Thank you, Stephen, for pointing out that age alone is not necessarily the reason to put politicians out to pasture. There’s something to be said for the elder Congressional representative who’s shown a track record of valuable experience and still has a working brain and a desire to actually serve the public (like Bernie Sanders). And God bless Nancy Pelosi for being the House Speaker on Jan. 6. If it had instead been some Nazi-tattooed upstart whippersnapper, who knows where we’d all be now. Excellent piece, as always.
Oh well, Platner isn't an Old and he's not "establishment." He's good at saying the Pretty Words What Democrats Like and he's got the left populism. All folks have to do is just say the Democratic Establishment Olds are forcing him out of the race and he should be fine.
Warren aside, I'm really fucking tired of all these old pasty white Dem assholes who, in the eyes of the MSM and average voters, make a decrepit, Jello-brained degenerate like Donald Trump look decisive and energetic.
So while I'm not defending his Nazi tattoo, marine guy is still a better option.
There are at least six other credible candidates who are campaigning to be the Democratic nominee to run against Susan Collins. The first statement in one's platform is a call for greater taxes on billionaires; these candidates are not all ego-driven pie in the sky. It's frustrating that commentary on this race is focused on Mills and Platner. I find it particularly frustrating that Platner's baggage includes blaming women for getting sexually assaulted, his image as "working class" when he comes from a wealthy family that funded his oyster business (his main client being his mother's restaurant), and this constant belief that someone with no experience in policy is qualified for high office.
Platner doesn't just lack policy experience, he seems to lack any meaningful experience. I tried to find a record of the rank he achieved in his, reportedly, eight years in the Marines. Nothing. He also served in the National Guard, and was a Blackwater mercenary. Most former Marines won't shut up about their rank and leadership experience, blah, blah, blah. Not this guy. Not a peep. I have to wonder, why is that?
Platner is lying about the Totenkopf tattoo. Like it or not, the USMC, and Blackwater are loaded with white X-tian Nationalists, fascists, and other creeps who proudly sport Totenkopf and other Nazi tattoos. FFS, the current Sec of Defense is covered in white, X-tian Nationalist tattoos. Platner's golly-gee-whiz claims of not knowing what that tattoo meant are pure, uncut gaslighting.
He holds a high school diploma. That's it. He attended a few classes at George Washington University, and worked part-time as a bartender. After dropping out of college, he worked part-time at the oyster farm, did a National Guard tour, then returned to Maine. As Cheryl from Maryland notes, his family funded his purchase of the oyster farm, and his mom's restaurant is his best customer. He has been married for just under a year.
None of Platner's experience demonstrates electoral, policy, social, academic, or any leadership qualification. I would argue, much of his resume is completely disqualifying. Recently it was reported many of his campaign staff quit after being required to sign NDAs.
Gov Mills has political experience, but she is well past her 'best if used by' date. I'm an old, white woman so I feel completely comfortable with that assessment. Electing a US Senator during these horrifying times of rising fascism, and overt authoritarianism means every Democratic candidate needs to be held to high standards and be scrupulously vetted. My hope is the voters in Maine do not send this feckless, Nazi gaslighter to the US Senate.
The point of primaries should be to actually vet your possible candidates, not to pick one with branding you like and stick to them do or die.
It’s not the 🚩tattoo or the 🚩Reddit posts or the 🚩Blackwater-adjacent work history individually. It’s not even the fact that, unlike my less rural fellow progressives, I know how *wealthy* farmers like Platner actually are & thus don’t buy him as a working class hero.
It’s that the combination of all those things is giving people PLENTY of information to form a picture of how ❓it might be for either progressives or establishment Dems to rely on this guy. And that info is being provided well in advance of the primary where they could make a mistake we could all regret for years.
To me the problem with Platner is that as a candidate he’s an idiot. He could have started his campaign by acknowledging the dumb things he said, write and got tattooed in the past, explaining that as a younger man that was the warped vision of manhood that many young men in our culture adhere to, and that as someone who learned from those mistakes he can address them in appealing to alienated young men. In other words, get ahead of the issue, spin it as a plus for you (does anyone think tired old Mills can reach out to young alienated men?) and atone. Instead he kept it on the DL as if it wouldn’t come out, and now he’s reacting and that’s political malpractice. Against Collins, Democrats can’t afford malpractice.
Mills has her good points—solid liberal, record and name recognition, but it is absurd that she’s been eligible for Social Security for over a decade and is running for the Senate for the first time. Being the geriatric party is not a good look. Ageism? Call it what you will, but I’m burned by Feinstein, Biden, Ginsburg et al putting their own belief in their indispensability over the chance to move up younger Democrats into positions to keep the party functional and adaptable.
Maybe Mills is our best chance at the seat, but this is still a grudging slog rather than anything to give us hope.
Full disclosure—my preference was Dan Kleban as I’d worked with him a while back and he’s a good guy, though he dropped out and endorsed Mills. Still hoping my other pal Shenna Bellows does well in the Governor race against the nepo baby front runner.
I’m so tired of these “my best qualification is who I’m related to” candidates. You’d think voters would be repelled by these characters but apparently not.
Bellows I’ve known since she was me neighbor in DC in the ‘90s then took over the Maine ACLU. Worked like hell for liberal causes, came from a poor background, and did the right thing about Trump on the ballot last summer. Also just a very nice person. Unfortunately she’s polling behind “do you know who my dad is” which sucks,
Honestly? The most concerning part of the Platner saga is his staff and campaign managers bailing on him. If this was the only thing I knew about him and his campaign, it would possibly be enough of a red flag for me to not want to vote for him? They know Things that we don't know.
The "Nazi tattoo" complaints are getting old. While the reddit posts deserve scrutiny, I am 100% willing to believe that a young Marine got a skull tattoo with friends without knowing what it represented from years before he was even born. If the establishment wants to take down Platner (and they clearly do) this is a very disingenuous tactic. I actually live in Maine, btw; if you can find a candidate who isn't fossilized or bought, be my guest. So far, no Cinderella has presented themselves and that's because Collins is a hella politician to take on.
The establishment wants to take Platner down?!? Platner is digging the hole he's in all by himself. You may be comfortable with his lame excuses about his Totenkopf tattoo. But, as I posted above, are you also comfortable with his complete absence of political, leadership, academic, or any other experience? His work experiences are part-time bartender, and running an oyster farm purchased for him by his wealthy family. He has a high school diploma. Electing this inexperience, unqualified white guy to a position of extraordinary power would be crazy. Let him run for some state office and get some actual political experience. But inflicting this Nazi gaslighter on the whole country as a US Senator would be a disaster.
To me it’s less that it happened—we all did dumb shit!—and more that he didn’t get out in front of it. Dumb tattoos I forgive, political malpractice though…
Well, if you were unaware what that particular tattoo represented to some people, why would you feel the need to get ahead of it? The man has them all over him. Should he have interrogated all of them before he became a candidate? The reddit stuff is admittedly different (although as someone who might have spouted similar tripe back in the day, I can see where that happens as well). I guess I would say, we either want authentic candidates or we want polished candidates, but we really can't have both, at least not early in careers. The two characteristics are oil and water.
I’m going with the assumption that at some point prior to 2025 he learned that it was a Nazi Deaths Head tattoo—I base that on him calling it his “tottenkopf” (literally “death head”). But if somehow he had no idea until just now, then his best bet is showing contrition and addressing it as part of his personal growth. People will forgive almost anything you grow past. But bungling it just makes them nauseous about next fall.
Authenticity is great—if you can fake it, you got it made, to paraphrase Churchill!—but you also want someone who drives the campaign, and isnt just one stumbling reaction at a time.
Well, he covered it up and apologized for it. I don't know what else people want him to do, really. I say this not as a Graham Platner stan-I don't know who I'll vote for in the primary. But if Trump's election proved anything, it's that people (myself included) are tired of being told what is and isn't disqualifying behavior from self-styled VIPs on high, and the more they push against someone they don't like the more dug in supporters are going to get. I honestly don't think he's going to win the primary at the end of the day here, but I do think he's going to overperform.
He’s doing the best he can with the situation but being caught flat footed isnt great—the most important thing here is who can beat Collins, and unless he gets back to driving the narrative this is going to lose him crucial support. I also hate the “this is disqualifying” crap that really shouldn’t matter but that’s all the more reason to drive the cycle, not get caught reacting to it. Who knows, maybe voters have tired of the media gotcha crap and he’ll turn this around. But it is an early test of what the general election will be like.
I have watched enough Sara Gideon types crash and burn when they came up against the Collins machine here, which really, IMO, is the main driving force behind the Platner hype. I've seen the Jordan Wood tape before, and the prospect of two 70+ year old candidates, neither of whom has any new ideas or fresh styles, duking it out is even less appealing. The bottom line is, Collins may be damaged but she's no means dead, and IMO we need a different type of candidate to take her on. The one guy who has generated some energy around this may have been wounded as well, but I suspect he's not going anywhere.
Unfortunately, for better or worse, it IS a liability. But anything can happen between now and voting day. What I find much more concerning than the tattoo is his staff and campaign manager bailing on him.
I know it is, it's all I have heard about on the local news lately. But it's mostly just piling on at this point. I'm *so tired* of every political media pundits taking the bait on it too. He's not a Nazi, and I believe he didn't intend it as a Nazi symbol. You want to go after him, do it honestly. This feels very dishonest and opportunistic. The bigger issue to me is, is he another John Fetterman?
Thank you, Stephen, for pointing out that age alone is not necessarily the reason to put politicians out to pasture. There’s something to be said for the elder Congressional representative who’s shown a track record of valuable experience and still has a working brain and a desire to actually serve the public (like Bernie Sanders). And God bless Nancy Pelosi for being the House Speaker on Jan. 6. If it had instead been some Nazi-tattooed upstart whippersnapper, who knows where we’d all be now. Excellent piece, as always.
Call me weird, but I don't think the way to be antifa is to elect guys with Nazi tattoos and no proven record of genuine repentance.
Oh well, Platner isn't an Old and he's not "establishment." He's good at saying the Pretty Words What Democrats Like and he's got the left populism. All folks have to do is just say the Democratic Establishment Olds are forcing him out of the race and he should be fine.
Well, it's not wrong
Warren aside, I'm really fucking tired of all these old pasty white Dem assholes who, in the eyes of the MSM and average voters, make a decrepit, Jello-brained degenerate like Donald Trump look decisive and energetic.
So while I'm not defending his Nazi tattoo, marine guy is still a better option.
Absolutely.
Interesting to see Dems are still doing a piss-poor job of vetting their candidates, a la John Fetterman, Kyrsten Sinema, et al.
There are at least six other credible candidates who are campaigning to be the Democratic nominee to run against Susan Collins. The first statement in one's platform is a call for greater taxes on billionaires; these candidates are not all ego-driven pie in the sky. It's frustrating that commentary on this race is focused on Mills and Platner. I find it particularly frustrating that Platner's baggage includes blaming women for getting sexually assaulted, his image as "working class" when he comes from a wealthy family that funded his oyster business (his main client being his mother's restaurant), and this constant belief that someone with no experience in policy is qualified for high office.
Platner doesn't just lack policy experience, he seems to lack any meaningful experience. I tried to find a record of the rank he achieved in his, reportedly, eight years in the Marines. Nothing. He also served in the National Guard, and was a Blackwater mercenary. Most former Marines won't shut up about their rank and leadership experience, blah, blah, blah. Not this guy. Not a peep. I have to wonder, why is that?
Platner is lying about the Totenkopf tattoo. Like it or not, the USMC, and Blackwater are loaded with white X-tian Nationalists, fascists, and other creeps who proudly sport Totenkopf and other Nazi tattoos. FFS, the current Sec of Defense is covered in white, X-tian Nationalist tattoos. Platner's golly-gee-whiz claims of not knowing what that tattoo meant are pure, uncut gaslighting.
He holds a high school diploma. That's it. He attended a few classes at George Washington University, and worked part-time as a bartender. After dropping out of college, he worked part-time at the oyster farm, did a National Guard tour, then returned to Maine. As Cheryl from Maryland notes, his family funded his purchase of the oyster farm, and his mom's restaurant is his best customer. He has been married for just under a year.
None of Platner's experience demonstrates electoral, policy, social, academic, or any leadership qualification. I would argue, much of his resume is completely disqualifying. Recently it was reported many of his campaign staff quit after being required to sign NDAs.
Gov Mills has political experience, but she is well past her 'best if used by' date. I'm an old, white woman so I feel completely comfortable with that assessment. Electing a US Senator during these horrifying times of rising fascism, and overt authoritarianism means every Democratic candidate needs to be held to high standards and be scrupulously vetted. My hope is the voters in Maine do not send this feckless, Nazi gaslighter to the US Senate.
The point of primaries should be to actually vet your possible candidates, not to pick one with branding you like and stick to them do or die.
It’s not the 🚩tattoo or the 🚩Reddit posts or the 🚩Blackwater-adjacent work history individually. It’s not even the fact that, unlike my less rural fellow progressives, I know how *wealthy* farmers like Platner actually are & thus don’t buy him as a working class hero.
It’s that the combination of all those things is giving people PLENTY of information to form a picture of how ❓it might be for either progressives or establishment Dems to rely on this guy. And that info is being provided well in advance of the primary where they could make a mistake we could all regret for years.
To me the problem with Platner is that as a candidate he’s an idiot. He could have started his campaign by acknowledging the dumb things he said, write and got tattooed in the past, explaining that as a younger man that was the warped vision of manhood that many young men in our culture adhere to, and that as someone who learned from those mistakes he can address them in appealing to alienated young men. In other words, get ahead of the issue, spin it as a plus for you (does anyone think tired old Mills can reach out to young alienated men?) and atone. Instead he kept it on the DL as if it wouldn’t come out, and now he’s reacting and that’s political malpractice. Against Collins, Democrats can’t afford malpractice.
Mills has her good points—solid liberal, record and name recognition, but it is absurd that she’s been eligible for Social Security for over a decade and is running for the Senate for the first time. Being the geriatric party is not a good look. Ageism? Call it what you will, but I’m burned by Feinstein, Biden, Ginsburg et al putting their own belief in their indispensability over the chance to move up younger Democrats into positions to keep the party functional and adaptable.
Maybe Mills is our best chance at the seat, but this is still a grudging slog rather than anything to give us hope.
Full disclosure—my preference was Dan Kleban as I’d worked with him a while back and he’s a good guy, though he dropped out and endorsed Mills. Still hoping my other pal Shenna Bellows does well in the Governor race against the nepo baby front runner.
I'm a Bellows supporter as well, but she's got an uphill battle against *both* nepo babies (Pingree and King) in this campaign
I’m so tired of these “my best qualification is who I’m related to” candidates. You’d think voters would be repelled by these characters but apparently not.
Bellows I’ve known since she was me neighbor in DC in the ‘90s then took over the Maine ACLU. Worked like hell for liberal causes, came from a poor background, and did the right thing about Trump on the ballot last summer. Also just a very nice person. Unfortunately she’s polling behind “do you know who my dad is” which sucks,
I'm one of the five people or so in the state who voted for her sacrificial campaign when she ran against Collins a couple cycles ago, LOL
Honestly? The most concerning part of the Platner saga is his staff and campaign managers bailing on him. If this was the only thing I knew about him and his campaign, it would possibly be enough of a red flag for me to not want to vote for him? They know Things that we don't know.
Agree 100%
"I saw Spice World (twice) in the theater, but I avoided anything so permanent as putting Emma Bunton’s name on my chest."
That makes one of us then I suppose
The "Nazi tattoo" complaints are getting old. While the reddit posts deserve scrutiny, I am 100% willing to believe that a young Marine got a skull tattoo with friends without knowing what it represented from years before he was even born. If the establishment wants to take down Platner (and they clearly do) this is a very disingenuous tactic. I actually live in Maine, btw; if you can find a candidate who isn't fossilized or bought, be my guest. So far, no Cinderella has presented themselves and that's because Collins is a hella politician to take on.
The establishment wants to take Platner down?!? Platner is digging the hole he's in all by himself. You may be comfortable with his lame excuses about his Totenkopf tattoo. But, as I posted above, are you also comfortable with his complete absence of political, leadership, academic, or any other experience? His work experiences are part-time bartender, and running an oyster farm purchased for him by his wealthy family. He has a high school diploma. Electing this inexperience, unqualified white guy to a position of extraordinary power would be crazy. Let him run for some state office and get some actual political experience. But inflicting this Nazi gaslighter on the whole country as a US Senator would be a disaster.
Here's one for you to look at --https://electjordan.com/news/
Yeah, I *live here*. I know who he is. He's a stooge Collins would eat for lunch. No thank you.
To me it’s less that it happened—we all did dumb shit!—and more that he didn’t get out in front of it. Dumb tattoos I forgive, political malpractice though…
Well, if you were unaware what that particular tattoo represented to some people, why would you feel the need to get ahead of it? The man has them all over him. Should he have interrogated all of them before he became a candidate? The reddit stuff is admittedly different (although as someone who might have spouted similar tripe back in the day, I can see where that happens as well). I guess I would say, we either want authentic candidates or we want polished candidates, but we really can't have both, at least not early in careers. The two characteristics are oil and water.
good point.
I’m going with the assumption that at some point prior to 2025 he learned that it was a Nazi Deaths Head tattoo—I base that on him calling it his “tottenkopf” (literally “death head”). But if somehow he had no idea until just now, then his best bet is showing contrition and addressing it as part of his personal growth. People will forgive almost anything you grow past. But bungling it just makes them nauseous about next fall.
Authenticity is great—if you can fake it, you got it made, to paraphrase Churchill!—but you also want someone who drives the campaign, and isnt just one stumbling reaction at a time.
Well, he covered it up and apologized for it. I don't know what else people want him to do, really. I say this not as a Graham Platner stan-I don't know who I'll vote for in the primary. But if Trump's election proved anything, it's that people (myself included) are tired of being told what is and isn't disqualifying behavior from self-styled VIPs on high, and the more they push against someone they don't like the more dug in supporters are going to get. I honestly don't think he's going to win the primary at the end of the day here, but I do think he's going to overperform.
He’s doing the best he can with the situation but being caught flat footed isnt great—the most important thing here is who can beat Collins, and unless he gets back to driving the narrative this is going to lose him crucial support. I also hate the “this is disqualifying” crap that really shouldn’t matter but that’s all the more reason to drive the cycle, not get caught reacting to it. Who knows, maybe voters have tired of the media gotcha crap and he’ll turn this around. But it is an early test of what the general election will be like.
I have watched enough Sara Gideon types crash and burn when they came up against the Collins machine here, which really, IMO, is the main driving force behind the Platner hype. I've seen the Jordan Wood tape before, and the prospect of two 70+ year old candidates, neither of whom has any new ideas or fresh styles, duking it out is even less appealing. The bottom line is, Collins may be damaged but she's no means dead, and IMO we need a different type of candidate to take her on. The one guy who has generated some energy around this may have been wounded as well, but I suspect he's not going anywhere.
Unfortunately, for better or worse, it IS a liability. But anything can happen between now and voting day. What I find much more concerning than the tattoo is his staff and campaign manager bailing on him.
I know it is, it's all I have heard about on the local news lately. But it's mostly just piling on at this point. I'm *so tired* of every political media pundits taking the bait on it too. He's not a Nazi, and I believe he didn't intend it as a Nazi symbol. You want to go after him, do it honestly. This feels very dishonest and opportunistic. The bigger issue to me is, is he another John Fetterman?
ditto