{"id":642,"date":"2026-07-08T23:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T23:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=642"},"modified":"2026-07-08T23:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T23:28:07","slug":"the-establishment-machine-got-graham-platner-will-it-override-the-voters-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=642","title":{"rendered":"The Establishment Machine Got Graham Platner, Will It Override the Voters Too?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/div>

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Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for Senate \u2014 whose campaign received record vote totals in the June 9 primary \u2014 has suspended his campaign following a Politico article featuring \u201ccredible accusations\u201d of sexual assault<\/a> against him.<\/p>\n

UPDATED:<\/strong> July 8 5pm EDT: Drop Site has the text Platner\u2019s accuser sent him that Politico left out of their story. That\u2019s at the bottom of the post.<\/p>\n

The Usual Caveats Apply<\/strong><\/p>\n

As always, I\u2019m covering this in the hopes of providing a one-stop window into a race that has national (and thus international) implications and what it tells us about the American electorate and the forces attempting to sway it.<\/p>\n

This is not an endorsement of any candidate, regardless of my (obvious) personal sympathies, or even of the American electoral system, which is impossibly corrupt and has led to the bought-and-paid-for US Congress being functionally impotent.<\/p>\n

Americans won\u2019t vote our way out of the polycrisis, so don\u2019t get your hopes up.<\/p>\n

The Dangers of Parasocial Relationships With Politicians<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Platner story perfectly illustrates many of the problems with representative democracy in the 21st century: cults of personality, trial by social media, media manipulation by monied players (both for and against Platner).<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with \u201cstan culture<\/a>\u201d \u2014 a problem I believe is inherent in modern American politics.<\/p>\n

The Discourse Blog podcast reps<\/a> the anti-Platner from the left perspective perfectly (lightly edited machine transcript) with warnings against \u201cstanning\u201d but as far as I can see no suggested solutions:<\/p>\n

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Jack Mirkinson<\/strong>: This shows you what happens when you decide to become part of a politician\u2019s stan army rather than treating them like someone who\u2019s asking for very significant power
over your life and and acting accordingly.<\/p>\n

A lot of people got themselves into a big hole with Graham Platner where they had spent so much time lauding him as the best thing since sliced bread; where they were reveling in the fact that the party establishment \u2014 which
as we all know is very rightfully hated by everybody \u2014 was unable to defeat him.<\/p>\n

When you do that like too uncritically things can calcify in very problematic and crazy ways.<\/p>\n

Aleks Chan:<\/strong> Graham Platner looks and behaves (how what) you think a Republican would and then as part of that is he is a traditionally masculine white guy who espouses democratic and progressive politics and so when you when you don\u2019t have many
of those; you have sort of clean-cut Mckenzie types you find people like (Ken Klippenstein) and his ilk salivating at the opportunity to be like \u2018look traditional masculinity can be progressive.\u2019<\/p>\n

That\u2019s also part of \u2018well we\u2019re done with like being woke, we know where that got us, nobody wants that anymore. If you are (opposing) someone like Graham Platner then you are trying to sort of resurrect the \u2018hashtag resistance\u2019 \u2018vote blue no matter who\u2019 pussy hat blah blah blah.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

They also raise the valid concerns about Platner\u2019s history as a combat military veteran in America\u2019s colonial GWOT and later as a mercenary for Blackwater.<\/p>\n

Admittedly these are (likely valid) concerns I am personally guilty of overlooking in my coverage of Platner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yasmin Nair raised many of these concerns at Current Affairs in October 2025<\/a> when his nazi Totenkopf tattoo was first revealed:<\/p>\n

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Platner seems less a homophobe and more of an asshole who can\u2019t keep his stories straight. He has tried to brush off his homophobic and other problematic posts by claiming they were from some distant past when he was just a wee and silly lad, but many of these were in fact from 2021: when he was 37. Four years ago.<\/p>\n

The posts don\u2019t confirm that he is a raging homophobe, but they do indicate that he is an immature, juvenile straight man\u2014in other words, a very typical straight man, the kind who never grow up and away from their high school bullying days when they called every kid they didn\u2019t like a faggot. And they don\u2019t grow up because they never have to.<\/p>\n

Platner is beloved amongst a certain lefty crowd, led by the likes of Sanders. Given the state of the world, literally, literally anything could happen between now and June 2026, when he may be up against Collins, so who knows.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Have to give credit for Nair for pointing this out at the time, although she presented no political alternative to Janet Mills.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another important aspect about why this scandal is bringing Platner down and the specter of whatever war crimes he may have been involved with in West Asia did not: racist Americans don\u2019t care about deaths of brown people \u201cover there\u201d, to wit:<\/p>\n

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The Platner stuff makes me want to talk about this picture again and how the American left does not treat violence against people in the middle east as \u201creal\u201d violence. Not really. This picture should be disqualifying. Joe Biden had been sponsoring the genocide for a year. pic.twitter.com\/Oq3iyxopVZ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Anthony Doyle\ud83c\udf49 (@Anthonysmdoyle) July 7, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019d also like to highlight the once-bitten-twice-shy words of Bhavik Lathia on The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali<\/a> when asked \u201cWhy did you recommened Graham Platner and tell me he was a good candidate who was going to win?\u201d:<\/p>\n

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I met Graham last September or October. We were both speakers at a conference put on to do an audit and an autopsy of what happened in 2024 and why we lost. <\/p>\n

The thing that Graham and I connected on frankly was his experience in the military and how that radicalized him
into pro-peace, anti-war politics. <\/p>\n

What he did and saw while he was deployed, the stories he shared with me deeply resonated with me. I believed that he cared about taking on the military industrial complex and
I was (Kamala Harris\u2019) battleground mobilization director. <\/p>\n

It was a big job. I had staff across the over 80 staff across every single battleground state and state And my firm analysis is two big reasons why we lost the 2024 election is because we failed to put enough distance between our Kamala Harris\u2019s 2024 presidential campaign and the Biden record on Gaza and inflation maybe not in that order, maybe inflation was the number one, but Gaza played a significant role. <\/p>\n

I grew up in mid-Michigan. I have done tons of work in Michigan, Wisconsin across swing states I was hearing from all of my organizers and staff and contacts on the ground that Gaza and the Biden administration record on Gaza was killing us with voters. <\/p>\n

And so after the election, when I saw a candidate like Graham strongly speaking about the genocide in Gaza, and before knowing what I learned yesterday that there is a credible sexual assault allegation against him, and then the way that I saw main voters responding to him\u2026<\/p>\n

There was a strong economic populist who was just speaking in clear language. I decided to throw my support you know support behind him and um yeah that\u2019s kind of that\u2019s kind of where I landed. I think we need to continue to seek out outsiders, shake up the system economic populist candidates. <\/p>\n

We can\u2019t like let this experience scare us from that. Now we need to be very clear that just like arming a genocide is a red line in our party, that sexual assault \u2014 credible allegations of sexual assault are also a red line. <\/p>\n

So to all the men, progressive men moderate men, whatever (if you\u2019re) contemplating running, unless you\u2019ve done the work to make amends for and atone for any abuse that you have done in your life, don\u2019t raise your hand to run for office. <\/p>\n

This is not the moment for it. We need strong progressives
that are going to inspire the people. <\/p>\n

One of the things I know everyone\u2019s feeling right now is heartbreak. I felt it when I read The Politico piece yesterday. I just felt a deep sense of sadness and grief. <\/p>\n

There was this moment with Graham that the narrative was supposed to be redemption: imperfect people can find themselves in this moment, redeem themselves and represent just regular people in the halls of power. <\/p>\n

And because I\u2019ll just say it\u2019s Graham\u2019s lack of foresight maybe arrogance\u2026 I don\u2019t know now, but there\u2019s a lot of people who are just feeling really disappointed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The whole video is worth watching if you have the time. Adam Green also explains that there is time for Platner to drop out and for Maine Democrats to hold a statewide caucus and allow voters to select a new nominee in a democratic fashion.<\/p>\n