cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/38323356
Oct. 31, 2025, 5:02 a.m. ET Michelle Goldberg
Andy O’Brien, a former Democratic state legislator and newspaper editor, told me that outsiders didn’t fully understand how radicalizing the second Trump presidency has been for ordinary Democrats. Even senior citizens, he said, were becoming “fire-breathing leftists. They’re just pissed off.”
These voters understood that Platner had made mistakes, but they saw him as a fighter. “Five years ago, he would have been dead in the water, I think,” said O’Brien, who now works with the labor movement. “But this is such an unprecedented time. I think a lot of people really believe that we need somebody who can effectively fight against fascism.”
Maine is an overwhelmingly white state, but it’s not just white guys who feel this way. “We’re sticking by him,” said Safiya Khalid, a Somali American activist and former member of the Lewiston City Council.
He really seems like a good dude. Maybe a bit aloof to some things, but his intent seems genuine. I don’t know why people thought he was “done”. He said he wasn’t stopping, and he hasn’t, which speaks to his character. His opponents are fucking AWFUL choices, not just for Maine, but for everyone.
Until he comes out and says some really dumb shit, I have no reason to believe he’s not in it to win it, and his words are genuine. This isn’t some Fetterman bullshit.
Lol, white guy refusing to back down after being caught out as a bigot, ‘character.’
Explain what you just said
Seems pretty obvious. He’s admitted to making racist, anti-semetic, anti-gay, and anti-trans statements. And yet he refuses to back down after admitting to all of that somehow shows his ‘character.’
The guy has a litany of reasons to not support him, or trust him. A pile of reasons to think he is of bad character and morals. But ‘he tells it like is,’ so y’all refuse to condemn him. Sounds like Trump supporters to me, always denying his previous transgressions and saying you believe he’s gonna turn it around.
No, he did not.
Link to those please.
Literally, NOT what you are claiming. You are just mentioning a link about someone else mentioning a reddit comment with zero clarifying comments or Platner himself being asked to clarify or comment on them…
https://www.metroweekly.com/2025/10/graham-platner-apologizes-anti-lgbtq-posts/
Edit- are you seriously saying we need clarification on him asking why a race doesn’t tip?
I actually don’t like how hard thier pushing the “misunderstanding” angle. Media owned by billionaires trying really hard to get the people to forgive someone?
They hate the soon-to-be New York mayor. But this guy gets all the leeway?
I have some extra sus just for that.
He’s a cis-white male, and unfortunately both sides of the aisle have no issue, or are willing to overlook, bigotry as long as cis-white males continue to be protected.
My view is the media is trying to smear him and only a few people online are defending him. And a shitton in Maine. They like him.
The most concerning thing in all this is the blackwater shit.
I legit can see how dude got a Nazi symbol on accident, let’s be real… Nazis have seemingly hundreds of symbols tied to them, and some aren’t quite so obvious. Like the tattoo he had? To me it just looks like a really shitty skull design. Absolutely something a young dumb person would get.
All that aside. Something is definitely strange surrounding all this. I’m not advocating forgiveness, or condemnation… just saying I guess this is all pretty fucking strange to me.
For real. I was born in '88.
You know how many online names I’ve made that end in 88 not realizing it’s a Nazi dog whistle?
The years of military service/mercenary work is the bigger issue imo, but democrats eat that shit up so of course they’re going to overlook a nazi tattoo.
I think people can change for the better, and Graham seems to have done exactly that.
here’s his reddit post where he’s talking about circumventing direct orders to commit even more warcrimes than he would normally be allowed to by the US military:
spoiler
There’s all sorts of reasons I could point to why Graham Platner is unfit to be a leader in any leftist movement but the most glaring one is that as far as I can tell from his statements he thinks the US wasn’t engaged in anything wrong overseas.
