The End of Graham Platner (soon, soon)

I have been posting my butt off this year - sorry it's all sports and Graham Planter though.

Platner, bless his heart, is about to leave the Maine senatorial race. Though apparently he is still putting off the final decision. Good lord.

In the end, it's the sexual abuse that got him, as it should. When the stories started coming out, it was hard not to think this was the beginning of the end - it was hard to get past the last set of allegations. This time, there's no room for hesitation. And this is no surprise - he may not have any track record as a politician, but he had a track record as a scumbag. I hardly expect this to be the end. Hopefully, though, he will be long gone when the next shoe drops.

All right, that's enough. Now the Maine Dems should be able to get someone in there who isn't a scumbag. I thought during the primaries that it was a shame there were as many respectable candidates for governor, and no one but Platner (and poor Janet Mills, who has to take some responsibility for this - why was she running for senate? why didn't anyone in a position to do so tell her she ought to get out of the way? these things have their facets) running for senate? Which of course matters a hell of a lot more than governor. Now - a good chunk of the failed gubernatorial candidates are going for this one - it's encouraging. Jackson has the same lefty endorsements Platner had - Bellows, Shah ran well in the other race - it's encouraging.

The Platner die hards will weep about "corporate candidates" - whatever man. These are people who have shown no judgment of character, who ran a shitty campaign against Susan Collins, of all people, who seem to be fighting the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries tp this fucking day. They are not people anyone should listen to. I am all for progressive policies and grassroots campaigns, but come on people - can't you find candidates without Nazi tattoos? who don't abuse their girlfriends? cheat on their wives? write racist and sexist shit on line? Can't you find people who aren't scumbags? Can't you see when someone is a scumbag and behave appropriately?

They do it in other places - from Bernie Sanders to Mamdani to AOC to Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey to Ayanna Pressley - they all have the politics, and none of them are scumbags. So - it can be done.

And finally, kicking this piece of shit while he is down - one thing I see around is remarks about Platner's "authenticity" - authenticity? This is a guy who was made by a committee if anyone was - the rugged manliness married to left wing populist politics, but nothing all that serious, just the same talking points all the Bernie clones come up with. If it were possible to create an actual human being with AI, Platner is what you would come yup with. (Though if you were entering prompts, you would hope you'd tell it screen out the racists and rapists and Totenkopf lovers.) And this is so obvious to me - he is so obviously fake - how do people miss it?

Anyway. Hopefully he's soon to be gone and we can move on. Find someone to beat Collins and get on with it.