Aaron Coleman is dropping out of the race, but not before accusing his critics of betraying feminism.
(Donatism was an early Christian heresy that deemed those who had renounced their faith under threat of persecution to be ineligible for the priesthood. Coleman is using the word here to suggest that his critics hold impossibly stringent and rigid moral standards.)
(While casting himself as a martyr and a victim, natch.)
Since this thread is starting to attract Coleman defenders, I'll add this: If Coleman had actually worked through the harm he did as an adolescent and made real amends to his victims before running for office, it's possible this situation might have turned out differently.
That's not to say that everyone who's condemning Coleman now would have felt differently—or should have. But it's become really clear in the last few days that he hasn't done even the most basic work he should have to address this before putting himself into the public eye.
Coleman claims that he couldn't apologize to his victims because they blocked him on Facebook, and doesn't even try to explain the letter he recently sent to one of their relatives telling her to "move on." And now he's claiming that his withdrawal is a loss for feminism.
So often, when someone who has done horrible things makes a play for public rehabilitation, their defenders claim that their critics want them cancelled "forever," or that they've been given no path to redemption.
But when you give those claims even the gentlest scrutiny, they often fall apart, as they do here. Coleman doesn't understand his bad acts as a cause for legitimate doubts about his character, he understands them as a weapon his political enemies are using to do him unfair harm.
And it's that false perception that's leading him to lash out as he withdraws from the race, portraying himself as a wronged victim of political persecution rather than as someone who is being forced to confront the consequences of his own actions.
Coleman has made it clear that public office isn't the right place for him now—not merely because of his actions in middle school, but also, crucially, because of his actions in the course of the campaign, and in the last few days.
And without going into another whole huge rant, I think it's also worth pointing out that his enablers have further compounded the ugliness of the situation by not acknowledging that his critics had legitimate reason for concern.
Anyway, I've gotta get back to work.
