Drop Out, Platner

I was wrong

I endorsed Graham Platner because I believed he represented something desperately needed in American politics: courage, accountability, and a willingness to tell uncomfortable truths. I believed his enlisted military service with heavy combat, his willingness to challenge Susan Collins, and his vision for Maine reflected the kind of leadership I wanted to support. Today, I am rescinding that endorsement and calling on him to withdraw from the race.

I believed part of Platner’s pathos was dealing with the mental and moral toll of war by seeking the sort of edgelord humor that makes fighting in ground combat tolerable and Homer’s account of returning home from battle in the Odyssey universal. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because of that. I have spent enough time around war to understand that sustained ground combat leaves scars that are often invisible. PTSD, alcohol abuse, broken relationships, and self-destructive behavior are not my pathology, but I know enough about anger to see them as markers of a younger man struggling with moral injury. Those realities do not excuse misconduct, but they do provide context. I believed that context mattered, and I believed that a fundamentally decent man could struggle under the weight of war.

The more recent reporting, however, has crossed a line for me. If the allegations reported by Politico are substantially accurate, they describe conduct that cannot simply be explained away by trauma or poor judgment. Even if it could be attributed to drunken judgment, that does not mitigate. There are red lines, and excusing sexual assault places one on the wrong side of the most fundamental thing I believe: strength must be used in moral causes, and any exercise otherwise is immoral.

I have spent years arguing that character matters regardless of party. I believed it when Donald Trump faced serious allegations. I believed it when Matt Gaetz was under scrutiny. I believed it when Eric Swalwell, another politician I once admired, showed his true colors. If those standards are good enough for politicians I disagree with, or even politicians I agree with on some issues, they must also apply to someone I once enthusiastically supported. Principles that only exist when they are politically convenient are not principles at all.

One of the hardest lessons war ever taught me is that more than one thing can exist inside a person at the same time. A man can be brave and cruel, a hero and a criminal.

Over the years, I have heard men I trust describe acts of extraordinary courage by American Sniper Chris Kyle that they witnessed with their own eyes. I have also heard men I trust describe incidents in which they believe he crossed moral and legal lines and killed people who ought not to have been killed. Both of these groups of men were other Navy SEALs. Some of them were even the same people. I was not there for any of it, and the problem with sniping is that often, there is only one person who knows the truth and snipers inherently operate on the fringes of the rules of engagement. Yet that excuses nothing. Heroism does not grant immunity from accountability. Great acts do not erase terrible ones, nor do terrible acts erase genuine courage. Human beings are rarely all one thing.

And I will not advocate replacing one moral coward in my state of birth with another.

Some people will argue that Graham Platner is right about Susan Collins and her corruption. They will insist that the stakes of the election are too high to abandon a candidate over allegations they wish were not true, when control of the United States Senate determines what a mad king who is actively destroying this country while enriching himself resides in the Oval Office. I understand that temptation.

But a moral nation must strike a careful balance. It must recognize that every human being possesses the capacity for both good and evil. It must also recognize that certain conduct, if established, disqualifies a person from positions of greater public trust. Accountability is not the opposite of grace. It is one of its necessary companions.

We cannot spend years condemning the moral failures of our political opponents only to become silent when someone wearing our own jersey is accused of conduct that violates the same standards.

I wanted Graham Platner to be the candidate I hoped he was. But there is no Santa Claus. I genuinely hoped he would become a new voice for Maine and for veterans who believe public service still means something. It pains me to conclude that, based on the reporting now before the public. But even if, and I do not believe this, Graham Platner, in his heart of hearts, does not believe he committed rape, the woman in that article believes he did and believed it years before he ran for office.

Graham Platner needs to drop out of this race, for himself, his family, and his country.

Where the hell is Jared Golden?