Opinion: Re-Learning the Lessons of the Democratic Party’s Graham Platner Fiasco

Flicker

 Enough signs were evident early on in the primary to disqualify Graham Platner’s bid for elective office. But too many of us either ignored or discounted what was right before our eyes — a personal biography that should have been disqualifying. In our desire to elect an "authentic, blue collar anti-corporate" candidate who would take on the Democratic Party establishment as well as Trump, we ignored tell-tale signs that Platner was more than a flawed candidate. He wasn’t fit to be a candidate, notwithstanding his seemingly progressive politics.

Redemptive stories are fine (and should be welcomed) in life and politics. None of us are without some baggage that we carry forward. But there is baggage and there is baggage, especially if one aspires to a position of leadership and influence either in politics or some other sphere of social life where one leads others. And Platner was carrying more than enough baggage, a Nazi tatoo, repeated misogyny, and credible accusations of rape — an act of horrific violence — that should have told us that he wasn’t the right person or the right candidate, notwithstanding his politics and workingclass personna, to represent Mainers (I was once one) in the Senate.

In the communist movement of which I was a part for many years, instrumentalist thinking — the end justifies the means — was part of the culture and in the end came back to bite us hard. I like to think that I learned something from that experience, but like everything it has to be constantly relearned otherwise it will, sooner or later, come back and exact its revenge, in this case on the anti-Trump democratic movement and the Democratic Party. And who needs that?