I actually do truly feel sorry for this kid, who was clearly in way over his head. I wish he had people advising him; I wish he had listened and learned before running for office at 17 and 19. But the impulse to blame feminism and lecture feminists is... a tell.

No one argues that our political leaders must be perfect. We do want them to be adequate, empathetic, and decent.

I keep seeing this argument that if Coleman had rich parents, hired lawyers & PR flacks could sweep his scandal away. Maybe! It is indeed bullshit that rich parents cover for abusive sons. But the takeaway is not "...so to make it fair every guy should get at least one freebie."

I also see Coleman and his defenders hammering the point that his opponent was an anti-abortion Democrat, while Coleman was pro-choice -- the point being that Coleman was better for women, and how he's out of the race, nyah nyah women now go lie in the bed you made.

Coleman doubled down on his emphasis on abortion rights when he came under fire for the revenge porn story. And he continues to wag his finger at feminists because of his opponent's position, suggesting he's the "real" feminist and he hopes we don't get what's coming to us.

It's almost like these guys see basic rights for women as a gift to be bestowed and met with great gratitude, and not as, well, basic rights.

A True Progressive who said he would have voted for Donald Trump and didn't mention abortion because he wouldn't change the existing laws and "I ran out of space on my website." Yes, he was 17 and we shouldn't hold it against him - except he won at 19. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/a-teenager-could-run-kansas-better-than-sam-brownback-205093/

ANYWAY he is out of the race and I can happily stop harping on this, but the whole thing was just such bullshit from start to finish. The lefty men who went to the mat for this guy knew nothing about him except he liked Bernie Sanders and penned a good platform.

(To be clear, Not All Lefty Men. A lot of folks were skeptical the whole time & did not join the campaign for him & against those mean feminists who want to ruin a man's life by... saying a 19-year-old with no experience & a recent history of revenge porn shouldn't be in office)

There were just so many red flags here, and so much hubris and entitlement, and prominent lefty men jumped onto this story not because they knew anything about Coleman or believed in him, but because it was a way to put feminists in our place and push back against changing norms.