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.
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.