A sequence is simply as sturdy as its weakest hyperlink. The squeaky wheel at all times will get the grease. One dangerous apple spoils the bunch. Choose your most popular cliché, however all of them apply to Graham Platner, the lightning rod and commonplace bearer for Democrats within the race for the Senate in Maine. A lot to the consternation of the leftist institution and the delight of the socialist left, Platner has burst into the nationwide highlight. However the significance of his candidacy goes properly past the ever-lengthening rap sheet constructing in opposition to him.
Toxicity on Parade
Should you had been to create essentially the most poisonous portfolio potential for a politician, it will come frighteningly near the life and occasions of Graham Platner. However whether or not they have grasped this actuality or prevented it, enthusiastic Maine Democrats and the Bernie Sanders crowd have pushed a stake by means of the center of progressives’ most sacred self-proclaimed rules. Most significantly, it has stripped the Trump-deranged left of the power to proceed its narrative of virtue-signaling platitudes (“Nobody is above the regulation” et al.) and vitriolic name-calling (fascist, dictator, and so on.) concerning the president and his followers that they’ve been shouting from the mountaintop for greater than a decade.
Let’s take the shattered narratives one after the other. Bear in mind the one about believing all ladies? Nicely, we haven’t seen any Democrats stepping ahead to defend former girlfriends who’ve publicly accused Platner of demeaning and violent conduct, together with bodily confinement and shoving. Nor have they got something to say about him sexting with a number of younger ladies shortly after being married in 2023.
As an alternative, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who acts disgusted that he has to reply for Platner’s a number of sins and abuses, explains all of it away by saying the candidate had gone by means of a “darkish interval.” Maybe that’s true, however does it then make any sense to run for the best legislative workplace within the land after being struck down by a pronounced case of PTSD? These revelations about Platner are devastating to Democrats as a result of they’ll now not, with a straight face, proclaim their ethical superiority, particularly when so few within the occasion have been keen to talk up or out concerning the man from Maine. And so they can now not posture because the occasion that may shield ladies from the ravages of Donald Trump and sexist Republicans.
Then we come to essentially the most well-known tattoo within the nation, the one emblazoned on Platner’s chest for nearly twenty years after which eliminated after he determined to run for workplace. It was not solely a Nazi image, however one arguably much more explosive than the swastika, the “Totenkopf,” a skull-and-crossbones emblem utilized by Nazi SS demise squads. It’s arduous to determine which is worse, the truth that he bought the tattoo within the first place or his completely preposterous declare that, for 18 years, he was unaware of what it meant. So, in a single fell swoop, Platner has compelled his occasion to take away “Trump is a Nazi/Fascist” from its playbook and known as into critical query the ideological course of a celebration whose model was gravely tarnished in 2024. Certainly, the notion that Democrats try to reasonable their progressive bent is shattered by their acceptance and, in lots of circumstances, embrace of the Maine Democratic Senate nominee.
In the meantime, you’d assume a person who has come to be recognized by his Nazi tattoo wouldn’t face the other downside on the similar time. By no means within the recorded annals of recent political historical past has a candidate for workplace been legitimately tagged as each a Nazi AND a communist. That’s, till Platner got here alongside. In since-deleted Reddit posts from 2020-21, Platner dropped the C-word: “I bought older and have become a communist,” he wrote, and later described himself as a “vegetable-growing, psychedelics-taking socialist.”
However wait, that’s not all. Platner, an oyster farmer whose solely buyer is outwardly his mom, as soon as wrote that ladies must “take some duty” to keep away from being raped whereas ingesting. Of a fellow service member whose bravery gained him a Purple Coronary heart, he mentioned, “Dumb motherf—– did not should dwell.” And in one other message, he referred to rural white residents of Maine as “racist” and “silly.”
Graham Platner — Political Gold for Republicans
Each Republican operating for the Senate, and even the Home, will strongly contemplate tying their opponent to the Maine Democrat, whether or not warranted or not, and plenty of will determine to do it. A easy query will place Democrats all around the nation between a rock and a tough place: “Do you help Graham Platner, the person with the Nazi tattoo who known as himself a communist?” Sure or no, please, no hedging.
How this man might have survived the vetting course of is a case research in political malpractice. The person and lady who vetted Platner appeared on a latest video and acted amused at being questioned about their background checks on Platner. Have been they conscious of all or any of those scandals? They mentioned they weren’t. Have been they not less than conscious of his Nazi tattoo? No on that depend, too. So, a person with sufficient skeletons to fill a number of walk-in closets skated by means of unscathed. What does that say to the voters about Democrats’ competence?
It’s virtually as if Platner has pushed the mute button on the Democrats’ most acquainted speaking factors. Due to the a number of scandalous revelations uncovered, lots of which got here after he swore there have been no extra skeletons in his closet past the tattoo, Democrats have ceded the ethical excessive floor they claimed to carry. In bowing to a person tarnished by extremism in every thing from his beliefs to his violent conduct with ladies, they could as properly maintain a funeral for the #MeToo motion. They will now not even faux to have curbed their most radical instincts or reasonable the occasion’s prevailing progressive beliefs that had been roundly rejected by the voters lower than 20 months in the past.
Give Platner credit score, although, for world-class gaslighting, political jiu-jitsu, and uncooked chutzpah. Extremely, he has mentioned, “Whereas I gained’t defend issues I mentioned up to now, I’ll simply say that if it wasn’t for that whole journey, I might not be who I’m immediately, and I’m extremely pleased with who I’m immediately.” That’s fairly a self-glorification. However you’ll be able to guess Democrats intent on successful management of the Senate don’t share in Platner’s pleasure in himself as they arrive beneath incessant hostile questioning concerning the man — and the occasion’s rules — for the remaining months of the midterm marketing campaign.
