Graham Platner, Rape Culture and Cancellation

Yep, cancel his candidacy like a stamp and send the fool packing.

Graham Platner and his wife, Amy Gertner.

Watching the train wreck known as the Graham Platner U.S. Senate campaign in Maine, I’m reminded of the awful truth that rape and sexual abuse culture is alive and well in the United States of America.

I’m not going to bother listing all the awful things Platner has written in places like Reddit— it’s all readily available to anyone willing to do a simple online search — but I will say he’s proven himself to be entirely unfit to hold the office he seeks, especially in the wake of revelations of pervasive sexual misconduct in Congress by some members. Someone who has said the disparaging things Platner’s said about rape and sexual assault survivors, Black people, rural folks and the list goes on cannot be trusted with elected office at any level. Period.

Now we’re hearing that Platner has sexted with women while married. And his wife is mad that the public knows about it.

He’s a creep. She’s a fool.

To be fair, Platner hasn’t been accused by anyone of rape or sexual assault, but the fact that he’s still in the race and has fellow Democrats supporting him after blaming rape victims for what happened to them speaks to all that’s wrong in this country on both sides of the proverbial aisle. There comes a point when someone like Platner can disavow things they’ve said and done in the past — and even mean it, too — but they cannot escape accountability.

Platner can sit there as a U.S. Senate candidate up in the polls in Maine and tell us all he wants that he’s sorry for what he’s said and done, but at some point you own your past and must be held accountable for it.

In other words, Platner should drop out of the Senate race immediately. If he refuses to do that, Democrats should circle the wagons and tell him to hit the bricks. Sadly, that’s probably not going to happen since the Democrats are hardly any better than the party of Trump when you get down to it. This is the party that fiercely stood by Bill Clinton through the many allegations of sexual misconduct and even had him on the 2024 campaign trail after it was well-known that he hung out with Jeffrey Epstein, a pedophile who operated a huge sex trafficking network and was pals with Trump.

Speaking of Epstein and Trump, let’s talk about people who perpetrate sexual abuse, sexual assault and rape — you know, the people Platner would rather not blame since he puts the fault on victims. This is going to sound hard line but I really don’t give a fuck if it does: When you have committed rape, there is no turning back in terms of ever escaping the truth of what you have done. You have violated another human without their consent, and therefore you are a rapist. No amount of praying will ever remove the rapist label. You are a rapist now, and you will be a rapist forever. And when you are a rapist, you cannot be trusted with anything, let alone public office. Trump was found liable of sexual abuse. Therefore, Trump is unfit to serve as president. Platner makes excuses for rapists and blames victims, and therefore he’s unfit, too.

There’s something really fucked up going on in our society, and Trump is a big driver — but not the only driver — of it. People who have done awful things in the past — things that should disqualify them from ever holding office — are being given second chances, lauded by so-called redemption-loving Christians and handed lots of power. Look no further than Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as one example among many of depraved, strange people who have done bad things and now control important levers of government that affect lives. These are people who don’t deserve second chances. What they deserve is accountability.

If people who have done bad things in the past — like rape — want to pray for forgiveness, that’s their business. But their past horrible behavior should preclude them from having any positions of power. Sorry (not sorry).

There is no doubt that deep within me there is still a lot of anger over the fact that my brother raped me, that two other boys sexually abused me and that I had to live with untreated PTSD for a long time. That anger gives me little patience for people who have done horrible things and now pretend that they can live their lives without any accountability over what they did years or decades ago. Or they lie about what they did. And it gives me little patience for pro-rape culture people like Platner. I think these people should be canceled.

And I think Platner’s candidacy should be canceled.

Thank you for reading. Do please leave a comment if you’d like to share your own experience with this topic or give advice. Feel free to also give this post as many claps as you can. Thank you!