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.
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
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/my-graham-platner-apology
… What? He was lying about his totenkopf a few months ago and ignoring credible rape claims as recently as a few weeks ago.
… 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.
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/my-graham-platner-apology
You’re not reading them so why bother?
No. I did read what you said. You made a claim that
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?
As entertaining as that would be, no.
BUT, I do think he would be willing to violate the constitution in order to attack political enemies.
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.
ken klippenstein is a misogynistic piece of shit rape apologist, though
I liked your reference to the net.
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.”
https://lemmy.zip/comment/22299643
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.
Removed by mod
This doesn’t matter that much, but
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.