Opinion | The Graham Platner Experiment Failed

The Graham Platner experiment has come to a sad and squalid end. “We are suspending campaign operations.” What is so heartbreaking about this moment is that people invested so much hope into this very, very flawed person and what he represented, and they were willing to climb out on a limb for him. And now that limb has been sawed off. I think for progressives, there’s lessons about vetting and doing your homework and not falling so in love with the candidate’s aesthetic that you kind of refuse to see them more holistically. He looked the part of the sort of person that Democrats feel like they have lost. And yet he had politics that are very much in line with the ascendant progressive forces in the party. And I think that was extremely seductive and that the collapse of this whole enterprise has shown that it was also a fantasy. A lot of blame here also belongs to Chuck Schumer and Democrats in Washington, who were really determined to clear the field for Janet Mills, the 70-something Governor of Maine. The people of Maine just did not want a candidate like Mills. Democrats just refused to give Maine voters the kind of candidate that they were hungry for. I think that there’s also a lesson about listening to the people who are telling you things that you don’t want to hear. There was a campaign staffer named Genevieve McDonald who had quit the campaign when the first scandals broke. And who really seemed to be trying to warn people about him. There was a lot of chatter among operatives about her being vindictive, and about her trying to curry favor with the establishment of the Democratic Party. There’s something about a successful social movement that has a lot of momentum that is really intoxicating. And it can be, I think, really challenging to stand outside of that and pour cold water on it. There have been so many errors of judgment at every step of the way, and I include myself in that. But there is still one party that, in its kind of blundering, flailing way, is trying to work its way towards some sort of consensus that sexual assault is disqualifying. And one party that very clearly does not believe that. We can see how important it is for society for a political party, for a political movement to be able to draw red lines.