Thoughts on Platner

Over the last two weeks the NYT has run two notable hit pieces on Graham Platner, posting a steady stream of repetitive analyses since. A number of other outlets (The Atlantic, Politico, WaPo, even The Nation) have run with the theme as well. The intensity of the recent interrogation into Platner is supposedly predicated on Maine’s importance to Democrats retaking the Senate and consequent “concerns” that he isn’t a strong enough candidate. Odd, given that Schumer’s handpicked candidate, the state’s current governor, had to stop campaigning after six months because she ran out of money and was polling abysmally.

Maine is a notoriously odd state voting-wise so who knows what will happen in November. But Platner is clearly a compelling candidate and has become enormously popular in Maine and beyond, and this popularity is obviously the real issue. He has a strongly ideological following and articulates a systemic economic critique wedded to an antiwar message (and specific opposition to the Gaza genocide), all of which makes national Democrats very uncomfortable.

You need not view Platner as a messiah to appreciate his ability to speak clearly and reflectively about American imperialism abroad and decay at home, and about his own struggles—unusual qualities in American political figures these days. Meanwhile, the forced solemnity of the concerns that surround him in a national environment dominated by Trumpism is ridiculous.

Adding to the cynicism is the failure of Democrats to counter the right in any meaningful way over the last decade. Bernie, their only national politician with a mass following to rival Trump’s, was systematically undercut by the party establishment, the bare bones of his political priorities incorporated briefly into the feeble Biden program. Today Bernie is far less threatening, treated (sometimes) as a beloved elder statesman—not unlike the enthusiasm for Platner when he was viewed merely as a gruff, rural Democrat.

Now Democrats like Cory Booker—who seems to hold the delusional belief that he might be the next president—and genocide enthusiast John Fetterman feel the need to chide Platner for his personal life and admitted mistakes. Given the complete amorality of their own politics, their “concerns” about Platner may as well be an endorsement.