Fuck Graham Platner

If he cared about what he says he does, he wouldn't be going out like this

Graham Platner suspended his campaign on Wednesday night, but his ego hasn’t gotten the memo

I’m the first to admit I was never a Platner stan: I was always a little skeptical of his bro glow, and felt very much on the outside of the Movement That He Created™, even if that left me on the margins of some of my ahem professional circles. He always seemed like a bully, and he also never seemed like the he was telling the truth, especially as the ugliness of Platner’s backstory got closer and closer to his front door. But this isn’t about all that: Platner, as a candidate, is over. What incenses me today, this humid Thursday, is his behavior in, shall we call it, his post-candidacy—both self-serving and defeatist.

Because Platner quite obviously has a staggering amount of self-regard, he chose to post a 12-minute (!) bitchfest of a video announcing the suspension of his campaign (nobody needed any more minutes of Graham Platner, and certainly not a video stretching into the double digits). The running time was an immediate tell that Platner’s ego has in no way been harmed by allegations of sexual assault, which really tells ya something!

Then there’s the video itself.

Platner, accused by multiple women of violent and aggressive behavior so extreme that one of his exes characterized it as rape, never mentioned any of them, never addressed their myriad allegations, but instead bundled their accounts into a fantastical deep state plot on the part of the political establishment to keep Platner from claiming his rightful seat in the Senate. You know, the ole Rape Victim Deep State card:

“A corporate media system and the political establishment got to act as judge, jury, and executioner…. There is a reason that this is happening now. I only have until July 13th until I am officially the nominee. This was the last week to try to get me off of the ballot. That’s why this is occurring.”

It’s hard for me to believe that this is the posture of anyone other than a sociopath. Call me naive, but if most dudes were accused of rape, they would spend at least one minute out of twelve addressing those concerns—or at least the women who had expressed them. (Nevermind that Platner was running as a Democrat, which—as I recall—is the party that purports to give a shit about women and victims of sexual assault. But you know, rape victims can be crisis actors too, I guess.)

Then there’s Platner’s shifting blame to the “political establishment,” one of the more ludicrous assertions in recent memory, if only because Platner’s exit throws the entire race—a critical Senate seat—into chaos. Platner knew well that the recent news about his past history had hurt him: despite polling last week showing him running a point or two above Susan Collins, the reality was that Platner had solidified the Democratic base but was having a difficult time winning over independents. According to recent numbers from the New York Times, a generic Democrat was doing better unseating Collins than Platner was—ouch.

Simmer down, though, if you think that his exit is an automatic boon for the party. I mean, maybe Maine Dems will be able to use the two weeks between July 13th and July 27th to extraordinary advantage, and ensure that the process to select Platner’s replacement is open and fair and gives voters someone to believe in, an outsider somehow picked by the party establishment. But that person, whoever they are, sure as shit won’t win in November if Platner supporters sit out Election Day, convinced that the system is rigged against them. Which makes Platner’s cries that the system is rigged against them… deeply problematic:

“We engaged in electoral politics. We motivated people. We banded together. We did it the way that we were told we are supposed to make change. And we won. And now they are not going to let us have it.

…. We live in a political system that is not built for normal people. It is a system that is built structurally to make sure that movements like ours cannot flourish. That if they begin to succeed, they can be crushed.

This all feels like that moment in the movies when the guy going down takes the tablecloth and everything on it with him, the glasses and plates and forks and knives clattering loudly to the floor. Not good! Disillusioning his supporters about the system, the people in it, and what’s possible is exactly what not to do if Platner really wants the next Democratic nominee to beat Susan Collins.

Democrats will need to buck up and believe that winning is within their grasp—and more importantly—that change itself is possible. The upshot is at least that Platner and his general awfulness is in the rearview, and now it’s time to focus on Susan Collins, an egregious enabler of the Trump agenda. To that end, I guess the strategy for Democrats now should be: rather than uttering the name Graham Platner, say the words Susan Collins instead.