This means he can be replaced with another Democrat
Graham Platner can be replaced as the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine if he withdraws from the race by next Monday, and state law would then give the state Democratic Party until July 27 to name a replacement.
i hate gaslighting abusers from past personal experiences and i fucking hate graham platner more. he needs to go away forever; he doesn’t get to make demands of anyone because he couldn’t take no for an answer.
He’s dragging it out, too. Like a toddler throwing a tantrum. I hope he actually files the paperwork on Monday, but at this rate I’m not holding my breath.
Graham Platner is planning to wait until Monday, the deadline for withdrawal, to file the paperwork to end his Senate campaign in Maine, a source familiar with his plans confirmed to Bloomberg Government on Thursday.
Platner announced Wednesday evening that he would suspend his campaign and intends to file the paperwork to withdraw, moves that come following a sexual assault allegation that saw his support from Democrats crumble.
Platner has until July 13 to withdraw from the race in time for Maine Democrats to nominate a replacement for the general election, according to state law. The party, which would have until July 27 to pick a replacement, already announced plans to hold a convention.
The Secretary of State’s office confirmed to Bloomberg Government on Thursday that it had not yet received an official withdrawal notice from Platner. A candidate needs to withdraw in writing, according to the office.
From what I’ve heard he’s trying to force the DNC to replace him with a progressive candidate and not an institutionalized boot licker?
Why are people still posting to X?
The crashes who owns it has been caught manipulating everything about the service, and he’s an overt Nazi.
I don’t see the problem. It’s just a pirate tattoo. There’s no proof he knew what it meant when he got it. He can’t be an Nazi because he says progressive things. This is just the establishment Democrats like Chuck Schumer trying to smear him because they’re afraid of the things he’s advocating for.
Whoops! I had two scripts printed out on my desk and got them confused. Let’s see here…
I don’t see the problem. It’s just a Roman salute. There’s no proof he knew what it meant when he did it. He can’t be a Nazi because he supports Israel. This is just the establishment Democrats like Chuck Schumer trying to smear him because they’re afraid of the the things he’s advocating for.
If anybody is baffled by how Republicans can watch a guy perform a sieg heil twice on live TV and be fine with it, it’s literally the exact same justifications that people are using all over this and other threads.
Whoops! I had two scripts printed out on my desk and got them confused.
Woah Woah Woah. What’d I tell you about blowing cover like that?! You’re on verry thin ice buddy!
You think this job’s bad? Hah! One more slip-up like that and I’ll swap your sorry ass with a clanker, and you’ll go to work with the team downstairs instead.
What exactly do they do, you ask?
Their job is to
spy onmonitor those suckers we tricked into buying those brand new pervert glasses! (Sounds like fun, right? Hah! LMAO)fr tho, we’re just making sure everything’s ok with the new product, and copping a feel for our customer satisfaction levels (lel) by maintaining an invisible presence
insidebeside our most valuable customers! EXCITING STUFF!!There’s a reason we do that kind of work in the basement: no windows to jump out of after you’ve spent 12 straight hours living vicariously through your very own randomly-selected psycho! Seeing exactly what he sees! Viddy-ing his little world in 4k with your eyes propped open, Ludovico style! God I love that movie
Don’t worry, we have plenty of eye drops, but look, our customers are some very sick individuals!!
(Is it bad that I find that a little exciting?)
You think you’ve plumbed the lowest depths of the human condition?! Well lemme tell ya - by the end of the day we’ll have you trawling the human condition’s Mariana Trench! You’ll be doing verry important work, gathering super valuable (hnng)
footage, err, insights. Hehe, ya. But you might wish you never had eyes to begin with! You’ll beg to forget!! (Don’t worry, we’re investing in that one next!)Straighten up!
XOXO 💋
Your Boss,
-Mark
The guy with a Nazi tattoo posted to X?! What a surprise!
Excuse me. That is an establishment Democrat conspiracy and p-hustle ACTUALLY only had a roman salute tattoo for those twenty years of ensuring the abuse of folk at Abu Ghraib, murdering folk for blackwater, and raping women left and right.
Hasn’t poor graham suffered enough?
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Seems an appropriate venue for a rapist ending his political career
*Edit: meant this as a reply to another comment, leaving it here
Oh darn, you mean this ex military mercenary with a covered up Nazi tattoo and a history of abusing women isn’t going to make it!?
Even after all these people on Lemmy poured their little hearts out for him and accused anyone of being MAGA or a Neoliberal if they pointed out he was a garbage candidate.
middle finger to Platner supporters
MAGA dont need infiltrators to sow division when loudmouth prigs like you do the work for them.
I hope they come for you first.
Found another person acting like a blue magtard!
You’re literally doing what Trump would do, you braying jackass.
I think you meant what Platner would have done. Stop acting like an insufferable militant Nazi.
Three things are true:
-
He has aspects of his past that he needs to confront directly.
-
He seemed to be sincerely evolved from majority of any demonstrated bad behaviors, most of which are unfortunately more typical from a male in the US that doesn’t grow up with privilege and ends up in the military - an organization that, by design, breaks people and then reshapes them into the same well-conforming hate machine (a hate pointed outward initially, that inevitably points more and more inward).
-
His takedown was a very carefully engineered and intentional effort by the establishment right or left or both in concert.
-
Mitch McConnell died last Thursday after a long and ultimately successful effort to disassemble American democracy.
Oh… Four things actually.
You forgot 5. He’s a rapist.
And 6. Rape apologia is not a practice exclusive to conservatives
This doesn’t matter that much, but
doesn’t grow up with privilege
is wrong. His parents are a lawyer(serving as assitant disttrict attorney) and a upscale resturant owner, his grandfather was an architect connected to the financial world through making Windows of the World and working with Ford Foundation. He did not directly go into politics or anything, but he comes from a family with money and some connections.
He seemed to be sincerely evolved from majority of any demonstrated bad behaviors,
… What? He was lying about his totenkopf a few months ago and ignoring credible rape claims as recently as a few weeks ago.
His takedown was a very vault engineered and intentional effort
… no shit? That is what politics is. Once you get out of the primary, there is no reason to keep The Enemy as a viable option. Of course closets are going to be searched for skeletons to fuel campaign ads.
This is why, if you are a rapist and a nazi, you run as a republican.
ken klippenstein is a misogynistic piece of shit rape apologist, though
I liked your reference to the net.
- You have words. Use them. Don’t just link to a random blog post
- He was accused of both physical and sexual assault at least a month prior. People just chose to ignore the accuser because she was the wrong party and, thus, deserved to be raped?
You’re not reading them so why bother?
No. I did read what you said. You made a claim that
(Platner) seemed to be sincerely evolved from majority of any demonstrated bad behaviors
I pointed out this is demonstrably false as recent as a month ago. If you choose to believe his latest non-apology then… I have a bridge to sell you.
platner is a rapist. platner had a nazi tattoo for 20 some odd years and a different white supremacy adjacent tattoo for however many months. platner was a guard at Abu Ghraib during the torture and sexual violence and that apparently made him want to sign up with blackwater as a merc.
He is a fucking monster. We have known this for… pretty much the entirety of his political career (all year or so of it…). But people continue to insist on giving him the benefit of the doubt because he is a handsome white guy who said “medicare for all” once.
And I am not fucking having that. If folk are gonna defend a rapist, I am gonna point out that they are defending a fucking rapist.
And as for all of this “It is a smear campaign”: Of fucking course it is. That is what happens in political campaigns. That is why you try not to have skeletons like “raped multiple women” in your closet.
And I don’t care if it is netanyahu and trump themselves coming up for air and saying it. It doesn’t change anything. platner is a rapist.
All that is true.
And with any luck he may have been willing to show the same behavior to the enemy. The left could have had their very own psychopathic killer who likely would have been very amenable to brutally crushing republican opposition In a bloody pogrom.
Alas, we’ll just lose sanctimoniously.
… please say you are not suggesting he was going to violently rape republicans for you?
I hope you find the ability to show down, breathe, listen and actually talk with others eventually - case in point, I think you were so caught up that you didn’t even realize you were responding to two separate people here… Look into a condition called RSD, you might find some relief there if you always tend to feel like the rooms you are in are attacking you.
Try to read that linked post. Best of luck.
So you have no defense for trying to push “he has changed so much” as an excuse other than tone policing, ad hominem, and continuing to link to a blog post that I am increasingly certain you haven’t actually read.
Oh reddit.
Read the post. It speaks to exactly the position you’re performatively holding as you ignore all nuance in the actual situation and lash outward in an attempt to shut down all conversation beyond blind and complete submission to your held POV.
I’m just gonna link a comment I made months back:
“The guy is clearly an idiot, maybe he means well but again that is irrelevant. This has Republican hit job written all over it from the get-go, I wouldn’t be surprised if Collins team found out about the tattoo (before he even decided to run) and directed “political technicians” to infiltrate his social circle and subtly nudge this guy to run, consequently becoming an unwitting accomplice to sabotage a genuine left-wing movement.”
And, again: What the fuck else were they going to do?
“Hmm. This candidate on the Other side has a fucking totenkopf on his chest. Welp, guess I’ll sit on my hands and not say anything”
Of course The Opposition is going to run with that.
If someone refills their water bottle at a fountain it is not some deeply elaborate misinformation campaign and conspiracy. It is literally somebody seeing a faucet and using it to get water.
I can excuse the tatto. I never seen it before, and it’s just a skull, not like it has a swastika. I could even also kind of excuse the claims of abuse because of his ptsd (I haven’t looked into those allegations tho). The latest allegations are pretty cut and dry tho, he should be in jail. Why did this creep even run, he knows what he did. It’s so frustrating that another candidate could have won this seat.
The totenkopf was literally the imagery used in the Mitchell and Webb “are we the baddies” skit. It is a VERY well known symbol of nazi germany and the SS in particular. And considering platner claimed to be a military history buff?
Which, to be clear, means he watched The History Channel. Which was regularly referred to as “The Hitler Channel” for how much it showed nazi related content.
It’s a common strategy for political and media operatives to support weak primary candidates in the opposing party.
God damn you’re coping way too hard. Your party sucks ass, deal with that instead of making shit up.
Oh look ad homs from a tankie.
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-
His replacement will have no chance. This whole campaign and all the controversy around it have been so poorly managed. The dems have shot themselves in the foot again. So now we get six more years of rapist-enabler Susan Collins. This is not an improvement.
That’s the thing that gets me. The choice was someone accused of being “consensually careless” (suspeciously crafted phrasing), and a known rapist enabler who supports a man who is known to have been besties with Epstein of all people.
People fall for this shit because, like always, targeting the emotions of people during an election is a surefire and guaranteed way to manipulate it. Never fails.
And even if it were true (maybe it is but it’s sus), the choice to me is clear (even if way way way less than ideal)
I think you’re underestimating how unpopular Republicans are right now. Not to say any generic Democrat is guaranteed to win, but it’s not like everything is set in stone already considering so
I don’t know. Recent polls showed the Platner/Collins race as a statistical dead-heat (tied within the margin of error). Collins has massive amounts of money to spend, and significant support from outside of Maine. Platner was generating a lot of enthusiasm; there were many houses with Platner signs in their lawns that had never publicly displayed such support for a candidate before. I think a lot of those people are going to be pretty disillusioned by this entire experience, and it won’t take many former Platner supporters staying home to tip the scales for Collins.
We’ll see what happens…
(edit: some coverage of the poll I mentioned, obviously from before the latest Platner issues were published. centralmaine.com)
Democrats: a Republican is fine so long as we don’t give a seat to a filthy progressive.
A… progressive nazi who worked for blackwater and rapes women?
The majority is on the line. If there was ever a time for the establishment to step aside for a young, energetic progressive who can rally support quickly, this is the time. No fundraising roadblocks. Go full tilt.
Lol that will never happen, they are OK with losing as long as a progressive doesn’t end up in office. Just look at the 2024 election they chose the weakest candidate they could with Kamala who had gotten like 3% of the vote in the 2020 democratic primary before dropping out.
They will choose a Zionist who takes money from AIPAC, loves data centers, is 70 years old, and wealthy. Then they will blame voters when they lose in Maine.
Basically your saying the higher ups will block any young hopefull that has ideas, and make sure another old white dude with money is the choice, right?
Nah, it’ll be an old rich white woman this time: Janet Mills, probably…
This feels, like, more-so-than ever before, like pressure from Israel/ AIPAC. I just, it would be literally insane for Platner to deny this if its in any way true. At least like this. As categorically as its being done. And now, as I’m listening to coverage in real time, its all “I told you so’s” from Democratic party talking heads.
This feels insanely corrupt.
Yeah. I agree. If he does face trial for this, his press conference where he vehemently denies the rape will be played on repeat during the sentencing as evidence of a lack of remorse. Hell, lawyers would tell you not to publicly deny it, just in case some details of your public denial later serve as evidence to damn you.
However, I give this a 0.01% chance of actually going to trial. Inevitably the accusers will have a relapse of their PTSD and be unable to press charges.
I don’t know about Maine, but obstruction is itself a crime. If they know, and present this kind of high level denial…
Well simply denying a crime isn’t obstruction of justice.
Is it if you have specific knowledge of a crime occurring?
Obstruction of justice requires a physical, usually forceful, act. Like physically blocking cops from serving a warrant.
Simply being like “I didn’t do it” or whatever his statements were… is not obstruction.
None of that matters here. He’s unelectable. He can’t win. Doesn’t matter if he did, doesn’t matter if it’s fair. Trials can’t happen that quickly any way; and there’s plenty of other shit that he can’t power through.
(I do happen to believe the allegations. Maybe not fields… that’s a bit suspect… but the others.)
I believe it generally requires concrete actions. Think destroying incriminating evidence when you know you’re under investigation. Alternately, lying to police and especially federal investigators might get obstruction of justice charges. But unless you’re lying to the FBI during an interrogation, then just defending yourself in public is not obstruction of justice. After all, it’s generally perfectly legal to lie. Lies that produce certain material ends (such as fraud) can be crimes, but simply lying about something is not a crime. If I wanted to, it would be perfectly legal for me to go around lying to my friends, telling them I earn a massive salary at a high-status career. Lying itself isn’t illegal. However, if I lie to a bank, and use my fake job claim to secure a loan, then I’ve crossed the line into fraud.
Bingo. Platner got Gary Hart’d. Spoiler alert: there will be no rape charges, and two women will get a lucrative book deal.
Yeah this woman totally started sowing the seeds of his political upheaval years before he ever got into politics lmao gtfo rape apologist
Bruv, misogyny is a bad look, man.
So is being overly credulous when a staunch critic of Israel gets relentlessly smeared this close to an election, especially when he’s a democratic socialist.
But sure, I’m sure the real issue here is misogyny… 🙄
Yeah, Israel knew so far in advance that he was going to run that they had this woman raped and talk to her friends and therapist in person and via text JUST IN CASE Platner got far enough in an election cycle to worry them years down the road.
Certainly more believable than a man with a drinking problem and violent tendencies forcing himself on a woman he had a casual relationship with /s
Folk also are too dumb to realize:
IF this was some evil campaign to make the Democrats lose… they would have just waited a week until platner couldn’t be replaced. Why run against anyone but the violent nazi mercenary who rapes people and who knows what else at this point?
Because the AIPAC-supported establishment Dems felt every bit as threatened by Platner as they would by Susan Collins, and would relish the opportunity to replace him while there’s still time…
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And I’m not surprised you’d rather believe conspiracy theories than women.
They’re a fed. Or a useful idiot. We lost this week. With the margin being what is is we may have lost overall.
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Poster is absolutely being misogynist by asserting that both of these women are lying in order to get paid and get book deals.
Democrats will stop rapists until someone on their team does it. Then all women are liars and cheaters. No sexism here at all!
There’s a difference between disagreeing with “No women ever lie” and saying “All women always lie.” You’re literally trying to deal in absolutes and attempting to smear anyone who won’t fall into one of those two extremes.
The Platner supporters are getting really desperate here, too. I’m completely disgusted by some of the reactions on the left to this.
I mean his suspension speech is basically saying, without saying it, that the call is coming from inside the house. He’s saying this is insider Democrats doing this, and then almost instantly, there is this announcement from Maine DNC on how its going to work, and lo-and-behold, they’re doing an insider only process with you guessed it, super delegates.
Look its been a hard 24-48 hour roller coaster. I’ve been supportive of Graham, vocally so. I heard this new accusation, it seems highly credible, and I looked at it, and I said, Graham is going to have to step down.
There were plenty here, including @WoodScientist@lemmy.world who pushed back that there actually was no evidence in this accusation. And now, suddenly there is this announcement from Maine DNC on how its going to work, and lo-and-behold, they’re doing an insider only process with you guessed it, super delegates.
And Platner is categorically denying all of this, which is a criminal accusation. You don’t do that if you don’t plan on going to court and winning. Now I’ve got fucking whiplash from all this.
What I never saw once during the discussion over the last 48 hours is, what exactly is someone supposed to do if they’re falsely accused of rape when running for office? Because the current standard seems to be that it’s a guaranteed way to tank any campaign. And all you have to do to tank any candidate you don’t like is find some old ex of theirs, and offer them money or threaten them into making a false accusation.
And what people really missed was that political ratfucking is ALWAYS designed to sound reasonable. Everyone already knew that Platner was/is a bit of a creep. So a rape allegation would seem in character. You craft an allegation that fits the person. If someone has complicated business dealings, you accuse them of fraud. If someone has a long military career they’re running on, you accuse them of cowardice or dereliction of duty. If someone has some misogyny in their past, you accuse them of rape. In no case will a false accusation ever make people go, “now that’s not likely, that doesn’t sound like something he would do.” If AOC runs for Senate, she won’t be targeted with rape allegations, it will be something more believable.
what exactly is someone supposed to do if they’re falsely accused of rape when running for office?
“Nothing” seemed to work pretty well for Joe Biden. When your accuser has messages regarding you being a rapist dating back to years before you ever ran for office, and your friends corroborate that you’ve never once changed your story, then the only reasonable option is to step down
Because the current standard seems to be that it’s a guaranteed way to tank any campaign.
You know how I know that’s bullshit? There are no credible rape allegations against Zohran Mamdani. If it was that easy to tank someone’s campaign, they would have done that the second he gained literally any popularity
They tried to turn on the Muslim fear tap on him. But really he is just such a better politician in every way.
The reality is that what happens is that unless someone is perfect, they don’t have a chance. There just aren’t enough people who have never made mistakes who also are willing to go through the horse race and bullshit. It’s just not possible to fill several hundred seats of congress with progressives if the bar is perfection. There are gonna be a few… Colorful characters.
Yes. I think you had the right of it, and I had the wrong of it. At least in part, in that, regardless, I knew that Platner would be stepping down.
Something I noted is that Platner said he “would” be filing the paper work. But he has not filed it yet. He does that bit of leverage, but I don’t know where this goes. Its bonkers. Like, if you did what he’s accused of and is denying it, like, he’s fucked. Beyond fucked. Like decades in prison fucked. And he knows that. And thats not the video he posted.
Where do you think it goes from here? What should Platner do?
I honestly don’t know what he should do. And frankly, I’m not willing to say he’s innocent. My thoughts through this whole thing have just been that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions without properly investigating things.
First and foremost: At the best of times, accusations of sexual assault and rape are “he said she said”. The defense is almost always “Well, she is a slut who told me she wanted it rough”. Because on the off chance the victim actually managed to get a rape kit done in time AND the chain of evidence was maintained… all that really says is that sexual activity occurred and that there may or may not be signs of physical trauma.
And when you factor in rapists being predators who tend to target victims where it is even easier to discredit them (high risk behaviors like drug use or… wearing a skirt)? And cops tending to be bastards who actively don’t want to investigate things?
This is why victims don’t come forward. The best they can hope for is a slap on the wrist for the rapist and their entire life to have been thrown under a microscope and attacked. So mostly they just try to recover and live a life in a society that has actively failed them.
But as for
My thoughts through this whole thing have just been that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions without properly investigating things.
That is exactly what everyone did when Lyndsey Fifield came forth. Basically everyone dismissed it because she is a republican. She was a slut. She deserved it. She is a lying bitch who just wants his sperm. Fucking whore was asking for it.
And that is why Jenny Racicot was brave enough to came forth and talked about platner violently raping her.
So… maybe educate yourself a bit more before you have any more “thoughts” that would make people think you are someone who is calling rape victims liars?
And yes, men are raped too but their reasons for not coming forward tend to be different. Although the societal abuse and shame aspects remain.
Well I think your sentiment is right. But I’m like… my head is spinning after the past three days.
well as we know this “movement” is just a protest. as long as you pass the purity test any old or young scumbag can qualify and get full support from the cult
we like those nasty ones as long as they’re beating up israelis right
I can’t WAIT to see who Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries LET us Choose!
It’s the Maine state Democratic Party which holds the power here, not them
Lol
I’m not advocating that the dude stays, but come on dawg, don’t be naive.
If Schumer made all the decisions somehow, we would have had Mills and not Platner. He may well apply pressure. But the decision is literally not his to make
Don’t let facts get in the way of their narrative.
If things don’t go precisely according to their wishes it must be the
deep statesorry, DNC.It wasn’t his to make because they had a primary, but if we’ve learned anything over the last decade, if the DNC can avoid an election from the plebeians, they will, and they’ll just shove what they want down our throats and say, "its this or trump, take it or leave it "
I should note, schumer is just the stand in name I’m using here, I’m really referring to the DNC itself.
The DNC has no real power to tell state parties what to do in a situation like this. In point of fact, their members are largely chosen by the state parties.
I hope you’re right, but forgive me if I don’t hold my breath.
I suspect, with gerrymandering the House creating a nearly insurmountable GOP advantage (would not be surprised to see nationally +5-10% democratic votes but end up with a GOP House majority), this may be the moment non-fascists lost any chance to avoid a trifecta MAGA government for the next two years - and maybe beyond.
To be clear, I am not blaming this on anyone but Platner, to the extent we can (as we must) guess at the truth without a criminal investigation and trial. But I admit, I would have really liked for these stories to be not true. I could buy him lacking awareness of the tattoo, and further his uncovered private Reddit posts corroborated that he legitimately was going to fight for left causes and was not a Fetterman. And the timing means the story being released now is suspicious as hell.
But corroboration as detailed as this, with reliable journalism checking contemporaneous sources, makes the story credible. After all, the likely fact that it’s a political hit piece doesn’t make it not true, and in fact the ideal hit piece is one that is true. And if this story is true, then yes, that disqualifies him and also means he likely would lose the general even if he didn’t withdraw. This isn’t a Franken if the story is true - Franken was sacrificed by Gillibrand and others for a stupid but ultimately harmless photo, not any actual physical contact or conduct at all.
I agree with everyone here dooming about Maine’s chances now, though. Democratic insiders will always choose a safe loss over a risky victory.
Obviously we need to keep pushing as hard as we can to salvage November, but also keep one eye on what we need to do to resist the next stage of politically unopposed fascism from 2027-2028 (as if figuring out how to resist the fascism already here wasn’t enough).
Damn! He used old twitter to make this announcement. Elon knew before anybody else, once again. /s
Good, early enough for them to get someone else on the ballot to oppose that cunt Collins.
Sure, another spineless establishment Dem. If the necessary voters even show up after Platner shit the bed for everyone.
There are at least three Democrats who poll well enough to stand a chance. I do not claim any insight into who will be chosen
The selection will be made by 600 delegates to a convention, 500 selected by the county committees and 100 for the state committee members. It’s entirely insider chosen.
They need to listen to Pelosi from 2024. Hold a primary. A rapid primary, but a primary regardless.
The RCV aspect of their primary would also be very valuable, since it sounds like there will be a lot of options and little time to coalesce.
Don’t give a shit. Even if Platner had stayed on the ballot, (and I lived in Maine) I would have voted for him. He has the one quality I’m most looking for. Not republican.
Congratulations. You are voting with the same mentality that got Trump elected twice.
No, if I had stayed home or pissed my vote away on a useless third party THEN I’d be one of the ones who got him elected. I voted.
You misunderstand. I meant you vote with all the thought and consideration as MAGA loyalist.
Right now, voting against MAGA is priority #1… once they’re fucking exterminated, we can concentrate our efforts on building a better party.
So rule still applies. Vote furthest left in EVERY election, but vote in EVERY election.
While I don’t disagree with the need, what you’re saying sounds an awful lot like “We need to drain the swamp and so what if he grabbed them by the pussy or some shit? You gotta do what you gotta do.”
And I’m just still not down with that.
Collins just won.
If only there had been signs that could’ve warned us about him
All of the “he’s being rat fucked by establishment Dems” folks here… you’re just demonstrating how it is that you end up with a terrible political class. You’re willing to attack your allies to defend a nazi-tattoo-having rapist, because you have a single issue on your mind.
None of you look smart or principled.
All I know is that Republican-aligned groups spent a ridiculous amount of money to get him out of the race.
If he was a bad candidate, they would have had to do that.
He was and is a bad candidate because he’s a nazi-tattoo-having rapist. Defend that at the loss of your credibility and moral standing.
The GOP spent a ton of money to protect a weak Collins, in a year they expect massive losses. They’re spending heavily everywhere. Is this your first election? Are you 18?
Do you know how manipulated you were into liking Platner in the first place? Do you know how these working-man-speaking-truth-to-power candidates are made? They are creatures of the political consulting class, who seek out someone mediagenic who fits their profile, back him with money and tell him what to say.
You are not fighting the establishment backing Platner. You’re just engaging with the arm of the establishment that is marketed as “anti-establishment”.
It’s impossible for me to back Platner - he’s out of the race. If I had a choice, I’d pick him over Collins, but I’d prefer a candidate with a more marginalized identity and substantially more experience in successful “leftist” political work.
The Democrats spent roughly a third as much promoting Platner as the GOP spent trying to take him down (I don’t have exact numbers), so I agree that propaganda is everywhere. Perhaps the GOP is more desperate, while (as you say) the Democrats have other avenues to power, so they’re allowing this one to slip by.
Regarding the rape allegations, I sincerely hope the victims receive justice and healing, even though I don’t expect much from the system - that’s a whole different conversation.
My only point here is that the massive amount of propaganda aimed at demonizing political candidates gives us a very distorted view of who they really are, mostly on the side of “wow they’re so eeeevil”, so we all need to be wary of that. (Unless they’re a billionaire of course; at a certain level of power evil seems to be compulsory)
They’re not allowing this one to slip by: they really want the seat. But what they are doing is what the GOP never does, and that is hold their own people accountable for being criminals, even if it means losing political power. Platner, Menendez, Swalwell, (I could go on) Dems will hold even powerful members accountable for this stuff (ever since Clinton; there was a real soul searching within the party about him).
They’re going to fight hard for this seat. They just not going to do it with Platner.
FUCK THE NAZI TATTOO. The CIA experimented on people like the NAZIs and it was all over the news but no one gives a fuck. Platner had a platform FOR THE PEOPLE and had some bullshit tattoo. Everything about Platner’s past and the media frenzy was he/said-she/said. Everyone believing the media immediately is a fucking moron.
Oh, well now you look smart and principled…
Sorry… are you claiming that the CIA are the ones who put a totenkopf on his chest for 20 years? And then covered it up with celtic imagery that is ALSO associated with white supremacy?
Because… I’mma be honest? I would totally invoke St Dril by giving them props for pulling that off.
Everything about Platner’s past and the media frenzy was he/said-she/said.
Actually, up until a few months ago (well, apparently much longer if you were in the women’s groups on facebook et al that warned about dangerous men), it was mostly “he said”. With the “he” being platner himself.
Or was that also the CIA?
Wait. Dog. IS PLATNER A ROBOT?!?!?!?!?! Is he like the mech suit from Men in Black 1 and if we flick his ear just right then we’ll see he is piloted by a tiny Christian Slater?
Wooo. Get the fuck out you nazi rapist fuck
Oh wow, he backed out of the race? For a second there I thought he was just being presidential.
