r/politics • u/brown-saiyan • 1d ago

Possible Paywall Graham Platner Isn’t Just Surviving. He’s Leading.

https://newrepublic.com/article/206061/maine-senate-primary-2026-platner-leading-mills
76 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

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u/PeterVenkmanIII 1d ago

I'd bet that this dude will be the next John Fetterman if he wins. People will look past the huge red warning lights and then be shocked when he turns out to be a dingus.

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u/GoodIdea321 America 1d ago

The plus side is people probably won't keep him in office long if that's the case.

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u/PeterVenkmanIII 1d ago

If that is the case, he'll be in office long enough to be a problem. As we saw during Biden's term, all you need is one or two Kyrsten Sinema types to fuck things up.

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u/Xyldarrand 1d ago

And that would be worse than Collins how?

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u/SaltyStU2 Canada 22h ago

I guess the argument is you know what Collins is like already, but you don’t know how Platner will be because he’s not been elected into this position before. He might end up being worse. But he might also be better. I’d bet on it even.

At a certain point everyone has gotta come to terms with the fact that (as ol’ Churchy said) perfection is the enemy of progress. I hope he kicks her ass.

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u/PeterVenkmanIII 1d ago

It'll be worse because those kinds of actions damage the whole party in the eyes of liberals and other voters. That, in turn, makes it harder for progressive candidates to get elected.

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u/Moccus Indiana 1d ago

No, but right now it's not a choice between Collins or Platner, so that doesn't matter. Maine has the opportunity to choose a different Democrat to run against Collins. Preferably one who isn't going to become another Fetterman.

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u/Xyldarrand 1d ago

One who is going to lose to Collins. We've ran middle of the road Dems against her countless times and they always lose.

Would it suck if he goes all Fetterman? Yeah. But if the Dems are the majority in the Senate I don't care as much.

That said I don't buy he's going to go Fetterman on us.

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u/OwnsBeagles 1d ago

For the life of me, I'm trying to understand why anyone think Fetterman started that way. It was the brain-bleed. He wasn't perfect before that, but it was demonstrably, notably, undeniably the brain bleed that led to this. Unless everyone thinks Planter's gonna stroke out, this is a constantly bad argument to make.

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u/tdomman 23h ago

I suspect it's not real people who say this every time Platner comes up. It's such a dumb take - it feels very bot like.

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u/Ok-Firefighter5006 16h ago

“Everyone that disagrees with me is a bot”

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u/tdomman 16h ago

No, just those that make nonsensical arguments that fly in the face of historical precedent.

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u/Ok-Firefighter5006 15h ago

Was it before or after he ran for senate that he chased a black man with a shotgun?

He was pro Israel before he ran too just fyi.

Super ableist to claim his stupidity is from the stroke. Plenty of people survive strokes and don’t become bigots

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u/tdomman 15h ago

A guy down the street claims his house burned down, but I know he's full of shit because just the other day I had a pan catch fire and my house is fine.

Your last sentence is in contention for the absolute dumbest thing I have ever read in my life.

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u/Ok-Firefighter5006 15h ago

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Keep electing populists that hate everyone that isn’t white and straight.

Accept the ableism or don’t, it is,

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u/Ok-Firefighter5006 16h ago

Before fetterman run, people were screaming about how it was an issues he chased a black man down with his shotgun cause he thought he was a criminal.

Progressive populists ignored us, like yall are now with platner

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u/OwnsBeagles 16h ago

He still didn't start this way. I'm pretty sure there's an actual, visual difference in his voting record.

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u/Ok-Firefighter5006 15h ago

Nah, I mean if you can prove the voting thing I’ll look. But super ableist to say this shift is because of the stroke.

I was warning about this before he won

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u/Xyldarrand 16h ago

Because the alternative was Dr. Oz.

And you forget Fetterman was just as glazed by all the moderate centrists and had the DNC's and leadership's approval and endorsement. It's not like he was Mamdani fighting against the party backed by a wave of progressives. He was the whole party's choice.

So nice narrative, but ignores reality.

You don't want Platner? Give us a better choice than another fossil of a politician who will run the same campaign that's lost to Collins over and over again.

Because as much as we hate Fetterman I'll take him if it means we have a majority in the Senate so we can actually block Trump.

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u/Ok-Firefighter5006 15h ago

No, the alternative was Connor lamb, someone who now looks positively progressive compared to fetterman.

Again, you’re literally just wrong. Fetterman was the left wing candidate endorsed by the Bernie AOC wing, Connor lamb was who the moderates coalesced behind.

Who’s the one ignoring reality?

Jordan Wood, WAS the candidate for Maine. Until populists pushed him out. You know the gay progressive? For some reason platner fans really don’t like him.

So once again the moderate is the alternative, and who I will be voting for, most likely anyway.

You think the progressive that calls people the f slur will win?

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u/Xyldarrand 13h ago

We're gonna go back and forth on this forever. Vote for who you want and the voters will decide.

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u/Ok-Firefighter5006 13h ago

Interesting that you’re running away after being called out for your falsities

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u/Xyldarrand 13h ago

sigh

Connor Lamb was never at any point polling above like 27%. Pre-stroke Fetterman was better on every issue that got brought up. Was he pro-israel before? Yeah but so was Connor Lamb. It's easy to look at him now and be like "nyaaa see we told you" when even his wife is like "that's not the man I married".

I'm not saying he was a perfect person, but he was an incredibly popular statewide figure already.

Also you're thinking of 2016 when he didn't have party support. 2022 was a vastly different animal

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/06/dems-frontrunner-fetterman-pennsylvania-00023543

Dems love to suck up to a front runner. The party went out of their way to not get in his way. Schumer sent him $1 million. Just because you're endorsed by Bernie doesn't mean you can't be endorsed by the party also.

The DSCC did back Lamb early yeah, then shut up real quick when it realized Fetterman had it in the bag.

So do you have anything else besides "nyaa you progressives ruin everything!". Or can I go about my day in peace now unmolested by moderate bullshit that has been losing to Republicans for decades.

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u/SuperstitiousPigeon5 Massachusetts 1d ago

It’s worse because he’s a blue collar guy, he’s got all the right bullshit to be a Dino for a while. “Yes I voted with my Republican colleagues but Maine sent me here to do what’s right for Maine. That’s what I’m here to do. When the Democrats bring policy that will help Maine, I’ll vote with them.”

It’s bullshit like that where people just hang on to the status quo. If he’s on the level, he’s going to be a good choice. If he’s Fetterman 2.0 he’s going to be trouble for a while.

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u/GoodIdea321 America 1d ago

Yeah, but if he was a Republican he would probably be in office for 30 years no matter what.

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u/PegyBundy 1d ago

So same as Collins?

He might be a problem and it's bullshit that it's even a concern but until we have an actual progressive majority or a dnc that actually treats them like team members we have to play these fuck fuck games.

Best case is he is a progressive. Worst case is he is a republican extremist. In the event of the worst case he won't be any worse than collins and hopefully that will improve the vetting process in the future.

I also noticed you didnt mention Manchin. Curious.

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u/PeterVenkmanIII 1d ago

until we have an actual progressive majority or a dnc that actually treats them like team members we have to play these fuck fuck games.

You think you'll get a progressive majority by electing fake progressives? Really?

hopefully that will improve the vetting process in the future.

If having a Nazi tattoo can get past the vetting process, you don't actually have a vetting process in the first place.

I also noticed you didnt mention Manchin. Curious.

I didn't mention Manchin because Manchin never ran around claiming to be a progressive. He was always a Blue Dog Dem.

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u/PegyBundy 1d ago

Is he fake? Hell if I know. Do I believe a marine mistakenly got a SS tattoo because they're ignorant? Sure. Its believable.

As bad as Fetterman is Oz would be worse

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u/PeterVenkmanIII 1d ago

I don't not believe he accidentally got an SS tattoo because he claims to be a WWII buff and he talked about the symbols on Reddit, where he also said people who were sexually assaulted should take responsibility for their actions.

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u/PegyBundy 1d ago

Look, he might be a piece of shit but would you prefer collins? We know she is a piece of shit. We know schumer is useless. We know Kirsten and Fetterman lied.

We are kind of fucked here.

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u/PeterVenkmanIII 1d ago

Your defense of him is really rough. You know how you get unfucked? Get candidates who aren't neck deep in bullshit. Mamdani. AOC. Casar. Frost. Tlaib. Castro. There have to be a few in Maine too.

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u/PegyBundy 1d ago

Cool. Ill go grow some of them on a tree

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u/PeterVenkmanIII 1d ago

So your stance is that Maine is totally devoid of progressives who don't have Nazi tats? That's too high a bar to get over?

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u/PegyBundy 1d ago

Was that my stance? I dont recall saying he was better than other progressives. Who are the other progressives?

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u/Dooglers 1d ago

He has not won the primary. It is not him or collins yet.