Eric Brakey’s “Rape” Comments And The Democratic Reaction

The Maine Democratic Party has become no stranger to hitting below the belt with its attack ads. While your average everyday Mainer might not be able to understand who the Democrats are running, they can at least quickly learn who they hate.

The latest target is Republican Senate District 20 candidate Eric Brakey, who has become a controversial figure as a rising star within the GOP mainstream. While gaining favor with the establishment as he continues to build a political career, he has become divisive in the liberty movement that boosted his career.

The comments in question were made in 2012, during to the Ron Paul grassroots uprising against the heavy-handed establishment. In response to the tactics of the Republican National Committee, Brakey stated, “I hate to compare it to something so serious and severe, but it really felt like being raped … that here we did all this work and it was just thrown away and we had no control and no power.”

To be absolutely crystal clear, this is an unacceptable analogy. Whether Brakey was caught in the heat of the moment or attempting to draw an analogy of significant defeat doesn’t matter, as it’s completely wrong either way.

For Ron Paul supporters, it was a devastating feeling to be stripped of all their hard work. After a hard fought primary that saw activists fairly earning National Delegation spots, the Republican National Committee stripped them of their victories and installed party favorites in their position. 

The National Convention in 2012 was a mere coronation and an insult to honest conservative and libertarian activists within the Republican Party.

But to compare the establishment tyranny to something as deplorable as rape is completely wrong.

Though, what is as arguably wrong is the disingenuous mailers the Maine Democratic Party is putting out, pretending to care about rape victims and attempting to give the appearance they are taking a stand against it. Unfortunately, this is politics and in the eyes of the party leadership, every human being sexually violated against their will is a political tool.

A $7,900 tool, which is the cost the Party spent on the last minute mailers to the voters of Senate District 20.

Instead of denouncing Brakey’s comments in the many months he’s been in the race, building a strong campaign, they sat on it. The Maine Democratic Party tucked away this insult to rape victims and saved it until it was politically convenient for them to use. Any claim of disgust is an insult to victims, who are not being defended but rather used for political gain. Given they have already been victims of forced sexual activity, the added insult to injury is unnecessary.



This is alright with Chairman Ben Grant however, who defended the actions of the Democratic Party. When stating he saw no problem with the type of campaigning occurring, he noted it does not cross the line. Furthermore, Party spokeswoman Rachel Irwin defended the mailer by claiming the words were his and they were “just grossly inappropriate.”

So isn’t exploiting rape victims, but there aren’t many people questioning the integrity (or lack thereof) of the Maine Democratic Party. The despicable establishment is going to defend riding rape victims to the finish line. And that is absolutely disgusting.

 Or as the spokeswoman would say, “grossly inappropriate.”

Chris Dixon

About Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon is a libertarian-leaning writer and managing editor for The Liberty Conservative. In addition to his political writing, he also covers baseball for Cleat Geeks and enjoys writing on a number of other topics ranging on Medium.