Intelligence Briefing #2: What We Can Learn from The Platner Revelations

Content Warnings: Sexual Assault & Rape. I did not expect to have to write a blog with content warnings this week, but the words I have had to say many times this week are "but here we are."

From the beginning of Graham Platner’s rise to prominence in Maine he seemed almost too good to be true, and when that is how things seem that is usually how they are. But here was a man who framed himself as a working class hero, a straight talker, and the peak of masculinity but with real progressive values. He was a political outsider in the vein of Donald Trump but talked about all the right issues, and people flocked to him. He was our answer! Our Savior! He would rid the Senate of Susan Collins and suddenly all would be right in the world. 

This was obviously not true even before the truth started to leak out, painfully, over several months. First there was the nazi tattoo. Some folks shied away, but most stuck around, many even dug in their heels. Then there were the terrible online posts. Racist, filled with misogyny and rape apology, and overly combative at best. “But it was a long time ago,” people would say to defend him. That all should have been enough, but it wasn’t. Much like with Donald Trump, the more baggage Platner seemed to be carrying, the more skeletons in his closet, the more his biggest supporters seemed to love him. 

Then came the allegations of poor behavior from women. This too should have been enough. Again, it wasn’t. The woman who seemed to have faced the worst of his behavior was disregarded because she is a Republican, as if conservative women are not all too often victims of men’s violence and disregard. When people didn’t accuse her outright of lying you could hear the implied “she deserved it,” in some of the comments. The Left, and the Democratic movement in general are going to need to reckon with this attitude if we are ever going to live up to our own standards. 

Finally, earlier this week, the dam truly broke. The allegation that we should admit to ourselves we already knew was there came out. Aggression, disregard for his partner, and ultimately rape. The evidence is insurmountable. The allegation had been shared with friends, partners, and a therapist long before Platner was a political candidate. There is no way it was planted and frankly very little reason not to believe the story. 

As a viable candidate, Platner is finished. He should have been finished the first time anyone uttered “nazi tattoo” but here we are. Thankfully, despite rumblings to the contrary up until earlier today, Graham Platner has seen the light and dropped out of the race. Unfortunately, even now, he refuses to acknowledge any wrongdoing. He should do better, but there was no reason to expect that based on his track record. However, we have to turn to what this means for the election year, and our chances to take back the Senate. 

First of all, Maine is off the table. We have to acknowledge that. We are likely stuck with the albatross that is Susan Collins for another six years. If we are going to make gains in the Senate they are going to have to come in Ohio, North Carolina, Texas, and most shockingly, Alaska. All of these seats are winnable and we need all of them. If Maine is lost, that is what it takes to win back the Senate. Prediction markets believe that Alaska and North Carolina are going to be Democratic Pickups, that Ohio is a toss-up, and that Texas is still ultimately going red. It cannot be denied though that all four races are in play and a Democratic sweep would mean a massive swing in momentum for the remainder of Trump’s presidency.  

However, winning back The House is now the most important thing Democrats can focus on. It is now a more likely bulwark against Trump’s increasingly deranged agenda than the Senate. Unfortunately that does nothing for us if he gets to pick more SCOTUS nominees in the next two years, but it is still a victory worth striving for and would mean putting a stop to a great deal of Trump’s madness. 

The lessons? Those are simple. We have to do a better job at vetting candidates and we have to become much quicker to acknowledge that someone is too problematic to be a standard bearer for this movement. While we ultimately do need the sort of candidate that Platner seemed to be, we need them to be authentic and honest; he only showed up with half of that recipe. Do they need to be perfect? No, nobody is. But they need to come without the baggage of a Graham Platner, or the dishonesty of a John Fetterman. Most of all though, they need to be honest about their past and whether they can withstand the scrutiny to be elected. 

As an aside, the biggest thing we have to do as a movement is stop excusing the harm people have done when they share our politics. If we won’t accept it from our opponents we certainly should not accept it from our allies. This does not mean succumb to witch hunts. This does not mean believing every story without any kind of critical eye or skepticism. But it does mean acknowledging that where there is smoke there is often fire. It does mean that when a story rings true, and when our guts tell us something is off with someone that we should take that feeling seriously. Most of all though it means holding ourselves to a higher standard, not a lower one. 

The last lesson is this. We have to make elections about the voters again. Candidates that want to be rock stars, cults of personality, almost always fall off the pedestals we put them on. Candidates who focus on the voters and go to Washington to do the work they were hired to do fail us far less often. 

We have the ability to move candidates to our positions effectively. Obama and Biden were moved on key issues when their supporters demanded it. When we are loud and honest about the changes the country needs, the best elected officials, the true leaders, move with us. Candidates do not need to be perfect but they do need to listen to our voices. The louder we get both on Election Day and beyond, the more likely it is that they will. 

More voters, more volunteers, more expression of our beliefs; all of this will get us far closer to building the world we want than latching our hopes on to the next “authentic” sounding outsider that comes along promising us salvation and telling us that they are who we have been waiting for.