roommate’s boyfriend raped me eight years ago. When I came forward to report what happened, instead of support, many well-meaning people close to me asked me questions about what I was wearing, if I had done something to cause the assault, or if I had been drinking. These questions about my choices the night of my assault — as opposed to the choices made by my rapist — were in some ways as painful as the violent act itself. I had stumbled upon rape culture: a culture in which sexual violence is the norm and victims are blamed for their own assaults

Last week, in an essay here at Time, Caroline Kitchens wrote that rape culture as a theory over-hyped by “hysterical” feminists. Emboldened by a disappointing and out of touch statement by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), Kitchens writes, “Recently, rape-culture theory has migrated from the lonely corners of the feminist blogosphere into the mainstream. In January, the White House asserted that we need to combat campus rape by ‘[changing’ a culture of passivity and tolerance in this country, which too often allows this type of violence to persist…’”

Tolerance for rape? Rape is a horrific crime, and rapists are despised.

Note this reference of Maxwell’s: “In January, the White House asserted that we need to combat campus rape by ‘[changing’ a culture of passivity and tolerance in this country, which too often allows this type of violence to persist….’”

It was not the first time the Obama White House had attached itself to the rape issue. During the 2012 campaign, Missouri GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin had quickly torpedoed his own campaign by saying there was such a thing as “legitimate rape.” Republicans from Mitt Romney on down fled from Akin’s candidacy. But it was President Obama who sat down on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show and said this:

Let me make a very simple proposition: Rape is rape. It is a crime. And so these various distinctions about rape don’t make too much sense to me — don’t make any sense to me. 

Got all that? Sayeth the President: “Rape is rape. It is a crime.”

Now comes the Cosby Show. No, not that old one with the lovable Dr. Cliff Huxtable. This Cosby show has been dominating the media as the now 78-year old actor, frequently identified in news stories as a one-time “icon,” is losing a massive battle to protect his reputation from allegations of sexual assault. A battle not helped by now being formally charged in a Pennsylvania court room.

Into this uproar comes Hillary Clinton, who has fed this particular fire by telling rape victims “you have the right to be believed.” And also speaking out in favor of Emma Sulkowicz, the Columbia University “mattress girl” who achieved notoriety by accusing a classmate of rape — and making her point about ignoring rape charges by going everywhere carrying a mattress. Mrs. Clinton made the mistake — and she surely must think now it was a mistake — of accusing Donald Trump of being a sexist. In a blink Trump, fearless as always, responded. As reported here at CBS, the Trump response went this way:

Trump warns Clinton about playing “the war on women” card

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is taking aim at Hillary Clinton after the Democratic front-runner referred to the real estate mogul as “sexist.” Clinton was responding to a question about Trump’s use of a vulgar term to describe her 2008 primary loss to Barack Obama.

Trump issued a warning on Twitter, telling Clinton to “be careful as you play the war on women or women being degraded card.” He later tweeted, “I have great respect for women” and again warned her to “BE CAREFUL!”

Well. In the scramble that followed all of this there was an effort by Clinton defenders to go on about was-it-wise-to-dig-up-old-scandals-about-Bill-Clinton’s-sex-life. Their conclusion, of course, being a loud no.

But alas.

There was that pesky Bill Cosby show in which, presumably unwittingly, one Cosby victim after another was paraded out into the public spotlight to say how intimidated they had been by Cosby’s fame, power, and status as a beloved American icon. They were intimidated and ignored! Got it?!!! It was wrong! Got it! And in the words of President Obama himself when bashing the hapless Todd Akin in 2012: “Rape is rape…It is a crime.”

Thus having marched themselves out there to almost the very end of a very long liberal limb, liberals are now watching their presumed feminist first president caught on the horns of a dilemma of their own making. A dilemma that revolves around this accusation from an ex-Clinton supporter (in a 1978 governor’s race when candidate Bill Clinton was the Arkansas Attorney General). The speaker is one Juanita Broaddrick, who said the following in a 1990s famous-in-the-day interview on NBC with the network’s Lisa Myers, describing what happened when she was alone with Clinton in a Little Rock hotel room supposedly to discuss business. Clinton suddenly tried to kiss her, and then:

Then he tries to kiss me again. And the second time he tries to kiss me he starts biting my lip.… He starts to, um, bite on my top lip and I tried to pull away from him. And then he forces me down on the bed. And I just was very frightened, and I tried to get away from him and I told him “No,” that I didn’t want this to happen but he wouldn’t listen to me.… It was a real panicky, panicky situation. I was even to the point where I was getting very noisy, you know, yelling to “Please stop.” And that’s when he pressed down on my right shoulder and he would bite my lip.… When everything was over with, he got up and straightened himself, and I was crying at the moment and he walks to the door, and calmly puts on his sunglasses. And before he goes out the door he says “You better get some ice on that.” And he turned and went out the door.

Two weeks later, when she encountered the Clintons at a political event, Clinton avoided her. But not Hillary. Says Broaddrick, writing in an “open letter” to Hillary in 2000:

I remember it as though it was yesterday. I only wish that it were yesterday and maybe there would still be time to do something about what your husband, Bill Clinton, did to me. There was a political rally for Mr. Clinton’s bid for governor of Arkansas. I had obligated myself to be at this rally prior to my being assaulted by your husband in April, 1978. I had made up my mind to make an appearance and then leave as soon as the two of you arrived. This was a big mistake, but I was still in a state of shock and denial. You had questioned the gentleman who drove you and Mr. Clinton from the airport. You asked him about me and if I would be at the gathering. Do you remember? You told the driver, “Bill has talked so much about Juanita,” and that you were so anxious to meet me. Well, you wasted no time. As soon as you entered the room, you came directly to me and grabbed my hand.

Do you remember how you thanked me, saying “we want to thank you for everything that you do for Bill.” At that point, I was pretty shaken and started to walk off. Remember how you kept a tight grip on my hand and drew closer to me? You repeated your statement, but this time with a coldness and look that I have seen many times on television in the last eight years. You said, “Everything you do for Bill.” You then released your grip and I said nothing and left the gathering.

What did you mean, Hillary? Were you referring to my keeping quiet about the assault I had suffered at the hands of your husband only two weeks before? Were you warning me to continue to keep quiet? We both know the answer to that question.

Now.

Recall that Lefty chestnut “the war on women”? Said to be waged by the GOP against America’s female majority? Donald Trump may have effectively shut down — or at a minimum tamped down — this particular political missile that was used effectively against Mitt Romney and other Republicans in 2012. By being unafraid to say “be careful!” to Hillary (and Bill) Clinton he has effectively notified the Clinton campaign that if they try to portray Trump as sexist or anti-woman — there will be a response. In chapter and verse, reminding that there are actual women out there who have an entirely different view of both Clintons that they are all too willing to discuss. Discuss in public in the same manner Bill Cosby’s old accusers are doing. With, thanks to the prosecution of Cosby the one-time American idol, all the the massive publicity that has given immense sympathy to women with old stories suddenly seen and looked at afresh.

Notably? Suddenly both Hillary and Bill Clinton, out on the trail, have gotten shy about attacking Trump on sexism or even mentioning “the war on women.” Hmmm.

Liberals have beaten the drums for some time now to push the concept of a “culture of rape” in America. As that Time magazine article from 2014 illustrates, they believe completely that “rape is real” and that there is “a culture in which sexual violence is the norm and victims are blamed for their own assaults.”

This time around? After a steady barrage of these stories and the arraignment of Bill Cosby? This time there may well be a lot more people who will demand that these people be taken at their word — no matter whether the woman is accusing Bill Cosby or Bill Clinton.

After all. As President Obama assures us: “Rape is rape. It is a crime.”

Indeed it is.