What Puritans Cannot Distinguish

A misdemeanor in our culture is just that, a misdemeanor, unless it somehow involves sex. Then it becomes a felony.  In this puritanical culture violence hardly raises an eyebrow even when it amounts to war, but the slightest act of sexual misconduct is rarely distinguished from the most heinous and destructive misconduct of that kind. Why is it that people who, given a test, can easily distinguish a slap on the wrist from a knife in the gut cannot distinguish between a foolish erotic blunder (not to be condoned, by the way) and the use of power, political, economic, or physical, to force sex on a woman. 

I am thinking of Al Franken.