This doesn't necessarily vindicate the "what you do in middle school makes you a monster for life" argument, but it sure does confirm that Coleman should not be in office. There were just so many red flags with this guy -- the hubris and entitlement were clear from the start. https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/1298608586365571073

And that's where I am still just so confused as to why very prominent leftist men jumped to Coleman's defense. I would get it if he was a great candidate or even a passable one. But any yahoo can mouth the right words and it is so obvious the guy has major, major issues.

So no, we didn't know about this very recent abuse until now, and no what he did in middle school should not determine the rest of his life, but everything we DID know pointed to a person with serious entitlement issues who was totally out of his depth. Why is that your guy?

I suspect the answer is: To kneecap feminist influence on the left which is inconvenient to a class-first ideology, and because some of these guys are driven more by a hatred of libs and Dems than anything else. They'll cheer anyone who is anti-Dem, even an incompetent teen.

NOW you think he's a "craven opportunist" because he's been caught doing something bad as an adult? Dudes, the craven opportunism was right there for you to see in the fact that he did no organizing or political work other than for himself. He ran for governor at 17! He's 19 now!

And when he, at 17, believed he was qualified to be governor of Kansas, he was a Rand Paul fan who said he preferred Trump over Clinton, didn't care about abortion rights (why wasn't abortion on his website? He ran out of space), and mostly just wanted to legalize weed. Come on.

And please don't tell me it was about "the principle" that we shouldn't hold people accountable for what they do as children. If Coleman had been a College Democrat I 100% guarantee these men would not have been coming to his defense.

Also note how leftist men used abortion rights as a cudgel to lecture feminists about how our criticisms of Coleman were bad. And how Coleman himself emphasized that his opponent is anti-choice. He started caring about abortion the minute he could use the issue against women.

Again, all of this was very obvious if you cared to look. But attacking libs, Dems, & feminists was more important than actually thinking about who it is you're endorsing and what, exactly, he has done to merit attention & promotion. All Coleman has done: Sought power for himself

Anyway, it would be great if anyone learned any lessons here, like maybe your knee-jerk hatred of libs or your deep desire to find evidence that class is more salient than race and gender (or your desire to undercut feminist influence) compromised your professional abilities.