I’m asking you to take 180 seconds of your life to watch this one clip. It is about something WAY bigger than just the Maine Senate race and Platner, it is about how you are being imperceptibly and algorithmically manipulated by oligarchs and their media outlets to think certain things are big news, and other things aren’t news at all.

Many questions about Platner's past (other than those about his private marital affairs) are absolutely fair game - which is why I pressed him on them. But what's happening here is something truly profound: A brazen attempt by money to buy the entire political discourse to try to make sure voters never pay attention to the issues and policies that are actively destroying their lives.

This is the real “democracy crisis” - pass it on.