Graham Platner Could Be the Bellwether of a New US Populism
18d 2h ago by lemmy.zip/u/favoredponcho in politics from jacobin.com
Graham Platner has traversed a long and unlikely road to become the Democratic nominee for the US Senate in Maine. Can he beat longtime GOP incumbent Susan Collins and live up to the promise of his firebrand populist campaign?
Do we have a time machine? No? Then we can't make a better choice for primary than him anymore. That's it.
Is he better than Susan Collins?
That's the vote. A or B. Decide which, between those two options only you'd hate the least, and vote the vote.
Is he imperfect? Yes. But now he's only competing against Ms Collins.
Well that’s fucking depressing
Everything else is much more depressing.
That's fair, but we're actively living the consequences of not voting for harm reduction when we had the chance in 2024. I'm so fucking sick of this. We can't afford to ignore history or reality anymore.
Trump and the DNC themselves are the fruits of accepting the argument of "harm reduction" for long enough.
Guess what, it's always this election that we need to support an 'electabe candidate' standing for nothing while promoting conservative and nationalist values, and always the next where we'll surely be able to put pressure on the Democratic party to field a candidate that actually wants to change things. You know, the type they like to fight and slander at every turn otherwise.
Not as depressing as what happens if everyone who is informed enough to have meaningful opinions refuses to participate rather than make a choice.
And if turns into another Fetterman? Then what?
What if somebody slaps you with a trout? Did you consider that possibility?!
Or what if he even turns into another Susan Collins?!
This is concerning!! I’m concerned, she’s concerned, we’re all concerned here.
What if he turns out even more progressive than what he's running as?
Why only consider one side of the hypothetical?
Fettermsn had a stroke that obviously changed his personality
No I heard he was always an asshole. But it was him or OZ and sick of the lesser evil which is bullshit. And this guy is a nazi. His bullshit he didn't know his tattoo was what it wss goes against realty. So guess we see how he turns out. I hope for the best but not holding out he will make any difference.
So what your saying is the DNC is controlled opposition and they are terrible at political strategy and legislation?
Not so sure about that, given some questionable past behavior of his. His entire time as a mayor was problematic.
But he's so relatable to the common man! He wears a hoodie (that he bought with his trust fund).
The heel turn was coming, the stroke may have only made it worse.
I’m not from there so my opinion is worthless but—
I would never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever EVER EVER EVER EVER vote for someone with a Nazi tattoo. I don’t give a fuck if he says he’s reformed. The fact he that was a choice they made literally proves they are not fit for office. Yall get what you deserve with these fucking people.
Yes, instead of the formerly chud-brained person who changed their mind and did the work to improve, you would rather vote for the current Nazi who is clever enough to hide their nature by not having a tattoo.
You absolute muppet.
I know this is such a wild take. “He has a Nazi tatto” so does SECDEF. The whole admin is Nazis doing nazi shit. At least this guy wants to prosecute the Nazis.
Susan Collins it is then
No, I’m pretty sure this one’s going to platinum. Everyone’s pretty much sick as Susan Collins and all she has are the hardcore MAGA. She can’t even find real people to run her campaign ads.
My best of best friend got sucked into 4chan for a minute when they were a very young adult. Realized the error of their ways, and changed. Is now my best friend. Is now a compassionate loving and kind human, to all.
Sometimes, seeing something for what it is first hand, can fuel the fire for true change.
With your logic, I should not be friends with this person because over a decade ago they were sucked into a horrible line of thinking. I should just write them off and shame them. Id rather recognize that they saw how the propaganda machine was working on them, how they were able to overcome it and work on themselves, and now hold a voice on how others can do the same to prevent it further growing.
Thats all I can think about when yall say this shit. If I apply this thinking to my friend, they wouldnt be my friend.
Did he also get the popular 4chan slogan "Ni**erfa**ot" tattooed on him and then keep it for two decades of his good person era? And then lie and say "I had no idea those were degrading words, by golly"?
I hate this braindead take people keep repeating, without considering it. In politics, for whatever reason, changing your mind is one of the worse offenses you can make. It's "flip-flopping" and this is supposed to be bad.
Fuck that. I want someone who can ingest new information and changes their beliefs based on that. People changing their opinions is actually good.
He has talked about his past, if you care. He's now one of the few people who want to reduce military spending. He's talked about the military not actually being good for him. Does this sound like a fascist to you? Yeah, he was a stupid kid who joined the military for a sense of community at one point. We've all made mistakes though. He no longer holds the same beliefs, and is potentially stronger in that than people who never had the same experience.
These days I have to assume these posts are by feds or Russian plants. He was a Marine, if you've never spent time around them let me tell you, they promote a culture of killers and respect effective killers. SS imagery was as common as "Back to Back World War Champs" imagery.
The left needs killers.
Exactly.
You need people who aren't perfect, but are extremely driven.
Will they make mistakes?
Yep.
... that's how people work.
What's pretty damn uncommon is someone who makes a big mistake, actually realizes it, admits it, and fights against it, at least partially out of a sense of avenging their own prior mistakes.
You gonna have a lot of trouble stopping a person with a well placed grudge against elements of their former self.
We keep voting for the lesser evil and then act suprised when candidates keep being evil.
Maybe if non-evil people ran in primaries, and people showed up to vote for them, we'd get to vote for something else. Have you considered running for office, or canvassing for good primary candidates?
I have but I'm a bad public speaker. I do political organizing in real life, including helping run a recurring mutual aid distribution, and that seems a more valuable use of my time than a quixotic vanity challenge.
Your mutual aid does nothing in the face of federal legislation. And the destruction of social safety that we’ve watched over the last 18 months.
The striking workers our strike kitchens feed disagree. The unhoused we give clothes to disagree. The tenant unions we support disagree.
When I want opinions on the real life organizing I do in my community, I'll ask the other real life organizers in my community and the community I serve, not some random internet stranger.
like throwing a bucket of water into an ocean of suffering lmao. I appreciate the work you do. Seems like you do it because you're a self righteous prick and not because you actually want to help people.
This comment reminds me of my friend who was fine getting rid of USAID because he thought his church mission trips were more important than the national efforts to fight hunger and disease around the world. It's the most republican point of view in existence. Keep doing good work, maybe work on the actual spirit of your charity, and quantifying your reach compared to the reach of an entire nation.
Like idk you've left me with a weird combination of admiration and irritation. Ur perspective is too narcissistic but the work you do is good!
Well if someone doesn't, we'll never have anything but lesser evil candidates.
Stop trying to talk sense into blue maga
Anyone with more than two brain cells stopped trying to talk sense into .ml a long time ago.
And yet, the MLs have the burden of being right every goddamned time.
A lot of folks here are too young to remember this, but back in my day there was a democrat senator from Pennsylvania called John Fetterman. When he ran for this position, he was hailed as a new kind of progressive. Gave off serious working class vibes, wouldn't wear a suit, and ran a really progressive ticket. He had a bit of an iffy past, involving threatening a black jogger with a shotgun, and fighting to gentrify the town of Braddock when he was mayor there. And of course, he had parents who were business owners who bought his political career for him. But we were told to ignore this, because he was saying a lot of progressive stuff now, and because the person he was running against was ostensibly worse (a tv doctor I think).
Anyway, he got elected, and the unimaginable happened: the guy who acted conservatively in the past, was acting conservatively in the present too! Even though he'd said he'd changed his tune and was a progressive now, he was supporting conservative legislation, and even enthousiastically supporting the genocide Israel is committing in Gaza (although it's hard to find a democrat who doesn't).
The Plattner situation reminds me of this. Rich parents, iffy past (3 tours of joining the illegal invasion of Iraq, and one in afghanistan, mercenary after, an actual, honest to god, I'm not making this up, nazi tattoo on his chest), and iffy present (he's calling people who participated in the war crimes committed in Fallujah[1] "war heroes" in campaign interviews). It'd be kind of cool if we could learn from history instead of repeat it.
Inb4 the greybeards bring up Obama and his progressive campaign.
[1] they besieged the entire city and cut off its water and electricity supply. This is a war crime. Imagine being an elderly or disabled person who cannot leave the city -- these are the kinds of people targeted by this attack. This is the kind of stuff Israel does in Gaza that makes legal scholars say that they're committing a genocide. Anyway, the folks that did this are war heroes, apparently.
I went back and listened to Fetterman during his election, and I've listened to Platner in recent interviews, there is a major difference in the general thought of how politics works and how it should work.
I suppose it's possible that this is another wolf in sheeps clothes, but it sure doesnt look like it to me. Not to mention taken at face value, he's leaps and bounds ahead of anyone else in the race.
So I feel like "taking things at face value" is exactly what went wrong with the previous bait and switch candidates. And I've yet to see something concrete and actual which distinguishes Plattner from them. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words, and I haven't seen any progressive actions.
Seeing the amount of mental acrobatics performed in this thread to justify his background, I'm pretty sure some cosmic entity is polishing off the "fell for it again" awards somewhere. People are calling his mother owning multiple businesses, his dad being a prominent lawyer, donating 50k to politicians a regular background. Like holy moly.
I don't care. We can't keep relying on people here. The furry internet mods of the internet who hide at the first hint of confrontation. You know at some point we have to be critical of ourselves as a reason Trump won. If i was on a baseball team and half the team doesn't show up and the other half that does show up decide to not even play the game then at some point we need to admit the reason we lost isn't just because the other team did something, that partially the reason we've lost everything in decades is due to the actions of our own team or lack thereof. But one thing I know for sure, we need more of Graham to inject some fuck you energy back into the left of MAGA side.
Hey I'm not saying there's no good candidates:
- Zohran Mamdani
- Rashida Tlaib
- Abdul el-Sayed
And the list goes on. People who have proved themselves by being - and most importantly acting - progressive through their entire career. All I'm saying is that Plattner has not really given us any reason to believe that he is actually on that list. In fact, we've seen guys like him before, such as Fetterman, and we all know how that turned out. And there were people defending Fetterman just as rabidly as they're defending Plattner today.
When the guy that acted like a chud in the past turns out to act like a chud in the future as well, don't come crying to me, because all I'll have for you is an atodaso. A fucking atodaso.
We're not in a position to be picky without good reason. Fetterman is not enough. The 3 you listed are not it. They're great. Exciting. But they are one small part of something bigger. Tlaib not really sure what her actions actually are.
The do-nothings are always eternally perfect because they never commit to anything.
The real world isn’t a Disney movie or an anime. You don’t know someone’s true motivations most of the time and, even if you did, they can change after a while. But doing nothing IS a decision, and the wrong one most of the time.
This, exactly this.
The thing the Republicans do that give them a big advantage is take in anyone all flaws included. That's real life. Ugly lumps and all. The do nothings don't get the real world experience to know the ideal in their head doesn't exist. They reject based on each individul grievance and this shrinks power over time.
Tin foil hat, given what we know of heritage foundation and others, I wouldn't doubt if these were modern bot accounts really driving this holier than thou attitude among the left.
And why is Fatterman still in office? Pennsylvania has almost no way to recall him. People can talk all they want. This whole thread is about talking. Until there's action and these politicians are uncomfortable enough to either step down or do their jobs is all talk.
Yeah, I hear ya, I really do, but here's the thing - he's still on the books as a Democrat, so if everything else lines up, he makes it so the Dems control the Senate, even if he isn't playing along. If the count is close enough, with two DINOs (Fetterman), it might mean they can't win some votes, but as the Majority Party, they still control the legislative schedule, and most importantly they control committees, including investigative and oversight committees with subpoena and arrest powers.
Any Dem legislation isn't going to go anywhere anyway, because Trump will never sign it, so the real job over the next 2 years will be investigating people, getting things on the record, impeaching where possible, etc., and cranking up the outrage for 2028. In a situation like that, DINOs still have a big impact, just by keeping the majority control out of MAGA hands.
He says enough good things that he’s worth throwing some weight behind. Importantly too, (and unfortunate it has to be this way) he’s a macho white veteran. He’s speaking TOO and FOR this demographic who happens to have too much weight in the US political discourse.
A lot of what he says I generally agree with, but he is, like any politician, imperfect. He’s the best we got against Susan Collins though. If his image can be the voice of reason to this demographic of desperately macho white dudes in the US, then let’s ride the wave until someone better comes along.
He's an unapologetic war criminal who brags about his love of war crimes and got a Nazi tattoo to commemorate those crimes.
But "he says enough good things" and calls himself progressive, and that's good enough for you?
Not really the sentiment. If he can steer disaffected white men away from the Republican Party, that’s a good enough start for someone. That doesn’t mean he’s perfect.
Perfection is the enemy of progress. We can’t wait for the perfect candidate. We have to use people who have enough cult of personality to ultimately get to something better.
I don’t want to see another 2024 election outcome. I did NOT want to vote for Kamala, but the unfortunate reality is that if we didn’t we’d be stuck with Trump. I get exactly why people wanted to “make her pay” but we have a rigged electoral system, you’re only making yourself pay when you do something like allow Trump to be voted in.
100% agree with you here. The key to winning is having a candidate the disaffected white men will be willing to vote for because they are the largest GOP voting block. If the Dems ran more guys like Platner then they’d win more often. That simple.
What alternative are you proposing?
Citation?
This is bullshit. He's spoken about how the military sold him an idea that it didn't give him, for example. He also wants to decrease military spending. I've seen nothing similar to your claims, except that tattoo, which he got while in the military, not to commemorate it.
He so unapologetic about the war he thanked Susan Collins for sending him.
Yep. And that makes him popular with macho white guys. I love villains, I especially love villains who are on my side.
What allegations do you have that he personally committed a war crime? Who did he torture? What innocent civilians did he murder in cold blood?
And I'm going to need better than "he was a US military soldier who served in Iraq, therefore he is automatically guilty of war crimes." Did he serve at Abu Ghraib prison? Yes, but that was years after the torture came to light, and there has never been any allegation that he was directly involved in the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners. He was ordered to guard prisoners at a place where years prior some evil shit happened. For this you slander him as a war criminal.
Your definition of "war criminal" is so expansive that almost any US veteran would be disqualified. Fine if you want to take that stance, but that's far from the standard of even most progressive American voters. If you have such extreme views, fine. There's no way I can say your views are objectively wrong. There's no objective way to set the dial on individual moral culpability and military service. But one thing that can be said is your views are wildly out of step with the American electorate. Most folks do not see having served in uniform in Iraq or Afghanistan as disqualifying. If you polled asking people, "does merely having served in Iraq mean someone is a war criminal?" Less than 10% would say yes. It's a fringe viewpoint, and it's not really one we should be basing our electoral strategy on.
Yeah, tell me all about how the guy who wants to destroy MAGA and fight for health care, is worse than the corrupt, treasonous, racist, pedophiles we have now. At least this one has a D next to his name, and adds to a Democratic majority in the Senate. I'm tired of being lied to by Susan Collins and her ilk.
You’d think Platner was Trump himself, from all these supposed “leftists” in the thread. They are the reason the party can’t move left. They all sit home on Election Day waiting for Jesus himself to be on the ballot.
Look, I get the point you're trying to make, but I can't begrudge anyone for being skeptical of the guy who got a Nazi SS Tattoo.
Maybe pick a different example next time?
How about when Kamala Harris ran and instead of voting for her, a bunch of leftists sat home and let Donald Trump win instead to teach her a lesson. I don’t really see a difference here. Leftists demand moral purity and then end up with an actual Nazi instead being elected.
In that case, it was because Kamala walked the line on Israel. In this case, Platner has actually taken the side you want on Israel and you STILL find a gripe about the Democrat to let MAGA win the election over.
Also, you need to understand that people are capable of making mistakes and growing from them. Did it not occur to you that Platner likely did not even know the context of the tattoo when he got it? It was just a bunch of marines bonding and doing a group thing. He went along with it and probably didn’t understand the historical context. I’m willing to bet 99% of the people complaining about his tattoo would not have understood the historical context if they saw the tattoo two years ago. But, now that the DNC did opposition research you’re all suddenly in the know. Well, the opposition research had its chance to dissuade voters in the primary and it failed. Making one mistake in your life doesn’t disqualify you from ever participating in anything ever again. Get the fuck over it. At this point, the primary is over and you have two candidates to choose from.
You people have no plan. Your solution is what? Don’t vote or vote for Susan Collins? Either way, you’re supporting the Republicans and therefore supporting Trump. You are therefore my enemy.
Leftists demand moral purity and then end up with an actual Nazi instead being elected.
You're voting for the guy who had an SS tattoo. Pot, meet Kettle.
How about when Kamala Harris ran and instead of voting for her, a bunch of leftists sat home and let Donald Trump win instead to teach her a lesson.
A lesson libs like you clearly have yet to learn. Kamala alienated parts of what should have been her electoral coalition, because she wouldn't distance herself from Biden who was deeply unpopular, wouldn't take a proper stance on Palestine, and adopted Republican border policy. Running to the right doesn't work.
To platner's credit, he's not doing that (ot at least hasn't yet. We'll see what he does if in office), but he's a controversial candidate for good reason.
Also, you need to understand that people are capable of making mistakes and growing from them. Making one mistake in your life doesn’t disqualify you from ever participating in anything ever again. Get the fuck over it.
I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. I don't think anyone is beyond redemption. I'm a prison abolitionist ffs. But if you can't see why the SS tattoo might give people pause, you're just not taking a sober look at the situation.
You people have no plan. Your solution is what? Don’t vote or vote for Susan Collins? Either way, you’re supporting the Republicans and therefore supporting Trump. You are therefore my enemy.
Ok, take a deep breath, and chill out. I am a stranger on the internet. You don't know me, and you don't know if I voted, or who for. Voting is a tool. It is one singular means of political engagement. Not every election is the most important election ever, and whether someone chooses to vote for someone like Kamala, or Platner, is up to them. Those people aren't necessarily your enemies, they're people who's conscience told them to take a position different from yours.
Unionize your workplace, if it's already unionized, get involved. Canvas for a ballot measure, or attend a city council meeting. Find a mutual aid network in your area and hand out food or hygine kits to the homeless. Opposing Trump is sometimes about voting, but it's also about building something beyond the systems which allowed him to come to power in the first place.
You like unions? So does Platner. He was found by the AFL-CIO to run for Senate. If you like unions, Platner is your guy.
Otherwise, you can help Collins get elected.
I like unions, but not uncritically. The AFL-CIO suppressed left-wing labor movements in Latin America during the Cold War, something I find reprehensible.
You seem to have an awfully black-and-white view of the world.
The election is black and white, you either support the anti-Trump candidate or you help the Trump candidate win with your comments and actions.
Not every election is the most important election ever, and whether someone chooses to vote for someone like Kamala, or Platner, is up to them.
This is privilege. Meanwhile POC here, we're being dragged back to the 1950s under Trump I and II. Similar for women, LGBT, etc. He's speedrunning imperialism. Stopping the MAGA agenda should be paramount. I'm not thrilled about Platner but I am willing to take a chance with him over the perpetually concerned Collins who aligns MAGA when it counts. Unionizing, attending city council meetings, advocating for prison reform, etc. should accompany voting, not replace it.
This is privilege
Yeah, so I'm trans, and we too are under serious threat, not just from MAGA. It's not privileged to recognize that mainstream Democratic party opinion is that trans people should be thrown under the bus to appease some mythical centrist voter.
Consider the inverse, that it is a priviledged position to be able to hem and haw over every election in a rapidly decaying pseudo democracy, as opposed to doing the very difficult work of workplace, tenant, or mutual aid organizing to secure immediate material necessities.
Yeah, so I’m trans, and we too are under serious threat, not just from MAGA. It’s not privileged to recognize that mainstream Democratic party opinion is that trans people should be thrown under the bus to appease some mythical centrist voter.
Welcome to the transactional real world. If you make it a point to not show up, politicians will not waste political capital on you. Also, allies are imperfect. It is only the left that has trouble seeing this and intentionally conflate those who don't ace purity tests with the opposition. Meanwhile, those before us who got us rights we take for granted had to whip up support with much less desirable people who held much more regressive views.
Consider the inverse, that it is a priviledged position to be able to hem and haw over every election in a rapidly decaying pseudo democracy, as opposed to doing the very difficult work of workplace, tenant, or mutual aid organizing to secure immediate material necessities.
Oh stop. Voting is a very simple process you're distorting into some sort of crisis. Also voting and being active in one's community is not an either/or.
If you think that a 3 tour (or was it 4?) Blackwater merc is going to move you left, you are the reason why the party isn't moving left.
Idk man, joining the military because you want an adventure and to kill some people + having had a swastika on his chest (that he's covered up, of course).... doesn't paint a great picture.
You’re 95% of the way there!
Yes, Platner went on 5 combat tours, some as a PMC, and has pontificated on how much he loved it.
The tattoo was a Nazi tattoo, but not a swastika. It was a skull.
I’ll add: Americans focus almost completely on domestic policy and ignore the international component. People like Planter are more of the same when their international policy is considered: a strong military that perpetuates US imperialism, a system that robs Americans of their funds and funnels it into bombs, war crimes, and genocide, all the while fostering resentment for the US internationally. We need our leaders to act as stalwart guardians of peace, not agitators and oil barons and gun-toting killer ideological missionaries.
It’s time to consider candidates that are not DNC dogs. Mamdani, Platner, AOC are all beholden to the imperialist, hyper-capitalist DNC; nothing in the US will meaningfully change when EVERY SINGLE CANDIDATE is still taking bribes from corporations as the DNC does and will always do.
You should look into the way the DNC slandered and sabotaged Maureen Gallindo’s race for the Texas House. It’s eye-opening.
NOTHING WILL MEANINGFULLY CHANGE UNDER THE DNC AND RNC. THEY ARE PARTNERS IN CRIME WHO SERVE THE EPSTEIN CLASS AND CORPORATIONS ALONE AND USE IDPOL TO KEEP US DIVIDED. DO NOT LET THEM FOOL YOU INTO THINKING THAT IS NOT THE CASE. MEANINGFUL CHANGE MUST COME FROM OUTSIDE THE SYSTEM.
Okay but who does my sister's in-laws in Maine vote for in the general election? They're republicans mind you. Speak to them and about their tree farm now. You have a lot of words, use em. I'm sure you can whip them into shape to skip voting republican and skip voting for this guy and get them to vote for the real change. I'm rooting for you, you can do it! Looking forward to your response. You are the true leftist, after all. Your opinion is the correct one amongst us fools. Please forgive us for not seeing your enlightened ways.
Yeah no worries, just vote for Trump buddy you're right
Not my point, blue no matter isn't a winning strategy. We need people who aren't just playing politics.
The other side votes red no matter what though.... so you want to fight with one hand tied behind your back? You wanna poke out your left eye cause it's not Marxist and hope the other side takes it easy on you? Fucking child
.. No I want to more intelligently choose our representatives.
Don't call others children after drawing blanket assumptions, you just look fucking dumb.
If I had a nickel for every person who could have been the bellwether of US populism I'd have.. I don't know... a bunch of nickels. I'm not holding my breath.
Genuinely hope I'm wrong about him, but it's frustrating that Maine couldn't find a candidate without a Nazi tattoo. Or one that doesn't go on Nazi podcasts and call themselves long time fans. Or one that didn't enlist in a war they thought was wrong because they wanted to kill people. Or one that didn't merc for Blackwater.
I get that one can't pick their family, but his blue blood parents trying to buy him a mayorship is also wild.
Sad to think that the economy has gotten so bad that his parents who both worked normal ass professional jobs are considered blue bloods now. Back in my day we called that middle class.
Interesting how many billionaires are pouring cash into spreading any and all kinds of bullshit about this guy. The more they spend the better I feel about him.
normal ass professional jobs
To be specific: his parents are a lawyer, and an owner of multiple restaurants. Since when did owning multiple businesses become a normal ass professional job?
So was this restaurant a national chain? His mom owned a business in an industry with famously slim margins and that's supposed to fail him in some purity test? His parents aren't venture capitalists, bankers, politicians, technocrats, or corporate billionaires. Anyone who has to work to live is working class. This idea that he has to be "poor enough" and "low class enough" is such bullshit. If his parents were homeless junkies you can bet it would be spun just as negatively. You got anything to say about the actual shit he's running on?
a business
Businesses. Plural. No shame in being rich; let's not lie on his behalf.
Guess we have different definitions of being rich, clearly. I don't begrudge people who can afford a vacation or a nice fridge when billionaires are flying their private jets to their seventeenth home and their yachts have yachts. Graham owns a boat too, how bougie!
If you can send your son to a 12k a year prep school, I consider you rich. If you can donate 50k to democrats, I consider you rich. Can you do that? I can't.
He went there for three months and it was on a scholarship. Enough with the fake outrage about his " working class creds". He is a harbourmaster and and works on his boat. That is a working class guy.
He told people he joined the army to kill people because he’s a psycho chud
Maybe I'm getting old but these things used to be something the middle class could afford. Sending your kid to a 12k a year school was something a middle class family could do 30 years ago. Not even upper middle, upper middle would be going to the 40k a year school or whatever. Middle class used to mean going to another state for a week during summer vacation, staying in a hotel and visiting a theme park, or road trips to a national park in your (own!) RV. Being able to put a new bathroom in on your 3 bed house in suburbia, or sending the kids to summer camp. If that sounds rich to you then where do you think that wealth went? Billionaires have been bleeding people so dry that a nice little treat or maybe a splurge for most college educated folks from 30 years ago sounds like some impossible luxury today apparently.
Have you considered making a donation to Susan Collins?
Don't be MAGA-brained. Politicians with a D after their name can still be criticized.
You realize those are the choices though? You can depress turn out for blue candidates with your comments and help reelect the senator who put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, or you can try to help not do that. With our electoral system, it is a binary choice.
When Republicans say that about their candidates, we rightly call them deranged cultists.
When deranged cultists say that about their deranged cult leader we say it.
That’s not what’s happening here.
Don't try to reason with blue maga
Uh hold on... I was under the impression that this so-called "Blue MAGA" were against Platner? I was called "blue MAGA" for daring to question the guy with the Nazi tattoo.
Now the person criticizing the person who criticized Platner is also "blue MAGA"?
Almost as if it's a meaningless term
It is a meaningless term. But ml is a lost cause.
Criticizing Platner is not blue maga. Blue maga is literally people saying "We have to vote Democrats to make America great again and if we don't fall in line and eat the shit the Democrats serve us then you're just as bad a Trump"
No, the establishment Democrats that are against Platner have been called (on Lemmy, because it's not a real thing and it doesn't actually mean anything) "BlueMAGA"
Might want to confer with your comrades to make sure you're on the same page, bud.
Even just a little thought would reveal how ridiculous your "understanding" is. MAGA is a contemporary aspect of the GOP, that is to say, it's disruptive to the Republican establishment, as we've seen. Therefore, why would Blue MAGA specifically refer to establishment Democrats specifically?
Blue MAGA refers to a tendency among Democrats to assert that we have to get rid of Trump and the Republican majority in order to make America great again. It asks people to ignore Nazi tattoos, duplicity, broken promises, and principles in favor of a theory of action that boils down to "vote blue no matter who and that'll fix it"
It has nothing to do with one's position specifically on Platner.
Blue MAGA doesn't refer to anything because it's a meaningless fucking term. Just stop.
I'm just telling you the reasons I've been called "Blue MAGA" on this site, and one of the reasons was because I questioned Platner's Nazi history. That literally happened.
Maybe you're the one who needs to think about it a little more... The Democratic party is not really keen on Platner (because of the purported socialism stuff, not the Nazi stuff). I said something along the lines of "I hope this guy doesn't turn out to be a Nazi" or something, and I was called blue MAGA because I was lumped in with "anti-Platner establishment Democrats".
But this was maybe before he became the presumptive Democratic candidate, so I guess now I'm only blue MAGA if I blindly support him as he DNC candidate?
Again, I'm not sure since the term is literally meaningless.
Eh he's a white guy. Doesn't matter what his past is, he gets to apologize and move on. Not like they have other examples of populist leftists in multiple other elections across the country. No, it's this white ex-mercenary who had to remove a totenkopf tattoo.
No this guy is the face of populism...
99 other seats you could be worried about, 2 of which belong to each of you. Go put that energy into your own elections ya jackasses.
Senators serve 6 year terms, and their terms are staggered so that only a third of them up for reelection during any given cycle, so there are only 33 (maybe 34) other elections to worry about right now. Factor in popular sitting senators who are unlikely to receive a primary or general challenge this year, and there are really only a handful of senate seats tor people to be concerned about. Off the top of my head, I can only think of Platner/Mills and Paxton/Talerico for the general elections, and the primary between Markey/Moulton (and I'm not sure if that has national attention or it's just news to me because I live in Massachusetts).
You have 2-4 years until your own senate race then! Are you running? Do you know any candidates who are running? Probably a great time to develop a strategy and a campaign for your future senate run. Trust me we got enough bots of Facebook repeating the same talking points you guys are discussing here. Everyone has heard your opinions.
OK, but you understand why people aren't just worried about their own senate race, right? Donald Trump won't be president in 2 to 4 years, and limiting the damage he does to our democracy in the meantime depends on what voters in a handful of states decide to do. The Senate is significantly more powerful than the House, and most of us will never vote in competitive Senate race.
I get it; I'm pretty fucking sick of Platner discourse as well. But what Maine and Texas decide is going to effect all of us for the next 6 years, and more crucially, it will determine whether or not Trump controls half of congress for the remainder of his term. It's not reasonable (or accurate) to tell people, "butt out, this doesn't concern you."
Woah buddy you want to make a bet Donald trump won't be president in 3 years? Idk from where I stand it looks like he's pretty comfortable and has no reason to leave office? Maybe im missing something, you think he's going to peacefully transfer power this time? I hear you we will be stuck with him for 6 years. Character and integrity matter. If he is a Nazi, then why not just run as republican? they love putting Nazis in government. It's not a psyop bro, hes just a farmer for Mainers. If it's out of your control just hope for the best outcome. He has a populist platform that is a progressive wet dream. Maybe thats the real story and the Nazi shit is a distraction.
Woah buddy you want to make a bet Donald trump won't be president in 3 years?
Yeah, I expect him to be dead in less than 2. He is looking pretty rough these days. Vance may try to fuck with the peaceful transfer of power, but I doubt it. He clearly doesn't have the charisma or balls to be the face of a fascist regime.
I also doubt Platner is a Nazi and I'd say that, even if it turns out his rhetoric is hollow and fake, you're better off gambling on him than centrists like Mills or Collins. But a lot of people disagree, and they're gonna be up Maine's ass about it until the election. It's just one of the drawbacks of having a competitive Senate race.
My problem is I have the DNC pouring money to campaign against him: and to see the leftists bash on the only guy who’s promising leftist policy while calling him a Nazi…. It’s making me sick bubba
Yeah, being distrustful of Platner is one thing, but a lot of the Platner discourse is being generated by doomer leftists who can't wait to tear someone down. You can basically tell who has genuine concerns about Platners history and who gets off on complaining by whether or not they mention Andrea LaFlamme.
la Flamme got some votes I noticed!! I’m happy to see anyone running tbh. I wish we had a ton of candidates to choose from to make the races competitive. The governors race was decent
All you out of staters sound like some clown in Texas foaming at the mouth over the mayor of New York. Big clown energy. Calm down eyes on the prize focus on your own representation. This one’s mine. You can go reelect your little DNC clown so they can fund Israel and we could keep bombing brown people forever instead of getting healthcare.
Let’s go Maine. The rest of your bootlickers are just jealous. You can’t find someone to run that doesn’t have the DNC’s hand up their fucking ass.
I’m proud to announce that Platner has the DNC’s hand up his ass.
Sounds like a ton of concern about a guy who’s promising to promote national healthcare, social safety nets, prosecuting and impeaching trump, etc. I don’t give a fuck who feels Susan Collin seat as long as they’re ready to impeach Trump as soon as they get in.
Sounds like a whole lot of salty crackers in this motherfucker. Y’all mad because you can’t get a pro Israel candidate out of your seat of power. Why don’t you focus on your own fucking elections and go someone decent in your district if you’re so concerned about ours
We won’t run a pro Blackwater “ex” Neo Nazi vet, atleast not any campaign I’d want to vote for.
He worked as a security guard at an embassy, bud. That whole notraversy ginned up over this was already tried by Mills, it will be even less useful for Collins.
Lot of ground pounders take those because they are the only thing that somewhat aligns with their skillset. Mans gotta pay the bills
So you’d vote for someone who was security at Raytheon if he ran Dem? You know you can be security anywhere else?
Also, you know he literally bragged about killing people on Reddit? That’s just chasing a bag to you? He said he joined up to “have an adventure and Kill some people”
US military and their supporters are the grossest people on earth. Seriously, fuck you
I believe people a capable of self reflection.
Nobody cares what you dickless tankie hacks think over at Lemmy.ml
what is wrong with me being dickless, does that make me any less of a man? Is this meant to be a bigoted comment?
If feckless or worthless fit better, feel free to sub those in.
Doesn’t surprise me people ok with murderous Military to be callously transphobic. And you still wonder why you lose elections
We lose elections? You dumb bastards can't hold a coherent political organization together without cannibalizing eachother.
And Donald Trump being president right now is my fault right? Despite the fact that even if every single person that voted third or leftist party voted for Kamala Harris she still wouldn’t have won? That is the leftist’s fault for protesting for free healthcare and not the Democrats for losing easy votes from Center left people?
That is a fact, by the way. It’s been reported on. No matter how many childish insults you throw at me, even if EVERY SINGLE VOTE that went to Jill stein, Claudia, and. EVERY OTHER SINGLE CANDIDATE COMBINED VOTED FOR KAMALA HARRIS SHE STILL WOULD NOT HAVE WON.
Now, DSA is a tiny bit different but the DNC is actively working against “you”, and people like Platner keep toeing their line of American military exceptionalism and nationalist rhetoric against brown people.
No matter how much you insult me, it also doesn’t change the fact that this guy went to the Middle East during one of the most brutal, violent, genocidal, torturous campaigns ever seen. And then he went on Reddit and bragged about it. About killing non white people.
Graham platner has never been close to power, your attempts to stretch his own sins to the level that both the Dems and Republicans have is intellectually dishonest. Its just about on the level of people given him hell because he made a joke about beatin it in a portajohn while he was in the middle of a warzone.
Your analysis of Platner's "military exceptionalism" falls flat considering how many times he has openly opposed it and used his platform to denounce stupid wars of choice, like Iraq and Iran.
That's why I "hurled insults" at you, because I am tired of the ever changing cavalcade of purity tests (.ml exemplifies this) that leads you intellectually impotent clowns to shoot yourselves in the foot EVERY TIME.
Platner is a person, flaws and all, and has lived a life that has put him in positions that have no good decisions. I can relate, since my life has been jumping out of one frying pan and into another to get by. I hope we can build a future where everyone has the ability to hold the luxury beliefs that you Marxist-leninists get to indulge in.
We need practical solutions, not theory. That's why nobody listens to you or people that think like you.
Nobody listens to me, is that why people like Platner are using progressive “antiwar” policies to appeal to leftists? Or is that socialism and reading books is stupid? lol, Graham’s most popular and most progressive policies are based off 100+ years of Marxist economic theory buddy, as Neo liberalized as it is.
Ever wonder where the “socialist” part of “Democratic Socialism” comes from?
We'll he did call himself a communist as early as 2021, long before he had any political ambitions. Which leads me to the conclusion that his beliefs are sincere.
And if the Epstein class is going to piss away all the money that they are putting towards trying to stop him, it leads me to believe that they believe he is sincere as well.
Yeah and Obama said he’d end the war. Liberals will believe anything. Also, if be willing to bet you would call real communism, meaning places like USSR, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, Venezuela, Burkina Faso, China and Cuba are bad because authoritarianism right? And we have to lend power to fascist neolibs with Nazi insignia tattoos because real leftism would challenge the billionaire class and the military industrial complex as a whole, and Capitalist politicians are beholden to the same companies and donors that the Epstein class is? Mind you, democrats, republicans AND Apolitical powerful people were involved with Epstein and pedophilia. Yes, democrats other than bill clinton.
All you are doing is trying to enforce credendialism. He is telling people to organize and unionize in their communities, speaking on class warfare openly in the US, which is crazy to think id live to see the day that happened, seeks to end the wars of choice the US has engaged in, end the genocide being conducted by the israelis, etc.
Authoritarianism IS bad. Saying otherwise just proves you are not actually for working class liberation, but just want to be the ones to replace the Epstein class.
Your attempts to pin the current failings of the system on him are meaningless, he has not ever been close to power. That's the whole point of class solidarity, bud, trying to nitpick about his "working class creds" is just doing the Epstein class's work for them.
Why dont you say who we is so I know who your representative is currently?
No. I’m not telling you where I live 😂 I’m sure one of you is already trying to find out so you can call me a tankie where I work or something
Lololol no I just like internet bullying because im lazy. if I had to leave my couch or farm it would be over for my old ass.
Nobody gives that much of a shit about you, dude.
Not taking the chances with weirdos from the internet. I’m here to feed my scrolling addiction I do not want any single one of you as a friend
Will you run someone who will win and replace trump tho? Like I said idc who does the deed. just want to know my senate seat votes for impeachment. He can't possibly do more nazi shit than the current regime? Right?
That’s the problem, you don’t care who it is as long as it’s not Trump. It could be the most lukewarm center right politician (Harris) and yall act like they’ll fix everything. Ironically the reason we have Trump again now and he has so many supporters, democrats can’t even pretend to give a shit about fascism & you’re running your own fascists (platner)
we've been in a constitutional crisis in this country for 18 months now, so my single issue vote is not for Palestine, but restoring constitutional law in my own country. That trumps everything to me, there is no country if there is no rule of law.
Which candidate seriously, I have the one you perceive to be a fascist, ive got the one currently enabling the fascists, and the one paid out by the techno fascists, so ya im pretty sure tattoo man is my safest option. The more DNC shit that gets thrown at him the more I hope he burns down the party from the inside. Good day my child.
Glad you brought up the Harris thing. Ya choosing the far right against a centrist as a great way to push the center to the far left. So ummm hi. We're all poor pissed off populists now and we got this here oyster farmer to represent our anger. Enjoy.
It was the oyster farmer or the 80 year old lady who just sold us out to the data centers..... or susan collins. Which one should I choose?
I'll gladly vote for the person saying progressive things even if it's only lip service when the alternative is someone who "reluctantly" sides with MAGA 100% of the time. Maybe eventually someone who actually believes those progressive things will get in. It's a terrible system that should be burned down and rebuilt with 21st century ideas, but until that happens we work with what we have.
You elect enough people saying something eventually one of them is going to believe it. It's how the republicans ended up where they are now.
His speech called “No one is coming to save us” dropped so many truth bombs. I was like FINALLY A POLITICIAN WHO SOUNDS REAL.
A liberal Nazi or a conservative Nazi apologist. Gotta love our choices.
DNC so successful they get Nazis and moderates too, woopee
I'm just here to see all the tankies come out of the woodwork claiming he's not "left enough" like he's got Bernie's fucking endorsement you lunatics
The tankies aren't going to vote anyways because they're afraid of things like sunlight and 'real people.'
Bernie is literally a Zionist. Like, literally. So yeah, that means nothing.
What brain damage makes you say such false information with your whole chest? Bernie might be Jewish, but he is absolutely NOT a zionist and spoken out against Israel's actions.
Bernie says Israel has a right to exist, therefore Bernie is a Zionist. It’s not that hard to understand.
That isn't what zionism means. Zionism is about the aggressive expansion, which he has firmly came out against.
That is literally what Zionism means.
Zionism is an ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in late 19th century Europe to establish and support a Jewish homeland through colonization in the region of Palestine… Zionists wanted to create a Jewish state in Palestine with as much land, as many Jews, and as few Palestinian Arabs as possible
By stating that Israel has a right to exist, you are validating the Zionist ethos.
through colonization in the region of Palestine.
You realize Tel Aviv wasn’t always occupied by Zionists, right? The entirety of Israel is a colonial project. You can’t just arbitrarily draw a line between one year and another and say that only ethnosupremasist colonial acts of aggression after that year qualify as being enacted under Zionism.
Bro, you copy and pasted that. Please work on your reading comprehension before flippantly accusing one of the few good people of being heinous. Get professional help.
I’m not being flippant, I’m being factual.
A direct quote from the first sentence of the Wikipedia article on Zionism serves my purpose well, when someone is contesting the very simple definition of that term.
Bernie serves the Imperial core. Bernie is a Zionist. These are irrefutable facts, as evidenced by your unwillingness to engage with the argument.
Bernie is good for Americans, but not good for the world. How much weight you put on humanity and how much weight you put on your own wellbeing is up to you, but not everyone is American; you’d do well to remember that as you continue your political journey.
You're so right, how could I be so blind. Voting for whoever Trump endorses is really the only way
No definitely not, but Bernie is still a Zionist.
Okay, let's say he's an opportunistic neo-nazi... why is he not a Republican?
Ask John Fetterman...
He's got an excuse, his brain exploded. Seriously, that's why he gets any grace at all. If he was just acting like this on his own, Dems would be screaming 1000x louder. Instead, its just a matter of "bless his heart." At least he isn't Dr. Oz.
He won't survive his next primary.
He was enacting conservative policies well before the stroke. We were just told to ignore it in threads much like this one because he talked progressive.
Not familiar with him (I'm not American), but skimming his Wikipedia article, he strikes me like more of a slightly confused and conservative-leaning Democrat than a neo-nazi.
Fetterman is anti-Platner, so… doesn’t seem like the two have much in common
This guy is totally a fake wealthy backed candidate meant to electioneer a win. An unholy blue maga combination of black ops and illiberalism. You have got to hand it to them though, so credit where credit is due. They have done a great job promoting this POS despite the fact that he is a murderous motherfucker.
The question is why is the Fight Agency group that lined up to elect Mamdani also lining up to elect Platner if he’s unholy black ops illiberalism?
The question is why are the elites hand picking candidates to win elections. It's gross and disgusting perversion of politics more akin to a spectacle like wrestling. If you think an ex mercenary knuckle head who does what he is told is your speed then more power to you.
The elites like the AFL and CIO. 🙄
I saw him sitting in interviews being fed lines by his handlers. You might be fooled by this garbage disney story making a normal guy a politician with a wave of the magic wand nonsense, but I am not
His "career" is thanks to a team of political operatives who worked on Fetterman's camp. So you can take your nonsense and peddle it somewhere else.
Got a source for that? Am genuinly curious
You can read about him here.
https://time.com/article/2026/05/20/graham-platner-profile/
Nothing I am saying is really controversial other than I really don't like him. He is supposedly not politically aligned with him, but his team has several former Fetterman staffers.
Not only that, but he also "found" by the same group that helped to create Fetterman.
thanks 👍
Graham Platner is a complete OP. The least genuine person in world history. His entire campaign and all his words are picked by "Fight Agency" as their personal pet project to show that they can get even mass murdering Nazis elected by American "leftists".
In WORLD history?! Lol come on.
He was pointing out Israel’s atrocities before it was popular. For that alone he would have my vote.
Even if he is the next Fetterman (very possible), Susan Collins would be out and hopefully it will encourage more to run on a progressive platform.
He was pointing out Israel’s atrocities before it was popular.
He was murdering brown people at that time in the same way Israel is doing now.
I don't know which would be sadder: That you actually believe what you wrote, or that you don't.
Sing your song, little birdie
Just like they got that Nazi Zohran Mamdani elected?
Zohran did not go on five tours to kill brown people and get a Nazi tattoo as commemoration.
You missed the point. You should engage it head on, otherwise your argument is just weak and it looks like you’re dancing around it. The question is why is the Fight Agency group that lined up to elect Mamdani also lining up to elect Platner if he’s actually a Nazi? You all fawn over their pick Mamdani. You might want to try to see what they see.
To show that their consultancy firm can get you to support literally anyone if they coach them their fake persona and say studied lines they mean nothing of.
Did Zohran go on several your voluntarily because of the "thrill" and get a totenkopf tattoo? Because if he didn't. He isn't a fucking nazi
You missed the point. You should engage it head on, otherwise your argument is just weak and it looks like you’re dancing around it. The question is why is the Fight Agency group that lined up to elect Mamdani also lining up to elect Platner if he’s actually a Nazi?
You are saying people need to engage the point head on and then dodging the point
0% he changes shit, and the days will prove it. he is zionist idf palnt.
Fuck Graham Platner he literally has an IDF handler. His zionist campain team is the same one who brought you john fetterman. Platner is a proven Nazi war criminal who kept covering and deleting his war crime posts, nazi and racist posts, killing iraqis for fun, 4-times 15 yrs deployments with blackwater, his war crimes in fallujah and ramdai, his documented desire to kill people instead of going to college despite his free scholarship and rich upbinging, his IDF ties and handler and brother in law and campain contributer who participated in gaza gonicide, his 50 somethings posts about killing inferior brown people as late as 2023 ,2000-fucking-23.. that'e 2 yrs ago , which his team kept on deleting as soon they dig them, his nazi tattoos which he got commemorate the massacares he participated in ramadii with blackwater when he was in his 30s after many deployments then lied in apology video that was a drunk fun tattoo
Ghraham Platner supporters are either vile and selfish liberal zionists supporters or ones who has to vote for the lesser of two evil dogshits. So say that instead: Ghraham is the lesser evil two hypocrite psycopathic murderous supremacist war criminals with blood of millions on their hand.
You're right, let's keep letting the MAGAs steal EVERYTHING, and kill us all. /S
I'm not looking for perfect, I'm looking for someone who will stomp MAGA heads, and it probably isn't going to be a nice guy.
His zionist campain team is the same one who brought you john fetterman.
Can you be specific? Can you cite the names of just three individuals that worked on both campaigns? If the campaign team that brought us Fetterman is the same team now running his campaign, this should be a relatively trivial task.
Nazis are the new US populism?
If you actually dig into it, like me, he was clueless that a skull and crossbones was a Nazi symbol. It was the first thing I looked up on him, then just stared trying to sort it out because it didn’t look like any Nazi symbology I’d ever seen.
Good odds this a big money rumor to keep people like this guy off ballots.
He’s essentially working class. Liberal gun owner. Calling for retirement of the old guard. Better to look up what the man has said re Schumer and such.
I've said it before, but if his reddit post history is any indication, if he's a Nazi plant he's playing the really long game. Not that he hasn't posted stupid shit, but the worst of it was posted long ago and it's fair to account for personal growth.
I don't think he is the best progressive candidate possible but he probably isn't a Nazi. Just kind of ignorant.
My best friend was military. Raised Mormon, though he spent a decent amount of time in boys homes (very crazy mom) and went into the military as quickly as he could. Very typical meathead character, doing basic toxic male shit. He was working for the military when I met him. And I met him because he was leaving his faith when he learned about atheism. Since then, he became a pacifist (I helped him through his conscientious objector status to get out of the military), got rid of his guns, became a staunch Democrat, recognized his suppressed bisexuality, and started working on his mental health. If you put the person I first met, next to the person he is today, he's only visually the same. Completely different person. It's not normal to have such extreme changes. Most of us don't have those polar changes in life. But some people do. Platner sounds a lot like my friend. He has been angry for a while but finally put on the They Live glasses and figured out who and what to be angry at. Could it all be a farce? Yeah. We could be being misled. Any politician can be someone else. Platner's story thus far is absolutely plausible. And it's been scrutinized heavily. He's not a George Santos. He IS however targeted by Israel and the oligarchs. So, I'm choosing to believe his story, one that I've seen before, over targeted talking points that are being used in paid ads by AIPAC.
It's not about being misled. The guy has very clearly not done the work. Sure. He looks like he's starting to do the work, but he's a massive fucking liability with the half apologies and the backtracking. He's not woke yet. Yes, everyone has a right to start where there are. No, we don't have to fucking vote them into positions of power over us.
What’s the alternative? There is only one alternative: Susan Collins. That’s the forced choice. Platner or Collins.
It will be one or the other.
Correct! It's almost like electoralism isn't solving any fucking problems and we should stop wasting time on this race - because every single choice is a losing choice - and instead focus our efforts on literally anything else that makes life better because giving Democrats our energy is just frog marching us towards more and more death, destruction, and devastation.
Versus, what? Enjoying the present Trump/Vought/Vance state?
The Trump state that the Democrats paved the way for and did not lift a finger to stop. Stop acting like administrations are discontinuous. Most of the tools Trump is using were put in place or enhanced by former Democrat administrations. Tom Homan was an Obama appointee. The Obama/Clinton war crime campaign in Libya was initiated by Bush 2. All of the prior administrations expanded the military, expanded militarization of the police, etc. Bill and Hillary lived in the Governor's Mansion in AK, saw the black house slaves from the prison who worked there and just went on being served by black house slaves for the entire term. Every administration and every swing of power in Congress has maintained and expanded the sanctions regime that kills 800k people every year.
The Democrats are not a solution. They have never been a solution. They have always been a part of the problem. The problem is not limited to a single party, it's the entire political system. It was founded this way, it was designed this way, it was cultivated this way, it was protected this way, it was maintained this way. And Platner shows us exactly how it works. Bring in a white supremacist murderer with a tottenkopf tattoo who, after seeing the atrocities of the US war machine first hand decided to go work for Blackwater mercenaries who are known to be even worse in the field and then all he has to do is remove the tattoo, apologize, and then get frustrated when people keep bringing it up. Blame the voters for not voting the right way. It's never the party's fault. They literally couldn't find someone who wasn't a murderer who volunteered to keep the murder going multiple times and doesn't really want to talk much about it except that everyone should respect him now for deciding to go into politics with empty promises that he has no power to keep.
What's the alternative? When you see a Sophie's Choice, just don't play that game and go do something like organize locally with the homeless, with the racialized, and build a movement that will topple this tower of bullshit. Work with your racial and gender category in breaking down their internalization of oppressive systems. Actually engage in liberatory politics instead of literally fighting for a murdering mercenary and blaming voters for not choosing to pick a leader from among a bunch of people who literally do not deserve their respect and do not deserve the power they are asking for.
TIL being white = "very clearly not done the work"...
LOL, telling on yourself on this one. The fact that he has not responded well to situation around his tattoo means he hasn't done the work.
Not responded well? As far as I'm aware, he explained that he didn't know what it was when he got it (which is very believable, as I didn't know what it was until I read about him), and he had it removed. What else do you expect?
"Haven't done the work" is such a vague term that gets overapplied to anyone you want to dismiss as backwards and ignorant, completely ignoring the work that they have done. If you can point to something ignorant someone said or did twelve years ago, then you'll say they "haven't done the work," for the rest of their lives. You apparently don't believe people can learn and grow, which is basically essentialism.
Obviously, if someone points out the work that they've done, you'll just dismiss it as performative and virtue signalling and say they don't get points just for meeting the bare minimum. So there's no way to actually "do the work" such that you would even acknowledge it.
That's pretty short-sighted, because if you give people no way forward then they're going to stop trying to please you, and they may even move backwards. Which makes it all the more impressive that he is moving forward, to be honest.
This is mostly just cope. Platner needs to actually talk about the tattoo, what he learned, how he learned it, how it applies to the context of US politics and the military, why people might be upset about it, what he's doing over and above what a normal person needs to do because the fact that he had a fucking tottenkopf permanently drawn on his body requires some more soul searching and actual consciousness than the kid who thought rap music was garbage when they were 15.
What's NOT doing the work is retreating to innocence. "I didn't know. How could I know? I removed it, what more could I possibly do? Actually people who are upset just don't understand."
That's not the work. That's literally text book crypto white supremacist defense mechanisms. It's the same playbook that allows Bostonians to believe they aren't racist when pretty much any POC who interacts with the city will tell you it's one of the top racist places in the country.
Everything is meaningless if your entire theory of action is vote blue no matter, so it's not surprising you think that saying Platner hasn't done the work is meaningless.
But don't worry. In a few more days you'll need to explain why he was sexting with women on TikTok and his wife found out and she chose to share it with the campaign. And of course, he didn't know it was wrong at the time. He was just caught up in the moment. He deleted the messages now so everything is fine. What more could I ask from him?
Not sure what you think I'm trying to cope with. "Just cope" is another meaningless thought-stopper that people like you employ whenever they're faced with disagreement.
He's already addressed it. You expect him to keep beating a dead horse, just because you'll never let it die? And dwell on the thing with really bad optics during an election cycle? Instead of, you know, talking about the economic turmoil and the fascists in power and calling out those things and presenting people with his ideas for what to do about it?
But no, you just want to lock him into a cycle of performative virtue signaling because he'll never be redeemed in your eyes. Only idiots bend themselves into knots to please the people that will never forgive them or accept them.
You don't know how much soul-searching he's done or "actual consciousness" he has. You're just assuming that he hasn't, and no matter what he does you'll always insist on that.
And your insinuation that people not liking rap music is racist is kinda laughable. Nobody is morally obligated to listen to music that doesn't suit their tastes. Cope harder.
Everything is meaningless if your entire theory of action is vote blue no matter, so it's not surprising you think that saying Platner hasn't done the work is meaningless.
"Vote blue no matter who" is usually used as an argument to justify voting for establishment/corporatist/centrist/milquetoast Dems. Platner isn't any of those things, he's literally a progressive. And if you want to focus on this overblown issue to sabotage his campaign because you can't accept the fact that people make mistakes out of ignorance but are capable of learning and growing, then all you're left with is Susan Collins so you're pulling a lot of weight for the actual fascists.
And I say saying he hasn't done the work is meaningless because he clearly has, and I've seen that phrase weaponized against people who have done the work so many times that I'm just desensitized to it now.
Are you just jealous that a white guy is in the spotlight? Nothing's stopping more POCs from running for office, so why aren't they? Stop trying to trip up the few progressive candidates we have over some manufactured race war that the oligarchs created in order to divide the working class in the first place.
And unless you have a source for your last paragraph, I'm just going to assume that's blatant disinformation. Shame on you.
LOL. Someone's not paying attention
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/30/us/politics/graham-platner-maine-senate-texts.html
Nothing's stopping more POCs from running for office, so why aren't they?
Tell me you haven't done the work without telling me you haven't done the work.
I've seen that phrase weaponized against people who have done the work so many times that I'm just desensitized to it now.
Tell me more about how hard it is to be white when people are constantly telling you that white people you support (or maybe even you yourself) aren't doing enough.
You don't know how much soul-searching he's done or "actual consciousness" he has. You're just assuming that he hasn't
I'm going based on his communications. I know people who are on the journey of recovering from white supremacist patriarchy and not only is Platner not showing evidence of having done the work, he's executing the classic "retreat to innocence" without a hint of self-awareness. I know former military who have done the work and I would vote for them. I know former neo-nazis who have done the work, but I wouldn't put them up for election because collective enforcement of norms and consequences for past behavior are critical social technologies.
He's already addressed it. You expect him to keep beating a dead horse, just because you'll never let it die? And dwell on the thing with really bad optics during an election cycle?
No. I expect him to actually do something with his journey that isn't immediately attempting to put himself into a position of power. I expect him to go work with troubled teen boys, work with skin heads in prison, work with veterans recovering from toxic masculinity, work with violent men to show them a path towards healing. It's part of doing the work. You don't just go to therapy, read some books, do some journaling, remove a tattoo, and then run for senate without doing ANY of the reparative work. That's not how any of this works.
The article you linked says the conduct stopped and they worked through it in counseling before the campaign ever started. If his wife has already forgiven him and still supports him, then that's a strong indication that he has in fact worked through it.
The rest of your comment just sounds worn-out and petulant, so I'm not even going to bother anymore. Honestly all you're doing is desensitizing me further. I don't care if you call me a white supremacist or any of that shit because you've shown that phrases like that are meaningless coming from you.
For the record, I'm not a white supremacist. I just don't care if you label me as one, because you're probably going to anyway.
Hopefully you'll see how self-destructive it is to cry wolf just to get your way, but I doubt it.
For the record, I'm not a white supremacist.
Highly recommend you actually engage in some deeper anti-racism work in community with other white folk and accountability with some black folk.
I'm not going to be a punching bag for you just because I was born ostensibly the same race as the people who committed atrocities two hundred years ago.
By the way, those people were mostly Anglo-Saxons, who did not view my ancestors (Irish, Welsh, and German) as being of the same race. My ancestors fled famine and persecution, lived in poor mining towns, and on the German side I even have a great-great-grandfather who immigrated specifically to join the Union Army during the civil war. None of them owned slaves. All my grandparents were working class, as are my parents, and as am I.
I don't owe you shit, and using my race to say that I do, is the definition of prejudice.
Also, stop assuming what I have or haven't done with my life. I'm not going to hand you a resumé just to earn your approval, because that would be performative and you would still dismiss it as "not doing the work." Also, like I said, I feel no compulsion to try to win your approval.
Also, stop assuming what I have or haven't done with my life
I don't really have to. You provide all the evidence yourself
I'm not going to hand you a resumé just to earn your approval, because that would be performative and you would still dismiss it as "not doing the work."
You don't have to give me a resume. Your words are all anyone needs to see.
I haven't provided you with any evidence, because this isn't a court room.
I've literally been arrested for my activism, you little turd. I don't go around announcing that because it's unnecessary and performative, like I said. And even if I do then people like you will still dismiss it and say I "haven't done the work." I've been through this song and dance before, and it's not worth my time to try to win your approval. Especially if you're only going to hold it out like a carrot on a string and then yoink it away every time I take a fall.
My entire life has been derailed, so I'll never be in a position where I can actually effect any change. This is the result of your petulant and petty campaign against every white person in the progressive space. Platner has a chance of winning office, so good on him for putting himself out there and subjecting himself to the scrutiny of being in the political spotlight.
But apparently you prefer Susan Collins, because that's what you're going to get if Platner doesn't win. If you want to impeach and convict trump, then we need to unseat as many maga loyalists in the senate as possible.
You're the exact same as those supposed "leftists" who trash Mamdani and call him a zionist, a fascist, or a corporate plant. You're making those words meaningless, which is carrying a lot of water for actual zionists, fascists, and corporatists. You're also disingenuous and incapable of arguing in good faith. No one is ever pure enough for you. You don't care about progress, you only want to inflame petty grievances. If you're not a right-wing agitator posing as a leftist, I'll eat my shoes.
You don't have to give me a resume. Your words are all anyone needs to see.
Fuck off. How are those words for you?
It really just seems like you are grasping at straws when it comes to Platner. He has explained at great length to anyone that asks him about that tattoo or his past comments. I've not once seen him shy away from the question or give some non answer like any other politician.
Plus, this issue is waaaaaay past its expiry date, Mills already tried this avenue and she got obliterated in the primary.
Continuing to push this really just makes you look like an establishment planted concern troll.
I'm sorry. But a liberal candidate that can appeal to white working class males is not going to have the social affectations of a gender studies major.
So what you're saying is that American voters are actually much more interested in electing a toxic male with a Nazi tattoo who saw the horrors of war and then elected to go work as a mercenary for Blackwater than they are in voting for actual liberatory politics. And I agree with you. That's why we have Donald Trump in office, and that's why voting Blue No Matter Who won't actually fix anything.
You're just more concerned with style than substance. You care more about whether a candidate wears the right leftist tokens than actually advancing progressive policies. This person is running on a genuinely progressive platform, and you're letting yourself get distracted with performative symbolism and irrelevant bullshit.
Not for nothing, but the Nazi Party adopted a progressive, worker-first, anti-capitalist, populist aesthetic to rise to power. It's not enough to put up a web page that says "this is my platform, isn't it great". That's aesthetics. He actually needs to DO something. And what he's done is self-isolate as an oyster farmer and get involved in local politics around the economics of oyster farming. That's it. He hasn't done anything progressive. He just says progressive things. We've seen that before.
Do you know what sheepdogging is? It's the use of an aesthetically anti-establishment candidate to attract the attention and energy of the disaffected, the alienated, and the oppositional for the explicit purpose of bringing that energy back into the fold of the mainstream power structure. That's exactly what's happening here. The Democrats don't care if Collins or Platner win. They are super happy with the controversy because it's doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing - getting Democrats fighting about which Democrat to vote for instead of letting them become disaffected with the party and seek to actually challenge its power.
Platner's a sheepdog. He may not know it himself, but that's his role. It's obvious he has no interest in class analysis. He's a petite bourgeois liberal who wants to maintain the status quo that allows him to own and run a small luxury food farm. He's basically Biden 50 years ago, or maybe Fetterman or Sinema. He's never going to turn against the military. AOC campaigned on the same positions of not expanding the military and getting out of forever wars, and yet, she has voted to expand military spending at least twice. Not because she's evil or because she was fooling us this whole time, but because that's the reality of the US government and the Democrat party isn't interested, as a party, in changing it. And the evidence is right there. Not only do your favored candidates constantly have to compromise with the actual power structure, the history of progressive politicians shows that they slide right every term. There's no way to build a progressive bulwark voting in people one at a time over decades when you have things like Biden getting elected on his opposition to the Vietnam war only to then to architect the Crime Bill and unrelentingly support Israel's genocide of the Palestinians.
Platner MIGHT actually have a spine for a couple terms and vote the way he said he would - most of the time, anyway. But even if he does it won't matter in the short term because of the power structure of the US. But once he's in, all the evidence says he's just gonna keep sliding right, and voting in someone so obviously tainted by incredibly bad decision making is just a signal to EVERYONE in the Democrat party that we'll eat shit as long they tell us it's chocolate.
So anyone that isn't performatively woke is a sheepdog. He's been involved in activism and community organizing for years, but because of his race and economic background, you're stereotyping him. Any white male that isn't flamboyantly gay or metrosexual is a conservative. You're just going off vibes, stereotyping people because of their race, economic origins, and military service. There's absolutely zero evidence that he's going to take the path of Fetterman, but you're making racist and sexist stereotypes about him. Any white working class male is "toxic."
You're just a bigot. I never thought I would actually meet the hypothetical anti-white or anti-male bigot conservatives like to crow about, but I suppose like anything, search hard enough and you can find any kind of person.
And I'm not throwing around words like bigotry and stereotyping lightly. That is literally what you're doing. You're judging this man a traitor simply because the color of his skin, his sex, and because of the culture he was raised in. He talks like a white working class people, and you stereotype all white working class people as MAGA.
How about you cite some of his actual policy positions, instead of just engaging in hateful stereotyping?
I love how you literally cannot fathom the idea that it is a SUBSTANTIVE critique that the man joined the military, went out to kill brown people, re-enlisted, then joined a mercenary group to provide security details in that same theater, then came home and became a luxury food farmer and then while married sexted with a bunch of thirst trap TikTokers all while spending 20 years with a literal Tottenkopf tattooed on his chest that he proudly displayed for years.
As though what I am actually saying is "you can't trust him. He's white." It would be comical if it wasn't so sad that I share a country with you. Get it through your fake victim complex. This has nothing to do with him being white and everything to do with the fact that he has not done anything that would indicate he's not a fucking jarhead who's only concern about military adventurism is America First politics, where his anti-war stance is primarily economic (though he has specific ethical problems with specific wars).
Try not to make everything about your own insecurities.
he was clueless that a skull and crossbones was a Nazi symbol
You don't need to be a historian to guess that a skull and crossbones isn't exactly a peace symbol.
The US Marines aren't exactly the peace corps.
Military.. His unit got that tattoo. Not my thing, but, whatever. The guy is an oyster farmer now. Cusses like a sailor too.
Idc. But then I also think the liberal side of things needs to lay off the gun thing.
I’d be curious to see an old source on that tattoo.
And?
Not knowing what it is is an obvious lie, sorry. There's no way the white male millennial soldier that grew up with the History Channel didn't know what it was. His friends and family have said he knew what it was. He had Reddit posts defending police getting SS bolts and discussing the thematic differences between Totenkopf and Punisher tattoos.
And, honestly, if he genuinely didn't know what it was, that level of historical ignorance should also be disqualifying.
So if the argument is that he is, still, currently a Nazi, just running on progressive ideology to pull one over on all of us dumb rubes, why bother hiding it? Why be a cryptofascist when obvious-as-fuck fascists are running on fascist platforms and getting elected because they're fascists? He has said literally nothing even in his online posts as a private citizen anywhere near as far-reich or as blatant as the current admin says in plain sight on Twitter.
Idk and I'm gen x,different state, but seriously did i fuckin idiots really elect another fetterman? Quit bein gullible, and curb stop a Republican
You know they fucking did, man, and they are going to witch hunt US for calling their dumb asses out.
Then what was it? I’m no deep dive history buff on nazis but I’ve had the college level courses, in addition to the extra bits on Speer and the symbology. I did not recognize it. Link old, pre headline sources.
You've studied Nazism at a collegiate level but are asking for a source on what a totenkopf is...?
He also didn't know what sexting was, eh? Just said some words that his buddies thought sounded cool and next thing you know his wife is sharing them to expose what he's actually like?
If he's a Nazi, why isn't he running as a Republican like all the others? If he's a fellow Nazi, why are all the other Nazis so intent and focused on attacking him. Rather than amplifying him and getting him elected?
I'm not going to make the claim that plattner isn't a meathead/jarhead that has said some pretty stupid shit over the years. Facts are facts. And none of that is disqualifying in light of his competition. A sad critique of our country's politics in general. Plattner isn't going to fix everything, or likely even anything. He will probably struggle to be average or even adequate. But is that he wasn't the establishment Democrats conservative pic, or the Republicans conservative incumbent old coat hanger he's learned his lesson Collins.
If you actually go look into the guy. You'll find out that while he's not ideal. He's definitely no Nazi, and definitely not another fetterman.
Why did Kyrsten Sinema or John Fettermam run as Democrats?
Apparently we are easy marks, and getting someone in who represents the opposite party of the one they were elected as, is a massive boon for that party. It's a +2 (-1 seat for Democrats, +1 seat for Republicans).
What do you mean why?
Because they were. They didn't just become Democrats to run and reach the congress. They'd been for decades before.
If you expect that anyone who reaches the Congress will stay un corrupted. When Congress is designed to corrupt. Yes you're an easy mark. The Senate was designed from the bottom up with corruption in mind. That was it's whole purpose. The house was hobbled over a century ago to be more easily controlled by the oligarchs and the wealthy. Corruption is the natural outcome. It's a rare person that can avoid it.
What I mean by why. Is exactly that. It wasn't a riddle or cryptic in any way. If plattner is a nazi. Then why is the party that is the primary home for bigots and Nazis so adamantly attacking him for what they openly are. If plattner is a Nazi, then why are the worst parts of the democratic establishments attacking him. Since they commonly align themselves with the fascists and Nazis in the Republican Party? It's not a rhetorical question, work it out.
Plattner has absolutely said stupid toxic masculinity dude bro shit throughout his life. At the same time when confronted with it he's genuinely shown an ability to understand, listen and learn. But yes I get that a tattoo is serious shit. It's not like people getting drunk and getting random tattoos they don't understand the meaning of or even remember is so common it's a trope. (It is) it's not like there's tens to hundreds of different websites across the internet just displaying these and making fun of them. (There are) Hell I've got materials with a totenkoph on it that I've come to regret having after the fact. I need an apparent expert opinion. Am I a Nazi in secret even to myself?
All kidding aside. If he's so clearly a Nazi as so many people are trying to imply. Why can't I find any evidence of it? Why hasn't he taken for instance a single cent from AIPAC? Why is he opposing the genocide in Gaza, which far too many Democrats won't even distance themselves from let alone call it out. Even Chuck Fucking Schumer, democrat leadership in Congress won't condemn it. And has used his position to stop others from condemning it. Can you point out a single action he personally has taken that clearly marks him as a Nazi?
Sinema was actually in the Green party before becoming a Democrat. There was a time where her being a Leftist was believable.
Yes she worked on Ralph Nader's campaign. But she had been in the Democratic party since 2004. The power and the influence 100% corrupted her
If he's so clearly a Nazi as so many people are trying to imply. Why can't I find any evidence of it?
THE MAN HAD A TOTENKOPF TATTOO ON HIS CHEST
The fuck do you mean??
I mean literally what I said. People get stupid shit tattooed on them drunk all the time. Platner is no different. If you're going to accuse him of being a Nazi at least have more than just this one superficial thing. Let's be real here someone from blaja I expect better of than purposefully misidentifying someone.
Hegseth for instance has a particular tattoo on him. Which in isolation might mean nothing. But I can point to thousands of actions that hegseth has taken in his personal life. That clearly mark him as a Nazi and white supremacist.
There are many justified valid criticisms of Platner. Isn't it odd that this. This is all you cling to. Well not really odd. Highly suspicious. So focused on attacking him too. So you like Colins? Her enabling of warmongers, pedophiles, genocides, enemies of gays and trans. Is it that Platner has taken no money from AIPAC or similar groups? Is it that He's against Israel's genocide in Gaza? What is it really about tattoo man?
I will commend you on this at least. After posting at me in another thread repeating this baseless accusation. And me calling you out on for not replying, just spamming trying to push an agenda. I honestly didn't think you would. But if I did, this half formed wet fart of a "nu uhh" is what I would have expected.
Do you really believe only the Republicans are Nazis? Operation Paperclip was done under Truman. The genocidal campaign against North Korea was also Truman. LBJ lead the mass murder campaign in Vietnam and Laos.
No. The fact that Platner is the darling of the Ds is shifting the Overton Window of acceptable open proximity to Nazis, not proof that Platner isn't as horrible as his history shows him to be. The man chose to join Blackwater AFTER he saw what they were doing in theater.
Which of his policies are Nazi policies?
He doesn't have any policies. He's a candidate for a low level elected office where he will be exactly 1% of the vote and he will absolutely vote to continue expanding the military and the police. He saw what happened and instead of becoming a conscientious objector he decided to voluntarily join Blackwater!
He doesn't have any policies.
Oh I see you haven't checked out his website. Here you go
https://www.grahamforsenate.com/platform
Take on waste and corruption at the Pentagon... Massive, massive waste in procurement. A revolving door between the Pentagon and massive “defense” contractors. Widespread consolidation, encouraged by deliberate government policy, to the point where competition has virtually disappeared in many vital areas. This is the legacy of several decades of disastrous mismanagement and profiteering at the highest level of the American military.
No more pointless wars I will never, ever vote to send Americans into a pointless war. Everything we went through in Iraq can be laid at the feet of those in Washington, like Senator Collins, who knew better but voted “Yes” on a disastrous, deadly war.
Is this the first time you've experienced a campaign promise?
I was responding to someone saying he had no policies, when he has an entire list on his website.
That's not policy, those are campaign promises.
Those are promises, not policies. He's not in office yet, he hasn't voted on anything, and he will be the junior member and highly subject to party discipline.
