This means he can be replaced with another Democrat
Graham Platner can be replaced as the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine if he withdraws from the race by next Monday, and state law would then give the state Democratic Party until July 27 to name a replacement.
In a court of law, the burden of proof is on the accuser. In the court of public opinion, the burden of proof is on the accused.
Elections are held in the court of public opinion. A stray allegation, whether or not there’s any truth to it, is enough to tank a political campaign (unless they’re a republican, of course, because their voters don’t care even if there’s proof).
Yet I can all but guarantee you this Platner case won’t go to a court of law, because everyone already knows there’s not enough evidence to prove a damn thing. The accuser knows this. Five years have gone by without her pressing charges. Why? If she had any evidence she would have done that immediately, right? If it really happened she could have gotten a forensics panel done and put someone away who would be a danger to women if allowed to walk free. But she didn’t do that, did she? So why should anybody believe her now, five years later, when it’s only a few short months to an election and the balance of the United States Senate is on the line, at a time when we’re already struggling as a nation with rampant and unchecked fascism, and atrocities beyond counting being committed with zero accountability, by the party that the accused was running against?
By the way, you know Susan Collins supports the Epstein class, right? You know that’s who’s gonna win now that Platner dropped out, right?
What does this have anything to do with your “counter example” of a dude getting murdered compared to a dude losing the chance at becoming a senator? The thing I said was a bad argument? The main point I was arguing against?
You’re all over the place here.
You don’t see that the common thread is that believing every accusation without question can lead to bad outcomes? Or are you deliberately ignoring that because it’s an uncomfortable truth that you don’t want to face?
Are you deliberately ignoring everyone trying to explain what “believe women” actually means in context of how society currently treats women.
You haven’t responded to that at all, and that has been my point since starting this conversation. Again, that believing women does not mean punishing men. I’m not going to restate every point you’ve conveniently ignored because you’re so dead-set on equating vigilante justice with support.
This debate is done. Enjoy the last word if you want it.
I’m not going to be gaslit. People spend so much effort saying “believe women!”, attacking and shaming anyone who says “Whoa, hold on, slow down. Let’s examine the evidence. What if he didn’t do the thing she says he did?”
And then you want to change your tune and suddenly say “Actually ‘believe women’ isn’t about that. It’s about this nebulous thing that I’m deflecting to because I refuse to acknowledge the uncomfortable truth of the situation you bring up that sheds light on why this mentality is dangerous.”
Why would I engage with that? It’s disingenuous at best.
For someone who has insisted I’m trans, you sure love to accuse others of gaslighting. Interesting.
The evidence has been examined. It’s been corroborated. There are multiple women who have come forward.
It doesn’t even matter at this point whether you’re trans or not. That fact that I thought you were and still referred to you as a woman and used feminine pronouns debunks your claim that I’m a transphobe.
Let’s see the conviction then.
It’s been posted in Politico, of all rags.
The other one being that republican who listed “political operative” as her career on social media? Yeah, that’s so convincing. The people coordinating the anti-Platner smear learned from their mistake though, apparently…
No, insisting you know someone’s gender more than they do themselves and insisting they’re lying shows you don’t respect people at all.
Don’t you worry, I’ve got all sorts of rape statistics to share momentarily. With sources.
Nearly half of women and more than 1 in 6 men experienced some form of contact sexual violence in their lifetimes.
More than 1 in 5 women and 1 in 31 men have experienced completed or attempted rape in their lifetimes.
98% of perpetrators walk free. For every 1000 sexual assaults, 50 reports lead to arrests, 28 cases lead to felony convictions, and only 25 perpetrators are sentenced to incarceration.
1 in 3 victims report sexual assault to law enforcement—that’s 310 out of every 1,000 survivors.
The majority of sexual harassment, assault, and abuse is committed by someone the victim knows — a family member, intimate partner, coworker, classmate, or acquaintance.4
None of that demonstrates guilt in any individual case. You can cite statistics all you want, but that doesn’t give you license to go out in public, spin around three times, point to a man and yell “he raped me!”