I was a member of the Maine Green Party. I became a Dem so I could caucus for Bernie.

[demmiblue]

8. I don't envy you, that's for sure.

Joan Walsh wrote a piece for The Nation that you can probably relate to:

Graham Platner and the Rise of White-Male Identity Politics

…

The Maine oysterman has been through a lot since his 20-year-old Totenkopf was revealed in October (he had no idea it was a Nazi symbol, he said. He’d danced with his shirt off at a wedding, in front of his Jewish family!). Then came allegations that he had posted, on Reddit and other social media, various icky thoughts about women, Black people and gay people. He said both the tattoo and the sometimes outrageous Reddit posts were a product of his PTSD and alcoholism from his military service, which included not only the Marines but a stint at the mercenary group Blackwater. He asked for understanding and compassion. He received it.

But consider this, when you think about whether to trust him: If the New York Post is to be believed, as recently as Tuesday he told Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who’ve endorsed him, that there were no more muddy boots to drop, and that the “worst” of the rumors they might be hearing weren’t true. Then he cancelled the rest of his Washington meetings and ran home to Sullivan, Maine, to do damage control on the coming New York Times story. Even if you don’t believe that story, or don’t want to believe the Republican victim, you’d have to count what he told Sanders and Warren as something akin to a…lie, wouldn’t you?

Platner did something similar in his interview with MSNOW’s Chris Hayes last night. When Hayes asked him whether there were other “texts, photos, floating around that will hurt the campaign,” and whether he worried about it, the candidate brushed it off: “I’m not worried about it. There may be things out there, but they’re before I was in politics and a public figure.” He repeatedly depicted the negative stories coming out against him as what happens when you’re “going up against an entrenched political machine.” Disapproval was only coming from “career politicians.” Platner went on: “My journey is one of transformation.”

And my journey is one of disillusionment, and maybe some regret that I ever believed him. Dude, you got into politics last August. So anything that happened, say, that spring must be forgiven?

Yes, I’m a little pissed off. I’ve been Platner-skeptical since the Totenkopf reveal, but my Maine friends and acquaintances as well as people I respect in the broader progressive community love him. But I think Platner’s rocket to political stardom reflects something ugly that’s developed, not only on the right, but the left: The only acceptable form of “identity politics” now is white male identity politics. On the left, women and people of color have been told since Kamala Harris lost in 2024, even going back to Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016, that we are the problem, our “identitarianism” drove away moderates and white men in 2016, and in 2024, even some Black and Latino men.

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/graham-platner-maine-senate-2/

Ultimately, it is about replacing Collins… the greater of two evils, in this case. :sigh: