Eric Swalwell (D-CA) is out. So is Tony Gonzales (R-TX). In a post-Me Too world, why do these scandals keep plaguing our lawmakers?

Eric Swalwell (D-CA) is out. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) is out. One Democrat. One Republican. Two more names added to the long, grim roll call of disgraced public officials who seemed to have everything going for them, and then behaved as if rules, vows, staff boundaries, public trust, and basic decency were for other people.

Swalwell has resigned from Congress and suspended his California gubernatorial campaign amid multiple sexual misconduct allegations, which he denies. In leaving Congress, Swalwell avoids the dreaded ethics investigation. Gonzales, a Texas Republican, has also announced his exit following scrutiny over an affair with a staffer who later committed suicide and other misconduct allegations.

Good riddance.

That does not mean every allegation is proven. It does not mean due process no longer matters. It means Congress is not a private club for powerful people who can create chaos, humiliate their families, compromise their offices, and then expect the public to pretend nothing happened.

Their ouster makes the state of our union stronger, not weaker. It sends a message that neither party gets a pass. The standard should not be: Can this person survive a news cycle? The standard should be: Can this person be trusted with public power?

For Swalwell and Gonzales, the answer is no.

But why does this keep happening?

These lawmakers are not stupid; on the contrary, they are successful, well-established, trusted. They are polished, educated, ambitious, disciplined enough to win office, raise money, build coalitions, memorize talking points, and survive the brutal machinery of modern campaigns. They know phones exist. They know screenshots exist. They know staffers talk. They know the Me Too era changed the rules forever.

And yet they keep doing it.

Why?

Part of the answer is probably power. Not just power in the abstract, but the daily insulation of power. A member of Congress is surrounded by young staffers, aides, donors, consultants, admirers, lobbyists, activists, and people who want access. The whole ecosystem bends toward them. Their jokes are funnier. Their time is more valuable. Bad behavior often gets explained away as stress, charisma, loneliness, or “complicated personal circumstances.”

Then comes the fatal delusion: “I am different; the rules don’t apply to me.”

That delusion is bipartisan. Democrats had Anthony Weiner, Katie Hill, Al Franken, Bob Menendez. Republicans had George Santos, Madison Cawthorn, and now Gonzales. The details differ. The moral rot rhymes.

And the parties often know more than they admit.

That may be the deeper scandal. Not only what these lawmakers allegedly did, but who heard rumors, saw warning signs, received complaints, whispered about it privately, and did nothing until the behavior became politically inconvenient. Too often, accountability arrives not when leaders discover wrongdoing, but when they can no longer contain it.

That is not virtue. That is damage control.

Post-Me Too, these scandals are harder to survive because the public has less patience for the old script. The teary apology. The wife standing beside him. The “mistakes were made.” The insistence that private failings have nothing to do with public service.

But they do. Especially when staffers, subordinates, donors, or constituents are involved. Especially when the alleged misconduct overlaps with the power of the office.

Public service requires self-command. A lawmaker who cannot govern himself should not help govern the country.

The country is already divided enough. We do not need saints in office, but we do need adults. We need people who understand that public trust is not a toy. We need parties willing to clean their own houses before the opposition does it for them. And we need voters to stop treating disgrace as acceptable when it happens on “our side.”

Swalwell and Gonzales are leaving. Good.

Now the harder question is whether Washington learns anything from it. Because the problem was never only two disgraced lawmakers. The problem is a political culture that keeps producing them, protecting them, and pretending to be shocked when the truth finally comes out.

(Contributing writer, Brooke Bell)