Democrats who defend Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner against charges of personal misconduct, while making similar charges against Republicans, are guilty of gross dishonesty and hypocrisy. But because Republicans have supported President Trump against misconduct charges as well, they cannot credibly accuse the Democrats of having double standards without provoking similar accusations from the Democrats. Neither party has the moral standing to demand that misconduct investigations be fairly examined and that disputes between accusers and accused be resolved through objective analysis of relevant facts, without regard to corrosive partisanship.
Graham Platner—Maine oysterman, combat veteran, local government activist, and the probable Democratic nominee for Senator from Maine—has been all over the news lately. He’s been featured on most network news programs, and is even on the cover of this week’s edition of Time Magazine. Especially amazing are Platner’s rise from political obscurity, the numerous accusations of past misconduct levied against him—ignorance of the meaning of a Nazi tattoo, sexting, mistreatment of women, etc., etc.— and the degree to which Progressive Democrats have gone to excuse and defend him, even though, no doubt, they would not hesitate to use similar accusations against a Republican to do their best to destroy him. Just ask Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh—or Donald Trump.
Of course, it’s easy to understand why progressive Democrats such as Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and others are going to such great lengths to brush aside the accusations against Platner without regard to whether they’re true or not. They’re desperate to win back control of the U. S. Senate from the Republicans, and see the defeat of Susan Collins, the current GOP senator from Maine, as crucial. So they’ll overlook Platner’s alleged transgressions, no matter how well documented they may be, despite their past record of using unproven allegations of a similar nature to try to destroy Republicans.
For example, Democrats, in their drive to keep abortion rights constitutionally protected, sought to keep Clarence Thomas off the Supreme Court by charging him with saying dirty words in the presence of Anita Hill and of displaying Playboy Magazine calendars in his kitchen. More recently, they used accusations of alleged sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh to try to derail his Supreme Court nomination. They produced witnesses who charged Kavanaugh with attempted rape in high school, 12 actual rapes, and at least one charge of indecent exposure. Ultimately, those who said they’d witnessed the rapes withdrew the charges; no witnesses supporting the attempted rape and the indecent exposure case could be found, and Kavanaugh was confirmed. But a year after his confirmation, another witness came forward, claiming that he, too, had seen Kavanaugh allowing someone to grab his genitals and rub them in the face of a woman at a party. The woman in question said she remembered no such incident. But Senator Warren nonetheless demanded that Kavanaugh be impeached and removed. In other words, she considered an unproven allegation against Kavanaugh to be disqualifying, but the allegations against Platner to be excusable.
Perhaps the most dramatic exposure of Democratic hypocrisy concerning the treatment of women occurred at the second presidential election debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016. Hillary Clinton had famously said that when women accuse men of harassment, one must “believe the women.” In a truly brilliant move, Trump arranged for 3 women who had claimed to have been harassed by Bill Clinton to attend the debate. Hillary had to confront Paula Jones, who said her husband had exposed himself to her; Kathleen Willey, who said Clinton had molested her; and Juanita Broderick, who said Clinton had raped her. If Trump and his supporters asked, we’re supposed to “believe the women,” how can one deny the charges brought by Clinton’s accusers? (The allegations were never proven, and Clinton was never indicted or convicted of the crimes alleged against him, although he did pay money to Paula Jones to settle a civil suit.)
But Trump and the GOP should not try to make too much of Democratic dishonesty on this matter. After all, MAGA Republicans have largely dismissed, discounted, or ignored charges of sexual misconduct made against Trump himself. Trump’s comments in the 2005 Access Hollywood tape, porn star Stormy Daniels’s story of her encounter with Trump, and the civil court findings of misconduct against and defamation of writer E. Jean Carroll have done nothing to erode Trump’s popularity with his GOP MAGA base. Indeed, his conservative Christian supporters rationalize their acceptance of him by saying that, like Abraham, King David, and other Old Testament figures, Trump is indeed imperfect. But God uses imperfect men (and presumably women) to achieve His own perfect goals. Maybe so. But those who accept, discount, overlook, or forgive Trump’s alleged transgressions will encounter credibility issues should they try to be too judgmental of Democrats charged with similar transgressions.
It would be wrong to say that party and governmental leaders never try to punish party members for misconduct. But usually, if a member of Congress is disciplined for misconduct by members of his own party, it is because tactical advantages may be achieved by punishing a perceived miscreant, or because the misconduct in question was too egregious to be swept under the rug.
For example, in 2017, Alabama Republican primary voters selected Roy Moore, former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, to be their candidate in a special election to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat. Moore was widely considered to be a political extremist and a religious zealot. In the course of the campaign, credible allegations that he may have had inappropriate relations with teenage girls surfaced (although neither the girls in question nor their parents claimed Moore had committed any criminal acts, and Moore was never indicted or convicted of any crimes). Democratic Senators, planning to expel Moore should he be elected, decided to enhance their credibility by forcing Minnesota’s Democratic Senator, Al Franken, to resign over credible allegations that he had groped, forcibly kissed, or otherwise sexually harassed women. Franken succumbed to pressure and quit. But Roy Moore lost his election bid, and afterwards some Democrats felt that they had been too tough on Franken. It’s probable that had Moore had no chance of victory, Franken would have had no chance of expulsion. More recently, Democratic activists credibly accused Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell of sexual misconduct in a successful effort to reduce the number of Democrats vying for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in California. And Republicans supported the expulsion of Texas Representative Tony Gonzalez, who, in clear violation of House rules, had an extramarital affair with a staff member. To make matters worse, she subsequently committed suicide by setting herself on fire. (Btw, a Republican congressman from Ohio, Max Miller, has been accused of beating up his wife and throwing boiling water in his face; if the accusation is proven true through due process procedures, the Congress, led by GOP Speaker Mike Johnson, should expel him).
In a better political system, charges of misconduct would be taken more seriously, with the understanding that one only follows the evidence itself to achieve a just resolution of the dispute between the accuser and the accused, and that neither the sex nor the party affiliation of accusers and accused should be considered as proof of lying or truth-telling, innocence or guilt. But in the system we have, Democrats will no doubt continue to make accusations against Republicans while usually rejecting, ignoring, or excusing accusations against their fellow Democrats. And Republicans will continue to support their fellow Republicans while condemning Democrats, regardless of the actual truth. Our system is the worse for it.
Malcolm L. Cross has lived in Stephenville since 1987 and taught politics and government at Tarleton for 36 years, retiring in 2023. His political and civic activities include service on the Stephenville City Council (2000-2014) and on the Erath County Republican Executive Committee (1990-2024). He was Mayor pro-tem of Stephenville from 2008 to 2014. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Stephenville Economic Development Authority since 2018, and as chair of the Erath County Appraisal District’s Appraisal Review Board since 2015. He is also a member of the Stephenville Rotary Club, the Board of Vestry of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and the Executive Committee of the Boy Scouts’ Pecan Valley District. Views expressed in this column are his and do not reflect those of The Flash as a whole.
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