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.
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.
Ah, but boys will be boys and no reason to let one little mistake ruin his entire life. Or any of the other little mistakes. People grow. They change. And they should never have to prove that to anyone.
But yeah. Most of me is sad that we are probably going to see the Democrats elect a nazi to the Senate. But at least part of me can’t stop laughing at the people who insist this is some anti-establishment underdog or that, and I quote,
when he was a god damned Blackwater merc.
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.
While we can’t definitively say he’s a Nazi, he obviously at the very least makes poorly-informed decisions - definitely not good leadership material.