With the Senate campaign of Maine’s Graham Platner blowing up in their faces, Democrats everywhere are giving each other tearful gobs of solace and advice.
Some are comparing Platner’s scandal-driven collapse and last-minute withdrawal to the 2024 presidential campaign, when a befuddled Joe Biden withdrew in early July and his vice president, Kamala Harris, was handed the nomination.
The comparison reflects deep pessimism among Dems about their chances now of winning the Maine seat held by GOP incumbent Susan Collins, which is crucial to their hopes of gaining a Senate majority.
Part of that pessimism stems from the fact that Harris continues to claim her lopsided loss to Donald Trump was largely because she got the nomination only 107 days before Election Day.
She wrote an entire book with that title, as if that alone explains her flameout. But she still refuses to accept the fact that she was a terrible candidate who refused to advance an agenda that was distinct from the failed and unpopular record she and Biden produced.
Asked what she would do differently in a slobbering appearance on “The View,” she hesitated before giving the vapid response, “not a thing comes to mind.”
Well, then. Platner’s replacement will have even less time than Harris did, with party honchos in Maine saying they will pick a new candidate at a convention late this month.
Time is clearly important, but there’s another similarity to the Harris campaign that is also highly relevant to events in Maine.
Notably, Platner is in major ways a carbon copy of Harris’ disastrous choice for a running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz.
Tampon Tim’s personality, appearance and background reflect some of the same features that led many Maine Dems to fall in love with Platner.
Both men are beefy and gruff, military veterans and blue collar by nature, making them distinct from the angry soy boys and arch feminists who are the dominant faces of a party moving further and further left.
At the same time, Walz and Platner managed to talk the talk of the progressive activists. They looked like the Dems’ idea of a Republican, but bought into the mantra of virtually unlimited immigration, higher taxes, anti-police rhetoric and the cultish fever on transgender and racial issues.
After Trump’s 2024 victory, Walz, speaking on a podcast, conceded that he was selected by Harris simply to appeal to blue-collar, white male voters, who Democrats have been losing for decades.
“I was on the ticket, quite honestly, because I could code talk to white guys watching football, fixing their truck, doing that, then I could put them at ease,” he said.
Although his biography and boisterous manner convinced Dems he was the Everyman they needed, the targeted demographic weren’t impressed. The ticket won just 43 percent of the male vote nationwide, while Trump and JD Vance pulled in 55 percent.
In Platner’s case, Maine Dems’ hunger for a progressive “real man” was so overpowering that his backers were willing to overlook his huge Nazi tattoo, as if that’s common among real men.
GQ Magazine, in a glowing profile that aimed to explain the appeal of his campaign, declared him “the virile, earthy working man many male politicians wish they were.”
Sufficient Maine voters bought into the hype by looking past Platner’s vile social media postsand the complaints of his excessive drinking and sexual misconduct, some of which he conceded.
Neither did it matter to Sen. Bernie Sanders, who endorsed him. Or to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who called him “my kinda man” despite his reportedly saying that victims of rape should “take some responsibility for themselves and not get so f–ked up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to?”
Victim complex
Nor was it a problem for his supporters when he reportedly wrote “I dig it” next to an online video showing Hamas terrorists murdering Israeli soldiers.
None of that was enough to stop or even slow down a train that was bound for glory. Only when Politico reported credible allegations last week that he had committed sexual assault with a former girlfriend, who went public, did the dam break, with Sanders and Warren abandoning ship.
Two days later, Platner faced the music and quit the race.
Even then, he hesitated and threatened to stay on the ballot and fight it out with the party before withdrawing as the deadline approached.
“We went toe-to-toe with one of the most entrenched political systems in the history of the world, and we won,” Platner said in announcing his withdrawal in a social media video. “And now they are not going to let us have it, not if it’s me.”
Contrition was not on his mind, as he defiantly insisted that “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.”
See, he’s a victim. Maybe that’s why so many Dems liked him.
In the Trump era, victimhood is the engine of the Socialist-driven left.
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