The Lesson of Platner’s Exit: Trump Didn’t Change the Rules for Anyone Except Himself.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you know by now that Graham Platner — the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Maine — has dropped out of the race, having been accused of sexual assault. (He denies the allegation.) That outcome has seemed likely for days, yet it still suggests something surprising about American politics: that maybe President Donald Trump hasn’t upended our norms quite as much as everyone assumed.

There’s no need to recite all of Trump’s scandals. “Access Hollywood” (“grab them by the p***y”). Two impeachments. Criminal indictments. A civil jury finding him liable for sexual abuse. Etc., etc., etc. Any one of those episodes would have vaporized the career of all politicians before 2016. (As JD Vance recently boasted, Watergate would have been a “12-hour news story” in Trump’s America.)

In this perverse culture, egomaniacal pols were tempted to think: If Trump can survive scandal, then so can I. But what if Trump didn’t actually change the rules for everyone? What if he only changed the rules for Trump?

For some Democrats, this is an uncomfortable theory to entertain. Admitting your orange menace possesses an improbable ability to avoid accountability — one that does not extend to you — may seem like a depressing, defeatist realization. It also might seem fundamentally unfair.

So it’s easy to see why someone like Platner might have strongly considered staying in the race and testing fate. Plus, it’s not just Trump: There are a handful of examples of other politicians — Clarence Thomas, Bill Clinton, Brett Kavanaugh, Joe Biden — who have survived serious allegations. As a result, those allegations will not solely (or even mostly) define their legacies.

Lending further credence to the “stick it out” strategy was that former Sen. Al Franken’s resignation — now seen as an example of #MeToo overreach — convinced Democrats, in retrospect, that they shouldn’t have been so aggressive when it comes to policing their own side, particularly when the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.

And yet, those are the exceptions. Recent history is littered with the damaged careers of people who assumed — wrongly — that their behavior wouldn’t have political consequences. Ask Herschel Walker. Ask Roy Moore. Ask Mark Robinson. Ask Andrew Cuomo. Ask Katie Hill. Ask Eric Swalwell. Ask Kristi Noem (and her husband). Each discovered that borrowing from Trump’s playbook doesn’t come with Trump’s magic. (The verdict is still out on whether scandal-plagued Ken Paxton can win in deep-red Texas.)

Trump, it seems, may be the rare example of a truly Teflon politician. For whatever reason — his celebrity status, a visceral cunningness, his experience in the tabloid era, a deal with Satan? — he could, to borrow his own infamous formulation, shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters.

But while Trump’s impunity is a shame and a travesty, I’m glad his power isn’t transferable. That is to say, it’s fundamentally good news that Platner won’t get away with alleged sexual assault, just because Trump gets away with doing horrible things.

Because if Platner could skate thanks to the new political climate and precedent fostered by Trump, it means that we live in a time and place where other political leaders can disregard norms of decency. Given the choice, I’d much rather live in a country where that kind of invulnerability is granted to only one person, to be honest.

So I’m glad the pressure campaign to force Platner out was successful. Here’s hoping his fall serves as a cautionary tale that chastens other politicos.

Matt K. Lewis is a NOTUS Perspectives columnist.