The Magical Thinking Behind Graham Platner's Rise
Her opponent is a former Marine, mercenary, and bartender with no political experience, and judging from the way he speaks, a similar vacuity of knowledge. He has admitted to making a series of racist, homophobic, and misogynistic remarks, even blaming rape victims, if they were drunk, for their own trauma, not as a rebellious teenager, but merely five years ago. On his chest, he has a tattoo of a “Totenkopf”—a “death skull” that became prominent in Nazi iconography. SS guards had the same skull on their uniforms. He claims that he was unaware of the history or meaning of the symbol when he got the tattoo. He was drunk, which, according to his moral philosophy, absolves him of blame, unlike women who are raped, and in his words, “should take responsibility for getting so f**ked up that they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to.” His campaign manager has resigned, claiming that the candidate was aware of the tattoo’s significance.
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It turns out that the thought experiment is not hypothetical. Instead, it is an actual Senate primary campaign in Maine where the first candidate, Governor Janet Mills, is vying for national office against Graham Platner, an SS-tattooed amateur. Those who believe that we live in a world where words have real meaning, where a rational public evaluates politicians by their record of achievements and failures, and where all prominent progressives demonstrate fidelity to their stated values, would be wrong to assume that leftists are rallying behind Mills. Instead, Senators Bernie Sanders and Martin Heinrich have endorsed Platner, as has Representative Ro Khanna. The United Auto Workers has declared its support for Platner, and so too have popular “progressive” media personalities, such as Emma Vigeland, Cenk Uygur, and Ryan Grim, who chastised objection to Platner’s repeated assertions that Black customers don’t tip, his repeated use of the epithet “faggot,” and the Nazi imagery above his nipple, as “hall monitor BS that makes the Democrats toxic.”
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In the society of spectacle that is the U.S. under the epistemic tyranny of social media, “progressives,” like Sanders and Grim, care about the “working class” and despise “the establishment.” In a society of reality, caring about the working class would mean supporting policies that raise their standard of living and increase their opportunities for upward mobility, such as expanding access to Medicaid and making community college tuition-free. In a society of spectacle, “working class” depends upon the imagery that mediates social (and political) relations, meaning that the invocation of the demographic phrase calls to mind someone like Platner—a gruff, “man’s man” with a military record who works on a farm, with a voice like voiceover from a pickup truck ad—not someone like Mills, an elderly woman with a successful legal career. Women, from Hillary Clinton to Kamala Harris, and now Janet Mills, cannot register with the working class because in America, “working class” means a man holding a shovel or wearing a hard hat. It certainly doesn’t mean a Latina home health aide or Asian American pre-school teacher, even if, in post-industrialization, women in low-wage service and retail occupations are much more predominant among the proletariat.
Source/more: https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/11/12/the-magical-thinking-behind-graham-platners-rise/
To me, this article nails it.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Chuck Shumer, and before any of the negative stories about Platner had come out-- just to put it in an accurate context....
I myself was an ardent Sanders supporter in 2016, but his endorsements do not determine
my support or non-support of any candidates in 2026---
Indeed, in 2020, I voted for Joe Biden in the Democratic primaries,
even though Sanders was running again, and I suppose I favored Sanders more on 'policy'---
I thought Biden the better GE candidate for that moment,
so I voted for him, and he won the nomination AND most importantly,
the General election!
(AND went on to become the most progressive President we have had for a while,
and gave Sanders a 'seat at the table'!)
Now in this particular race, I too had doubts about Platner---
when the negative stories first came out, I thought he was SUNK---
but the polls of Maine Democratic primary and GE likely voters tell a different story---
and as far as I am concerned, this primary is OVER when Platner leads Mills
by more than 20 percentage points, and performs much better against Collins
than Mills does, in General Election polls!---
(much bolstered by his strength among younger voters, whom we
as a party need to win back!)
BE WARY of articles like this, which attack whom appears to be
the STRONGEST Democratic candidate in a particular state---
just because they are still attempting to re-fight the 2016 Democratic presidential primary----
and attempt to "tar" the candidate with the "Bernie" brush---!
YES, Janet Mills has strong credentials on 'social issues'
which have not been winning elections for us,
but she has been particularly WEAK on LABOR issues---- Google it!
https://www.google.com/search?q=janet+mills+anti-labor+actions+in+maine&sca_esv=d5f39639bc60d663&sxsrf=ANbL-n6lxoyBrzUHal6xrekaXq0M7s1sFw%3A1776396168490&source=hp&ei=iKfhad7JG7-KptQPvPPM6QM&iflsig=AFdpzrgAAAAAaeG1mHdVAbyI9Yk1p8WyiJ5glzoX1YWY&oq=&gs_lp=Egdnd3Mtd2l6IgAqAggBMgcQIxjqAhgnMgcQIxjqAhgnMgcQIxjqAhgnMg0QLhjHARjRAxjqAhgnMgcQIxjqAhgnMgcQIxjqAhgnMgcQIxjqAhgnMgcQIxjqAhgnMgcQIxjqAhgnMgcQIxjqAhgnSJYnUABYAHABeACQAQCYAQCgAQCqAQC4AQHIAQCYAgGgAiWoAgqYAyXxBYRq8juwcDpckgcBMaAHALIHALgHAMIHAzQtMcgHHoAIAQ&sclient=gws-wiz
AI Overview
Governor Janet Mills has faced criticism for several actions viewed as anti-labor, including vetoing a bill aimed at protecting farmworkers' rights to collective action and facing a "bad faith" bargaining complaint from the state employees' union, MSEA-SEIU, in late 2025 regarding contract negotiations, staffing, and wages. However, her administration claims to have increased salary funding and signed other labor-supportive legislation.
Key actions and accusations regarding labor issues during the Mills administration include:
Vetoes of Worker Protections: Governor Mills vetoed legislation (LD 588) that would have allowed agricultural workers to engage in collective action without fear of retaliation, arguing it created a "new regulatory burden" on the sector.
State Employee Union Dispute: The Maine Service Employees Association (MSEA-SEIU) filed a complaint alleging "bad faith" bargaining by the administration in contract negotiations for nearly 10,000 workers. The union criticized a lack of progress on wage increases and retention.
Industry Concerns: Some critics, as highlighted by The Lever and Jacobin, suggest her record on certain vetoes has favored corporate interests over worker rights and collective bargaining.
And NO, I don't believe that Platner would 'become another Fetterman' or Manchin, if elected---
(he hasn't had a stroke and by age is less likely to have one), and
he seems prescient enough to realize whom his base voters are, whom are younger voters--
and would respond to their wants and needs, if elected!
and AGAIN, in my humble opinion, this primary is OVER!
so further attacks against Platner are attacks against the Democratic Party!
(my primary concern being that Democrats take over the US Senate!)
I'm getting really strong pro-Palestinian protesters yelling "war criminal" vibes.
The ones who still protest Harris and ignore the filth that's actually in charge destroying everything.
I wonder if the fevered passion is motivated by anything other than MAGAt money. 
Response to radical noodle (Reply #31)
pinning that down, rad. 
More than accusations here. Got any citations?
Response to tritsofme (Reply #70)
then he became a millionaire and just dropped that part, lol.
Amazing tribe on there! 
Also - I can just write shit and no one gets too upset about it. 
after a successful first term, and after he wins a second that he will indeed be looked at as a candidate for President.
WTF 
Does he think he can do it alone?
We need all Dems to Win in November.. Not someone "piss" raging about how they're not doing anything.. Which is Clearly Not True. 
Well said... I wouldn't have been so nice.
Galighitng and Bashing Dems... We need All Dems to win in November... Not some Anti-Dem from Maine Lying about Dems. 
I just couldn't let it go.
sending out Texts like That.
Aloha, rad!
or rad Post it tomorrow...
As you say .. asking Dems to give him money while Bashing Dems.
ETA~ Wonder whose idea thta was to Switch to Bashing Dems? 
