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Reading through his wikipedia article I am not surprised that he is not endorsed by the dnc. He is (was?) a shithead regarding so many things and is literally a political minefield.
That being said ... Anything is better than the alternative.
Bad reasons, he's addressed all of his controversies and the vast majority of Maine Dems accept him. Same reason they refuse to back most progressives, they exist to maintain (or return us to) the status quo. Progressives want to change and as long as establishment Dems hold a majority in the party nothing will change
That was my thing, if he has talked and disavowed himself of those views. Given the shit show the Dems are now, give him a shot, worst case, throw him out later if he turns into a shit heel.
Addressing a controversy doesn't make it go away necessarily. I get that he is the only alternative right now but he is in no way "the solution".
And going "at least he is anti establishmrnt" Is the most populist stance ever. Nothing good comes from being against something. Be for something and fight for that.
Have you watched any of his campaign events? He talks about making change not about being anti Trump or establishment. The does talk about his stances and what he wants to fight for. Beating Collins is obviously a huge part of his campaign because he's got to beat her but he's definitely "for something".
It's easy to fall into reporting that paints certain candidates a certain way, it's worth going out to a campaign event (if you're local) or watching one to form your own opinion. The Internet is a biased place, some places aren't outright smearing him but they try to discredit him by saying repeating stuff like you are. Everything I've seen and heard from him is that he is more than just an "anti establishment" guy and wants to build a progressive populist movement for the people.
i havent seen him or payed much attention to him. still i trust certain sources (and i know that i will be getting a lot of hate for that opinion, but i like wikipedia) about stuff unless other evidence presents. you are saying he is more than that / different than that. good! i will have to pay more attention to him in the future. i am not local or even from the US but i am still interested.
regarding populism: the core component of it is that you need to be in the victim role as in "us small people against them" which is by definition anti establishment.
dont get me wrong, i agree that the democratic party is bad as in established and lazy and too close to the corporations. i am just very careful when it comes to populism because it can allow a person to change course very quickly based on that stance.
Donald trump has been doing the populism to corporate domination pipeline for TEN FUCKING YEARS. I think ill give populism a try with a fisherman instead of a billionaire baby.
We've had the opposite of populism for a very long time. It's time to start balancing it out and fighting back against the ultra wealthy and corps that own our country through lobbying and cronyism.
What fucking controversy?
A single colleague said he yelled fuck off during an argument, a single person in a decades long career. He told Tucker Carlson that his show was "hurting America" and was "pro wrestling" rather than news, this is very literally not a controversy. Epstein file mention? Also not a controversy, his name was in an email suggesting he could be a host for a Woody Allen standup special which never happened. He made jokes about masking, he’s a comedian. People don’t like that he is a comedian that does serious political interviews and lastly, recently, he said it was a good thing the Trump administration was fast tracking psychedelic research, which it is.
There are no actual controversies here, your comments are made up nonsense comments about made up nonsense.
The tattoo is a no go for me. He said he didn't know the meaning but he referred to it in the German word for skull. He is lying about that and I don't think its acceptable.
People are taking about graham and not Stewart.
For graham, I'm going to choose to answer this like you're actually not aware, but he has a history of having had a Nazi totenkopf tattoo that he said he covered up as soon as he realized it was a Nazi tattoo. Except his Reddit history and two acquaintances indicate that he knew for quite a while, for years even, that he had a Nazi tattoobefore covering it up. which also means he has probably lied about it.
Additionally, he willingly, after being a part of the military and being part of an invasion in the Middle East, chose to join Constellis (formerly blackwater). He was not in combat but still supporting a military mercenary group like this is super sketch.
Additionally, he has on his Reddit handle had comments in which he is very dismissive of rape and victim blamed quite heavily.
This is all quite a few years ago and he claims that he's changed a lot as a person, but he has a lot of controversy and a lot of red flags in his past.
I've seen no evidence of his reddit comments either acknowledging his tattoo as a hate symbol or victim blaming rape survivors. I have however seen people bring up a comment he made to a rape survivor which was in no way blaming her for what happened to her, instead he was trying to dispel any internal negative thoughts she might be having about her value as a person being diminished now... Seemed like a heartfelt genuine message, albeit risky. Almost like he was a dude who never expected to run for office.
I feel like we're just taking the Blackwater bit and extrapolating that he has to be a bad person for life now and reading between all the other lines to secure that conclusion. I don't buy it.
The interpretations of his reddit threads feel... Very generous.
Here is this thread as p-hustle about the totenkopf. He responds directly to a thread discussing the totenkopf as a Nazi symbol, but he does not mention it directly but instead talks about the punisher skull. But also he has an acquaintance who said he used to jokingly call the tatoo "my Totenkopf" over a decade ago and who had text receipts of talking about platners Nazi tattoo. plus planters political director, Genevieve McDonald, resigned and said that the campaign had been aware of the tattoo since she joined, and that Platner himself acknowledged it "could be problematic."
Then the rape threads. How does this sound like someone trying to "dispel any negative internal thoughts?"
And since were doing reddit threads, here's a bonus where he talks about urinating on dead bodies as only bad due to the current state of media??
Look, if I lived in Maine, which I don't so it doesn't really matter, I'd vote platner (even if what's her face democrat was still running in the primaries) because fuck the establishment dems and fuck Susan Collins. But I'm sick of pretending he has no red flags. Let's vote for him, but let's watch him like a hawk after.
The interpretations of his reddit threads feel... Very generous.
Here is this thread as p-hustle about the totenkopf. He responds directly to a thread discussing the totenkopf as a Nazi symbol, but he does not mention it directly but instead talks about the punisher skull. But also he has an acquaintance who said he used to jokingly call the tatoo "my Totenkopf" over a decade ago and who had text receipts of talking about platners Nazi tattoo. plus planters political director, Genevieve McDonald, resigned and said that the campaign had been aware of the tattoo since she joined, and that Platner himself acknowledged it "could be problematic."
Then the rape threads. How does this sound like someone trying to "dispel any negative internal thoughts?"
And since were doing reddit threads, here's a bonus where he talks about urinating on dead bodies as only bad due to the current state of media??
If Schmuck & Jeffries are typical of their preferred brand of Democrat, then I'll take more of this guy please.
at the end of the day, us Mainers don't really care for Washington types or politicians. Platner is a great pick for the state of Maine, he looks like us, he works with us, he talks like us. He will be able to pull votes from both parties because the republicans can't really put him in a sissy liberal box. The other option was our current governor who just sold us out for dibs on an AI data center. I'll take the guy with tattoos and do a little political gamble.
Valid. I wish more people could apply some Critical Thinking Skills, and think maturely.
I wish our state was good at critical thinking, but we're all morons. We do have a good eye for whats authentic. Our sniff test will have to pass for critical thinking this time.
Im not even critically thinking for this one. This country turned my state into a banana republic for rich peoples 3rd homes. I'd vote for any person who's working a real job in this state. I'm a two issue voter this year. You can't be over 65 and you need to work a real job in the private sector or run a small business. The dude that runs an oyster farm is as close as a lot of Mainers are going to get to someone who feels authentic to a state full of distressed farmers and fishermen.
two wrongs dont make a right. but i agree how he needs to win NOW and get support.
Is he willing to fight? If so, then welcome aboard. If we make it through, and he handled himself well, we can accept that he's a new man. If not, we'll get rid of him then. But if he's willing to fight now, I want him.
No one is perfect, and they have endorsed FAR LESS perfect individuals in the past.
two wrongs dont make a right. but i agree that he needs to be supported now.
Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
This guy seems ok now, but for all I know he could end up like Fetterman. He is risky, but if he is what he says he is now, it could be ok.
What state are you in? It's funny to have all you talking about our election... how are your elections going? You about to roll another 80 year old establishment contender in for their 30th term?
I view Platner as a sort of political Pascal's wager. Let's say there's a 10% chance of him being a secret Nazi or the next Fetterman. Hell, let's say it's 50%. The alternative was Mills, a centrist hand-picked by fascist collaborator Chuck Schumer, and Collins, a member of fhe fascist party. The loss of electing a secret fascist over a fascist collaborator or different fascist is minimal, while the gain of electing a genuine progressive is massive. You might as well make the bet that he's genuine.
Thank you for explaining this simple conundrum. I am so relieved to have mills gone, Platner should beat collins without much fuss. Plenty of time to worry about the future. Idk whats the point of gaming out a state senators potential actions. this whole thread is making me wonder what everyone thinks about their own elections.
Well, don't count Collins out yet. She's down in the polls, but she's bounced back from that before. Still, Platner is much better positioned to beat her than Mills ever was, and his campaign has already weathered a huge storm.
yes, i agree that he is risky and i understand that you probably need to take that risk since the alternative is even worse. but still i dont want to absolve him just because of that. he has a skull tattoo and he is lying about not knowing about the meaning. to me that is unaccetable and he needs to be replaced as soon as possible.
No you've got this backwards, Maine isn't electing a representative to be absolved by the corrupted DNC. This aint church you silly individual. We're sending him there to crush the DNC and send out a message to other states that you too can take back the democratic seat and don't have to let the DNC assign you a leader. FUCK