When I heard President Donald Trump go ballistic over Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner of Maine, it made me want to hear more about Platner.
After Platner won Maine’s Democratic primary last week, Trump trolled Platner as a “thug” and called the Democratic Party hypocritical for lining up behind someone with so many questions about his past personal conduct and treatment of women.
“He’s worse than any human being that’s ever run for office, probably,” the president said.
Well, if anyone should know about questions on past conduct and treatment of women, it is Donald Trump. An old schoolyard retort from my childhood came to mind: “You’re another.”
After all, Trump has faced numerous accusations of sexual misconduct and was found liable by a jury in the E. Jean Carroll case for sexual abuse and defamation.
Yet, having heard Trump hyperventilate in this fiery fashion so many times, I felt I could hear more than a trace of envy and vulnerability in his voice.
As if Platner’s familiar tone of outrage about the rich and powerful giving ordinary folks the shaft has pleased crowds in a way that might make Trump wonder if his own thunder is being stolen.
In other words, there’s a lot of populist appeal in Platner’s spiel that works well in a time of discontent with elites.
He sounds like a ”regular guy.” He’s a Marine veteran who did four tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he owns a small oyster farm.
And in keeping with these times, he is wrestling with scandal, especially as the GOP and other media snoops dig into his old social media posts, in which he made a series of social media posts about women, sex and rape that critics described as misogynistic and disturbing. In now-deleted posts, he also variously identified himself as a communist and a socialist and opined that “an armed working class is a requirement for economic justice.”
There’s also his tattoo that resembled the Totenkopf, or death’s head, a German military symbol now infamous for its prominence on Nazi SS uniforms. Platner has covered the tattoo with new ink and claimed he didn’t know about the Nazi connection. Having known more than a few naive rascals in the service who fell to the allure of controversial tattoos, I almost believe him.
And a week before the primary election, three women who had dated him told The New York Times that he had engaged in unsettling behavior toward them.
Still, the first-time candidate’s Democratic populist message resonated with voters in Maine, and he won the state’s party primary for Senate on Tuesday.
Now he faces Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate who has impressively survived past challenges, even in these polarized times.
Yet as true middle-of-the-road Republicans are almost extinct in the age of Trump, the rise of social media and podcasters has opened a new era in which many old campaign methods and hardware are becoming obsolete.
Platner is very much of this moment. He is unashamedly populist. He frequently describes himself as a “New Deal Democrat.” He supports “Medicare for all,” unions, housing affordability and investment in working-class communities. He is sharply critical of the Democratic establishment for not fighting for these values. He opposes foreign wars, and his unvarnished assessment of America’s closest ally has earned him the sobriquet “anti-Israel.”
His views, possibly as discomfiting for some in his party as his internet history, seem almost optimized for social media virality.
Still, there are some smart, well-meaning voices of caution who warn Democrats against forgetting their scruples.
Among the most articulate bearers of this message is former Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who withdrew from electoral politics in 2017 with a fiery denunciation of the rising Trump tide.
In a Washington Post essay, he made what seems like last-ditch pitch for the middle ground by urging Democrats to vote for Collins instead of the controversy-plagued Platner.
Arguing nobly for the need to put principle ahead of political expediency, he cited such examples as the 2017 nomination of Alabama Republican Judge Roy Moore, who was credibly accused of pursuing teenage girls.
The revelations about Moore caused many Republican senators to withdraw their endorsements. Flake even wrote a campaign check to Moore’s Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, who won a historic victory in the deeply Republican state.
Unfortunately for the Dems, Republicans won the seat back three years later when Republican Tommy Tuberville beat Jones.
Maine Democrats now face a similar choice. Flake urges them to make the hard step of backing Collins as an act of principle across lines of party.
But I am reminded of former Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, who left under pressure in December 2017.
During the height of the #MeToo movement, radio and television personality and sports broadcaster Leeann Tweeden accused Franken of forcing an unwanted kiss on her a decade earlier. A photo of Franken play-acting at groping Tweeden while she slept added to the credibility of her accusation.
In the following days, seven additional women came forward with allegations of inappropriate behavior. Three dozen Democratic senators demanded Franken’s resignation from the Senate. And by January he was gone.
Yet, a couple years later, Franken, still popular, said he regretted that decision. After the rise of Trump, I don’t blame him. His perceived offenses sound like kid stuff in today’s era of MAGA corruption.
Political expediency, like political misconduct, is not limited to any one party.
In the coming months, voters will take a much closer look at Platner and decide whether he’s an imperfect man doing his best to redeem himself or a candidate with too much baggage to entrust with the responsibilities of a U.S. senator.
It’s easy to be outraged over the way governance is going. This country also needs some real problem solvers who do more than create more problems.
Email Clarence Page at cptimee@gmail.com.
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