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.
Polling numbers are a reflection of public opinion, not guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Really that’s only an argument in favor of suspending judgement and letting it play out in court.
Your idea of “damning evidence” is a few vague texts that never mention rape, and a couple emails with a therapist from a few weeks ago? If a victim cares about protecting other women she can get a forensics panel done and have the abuser put away for a long time.
Suddenly leveling an accusation five years down the line a few months before an election where the balance of the senate on the line is sus, and it’s telling how intent you are on conflating that with your average everyday allegations.
If there was substance to this, she would prosecute it in a court of law, not via Politico
That’s not all of the evidence. Stop pushing misinformation.
Victims don’t have to act perfectly to be believed. Rape victims don’t have an obligation to protect others by coming forward - RAPISTS have an obligation to stop inflicting violence on others.
You can’t herald Platner as a hero of the average American and then act shocked that an average guy with a violent history and a drinking problem also as issues with sexual boundaries.
Only 2% of rape cases are ever successfully brought to court.
Where’s the rest of it then?
You couldn’t even say the words “No, I wouldn’t have believed Emmett Till’s accuser. I would have kept a level head and suspended judgement until the facts could be weighed in a court of law.”
Sure, rapists should stop inflicting violence. I can agree with that. I just don’t see any rapists in this situation. There’s no victim if a crime never occurred. And crying wolf repeatedly as an easy way to get your way isn’t going to help actual victims receive justice.
How does one even measure that? That means 98% of alleged rapes are never proven. You don’t think that leaves any room for doubt?
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
Not a single one of those factoids is evidence for a particular case. You can’t just cite statistics as proof someone must be guilty. This is what I mean by crying wolf. You’re only discrediting yourself further.
If you actually cared about victims you would encourage them to go to the ER and get samples taken that can be used in a court of law to demonstrate the attacker’s guilt. They probably want to get tested for transmissible diseases anyway, so they should already be going to the ER. From there, there are doctors and social workers who can report through the proper channels and initiate and investigation. You never even have to speak with the cops.
I wouldn’t be saying this if I was a defender of rapists, would I? That would be illogical. I’d love to see every rapist put behind bars. And encouraging victims to get the forensics panel only helps them get justice. But you want to frame it as victim blaming and misogyny, against all reason.
And then you cite statistics as if those somehow demonstrate that every man must be guilty? You’re only giving me more reasons not to take you seriously.
You asked and I provided sources.
Your personal opinion on how rape victims should act after being raped holds no water here. You’re not an expert, you don’t even believe the very real and tracked statistics around rape and sexual assault. You don’t even believe an individual when they tell you they’re cis-gendered.
There’s no point in talking with you at all if you’re going to act like your thoughts are the ultimate truth no matter what.
You’re the only one here acting like your own thoughts are the ultimate truth. “Believe every woman always because they never lie, ever!”
A bunch of statistics of alleged cases? When the prevailing mentality is “always believe every case”? I’m sure that’s so credible.
And even if there was some way of verifying such a statistic, that still wouldn’t demonstrate guilt in any individual case. If you want to convict an actual rapist, you need to gather evidence. That means collecting samples. If you don’t like that, tough, I don’t get to decide how reality operates, and neither do you. But I’m not going to believe every accusation I hear just because you want to virtue signal about how women supposedly don’t need to have any evidence in order to accuse someone.
Stop trying to blame every man in the world just because two thirds of alleged rape victims inexplicably decide not to even try to press charges. That’s their choice, but they kinda forfeit any expectation to be taken seriously when they decide to bring it up five years later with no evidence.
But sure, continue trying to pretend that it’s somehow misogynist to say “rape victims should gather evidence if they want to secure a conviction.” You’re only hurting actual victims.
Where did I say this?
THIS woman has evidence, you just don’t want to believe it.
Gaslight me harder. You’ve already stretched credulity far enough. I don’t expect your mind to ever change. I hope to never have the displeasure of meeting you in person.