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And just like that, the story ends.
Graham Platner is no more, bowing out of the Maine Senate race, bowing to reality.
“What comes next needs to come from the people, needs to come from the people of Maine,” Platner said. “It needs to be open, transparent and democratic. It needs to be reflecting the will and the values of the people that built this movement.”
“We believe that for the movement to continue, it can’t be me. And for that reason, we are suspending campaign operations,” Platner continued. “We’re not doing it because of the allegations; we’re doing it because of the structures that are being taken away from us by those in power.”
Reality check: Graham Platner dropped out because of the allegations and only because of the allegations. The Nazi tattoo was not enough. Sexting while married was not enough. Being credibly accused of rape, however, was enough.
Maybe if he had an actual movement, a true new path for the Democratic Party, the outcome might have been different.
Platner was never a movement, just as the DSA is not a movement. Platner’s campaign promises are a pastiche of populist and socialist tropes which mix together as well as oil and water (or Democrats and honest elections). Platner and whatever DSA political mastermind who guided his campaign built his campaign’s talking points by grabbing a handful intended to appeal to MAGA Coalition voters, a handful intended to energize a progressive voter base, and a few to appeal to traditionalist Blue Dog Democrats. There was never a unifying theme other than grabbing votes (the political virtue of the slogan “America First” is that within the MAGA Coalition it is the connective tissue among all of Donald Trump’s Agenda 47 campaign commitments).
Now the DSA and the Establishmentarians get to fight it out for who gets his ballot slot. The Maine Democrats have promised “transparency”, which means people will get to watch voyeuristically as the party bosses decide who to impose on Democrat voters as their unelected party nominee for Maine’s Senate seat.
The DSA activitsts seeking to take over the Democratic Party could have avoided this simply by vetting their candidates even just a little bit. Platner’s flaws as a candidate were never a secret, and certainly never hard to uncover.
