Up until yesterday, my thoughts around Graham Platner were pretty consistent. He had presented himself as a person who’d come from a checkered past and was now doing his best to change and be a force for good. The tattoo, the Reddit posts, and the texts all fit that explanation, and I saw no real reason to shy away from him because of them. After all, I would like everyone to look at their past and try to learn from their mistakes and be better people. Even when the New York Times article came out, I wasn’t really deterred. The worst of it seemed to be accusations coming from a source that had a big motivation to take down a potential Democrat candidate, and even then, the accusations felt fairly general and non-specific. They still seemed to fall in line with the story he’d presented, and so I was still willing to vote for him.
Yesterday’s news changed that for me.
The allegations were much more specific, detailed, and disturbing. Is it possible they’re false? Sure, but to believe that, you’ve got to start doing some serious mental acrobatics. The accuser had actual messages from years ago detailing what had happened (granted, in general, non-specific terms), and those messages corroborated her story. The biggest defense I’ve seen so far of Platner is, “Well, he was really drunk, so he might not remember it at all.”
I didn’t like that excuse/explanation when Kavanaugh was up for the Supreme Court seat. I don’t like it now. We can and should expect leaders who hold themselves to a higher standard. Is it possible Platner is both trying to change and yet also guilty as charged? Definitely. But the extent of his actions in the past now essentially disqualify him as a viable candidate for me now.
Yes, Trump himself has been found civilly liable for sexual abuse and is the President of the United States. However, that’s not an excuse to put more abusers into office. (The whole goal is to have leaders we can look up to, who represent us honorably.)
I have listened to Platner’s speeches, and I agree with much of what he has been campaigning for. And those principles stand, regardless of who the candidate is. Unless he can produce volumes of evidence disproving these allegations in the next few hours, I think he should drop out of the race and allow Democrats to find a different candidate. It’s unfortunate that it’s come to this, and this is another example of why vetting candidates extensively is important.
But here we are.