Populism on the Left

Today I heard a news story that confirmed that everyone’s favorite oysterman has officially told the Maine Secretary of the State that he has withdrawn from the Democratic candidacy for US Senator for Maine.  Mr. Platner ended the message with a profane statement about ICE and few other progressive sentiments.  Well, what can I say but, “Graham, we hardly knew ye!”

But this decisive move by Mr. Platner doesn’t seem to have united the Democrats for the election ahead.  You see, there’s the matter of selecting Platner’s replacement in the next week or two.  And apparently the process for doing this is sort of undefined and is up to the state Democratic party to decide on and regulate.  And apparently, a bunch of Democrats inside of Maine and outside are worried that the selection process might resemble the way Kamala Harris was selected for Joe Biden’s spot on the 2024 ticket when it was discovered that he was brainless doofus.

I saw a video clip where the inimitable Joy Reid (yes, she still exists) was warning that the establishment Democrats were liable to replace Platner with an establishment shill who wouldn’t denounce AIPAC and wouldn’t say Free Palestine and might not have a picture of St. Bernie Sanders on his bedroom wall.  In fact, she told her massive Maine listening audience that unless Platner’s replacement was a virtual carbon copy of good old Graham that she recommended that they stay home and not vote at all.  Although she didn’t phrase it quite so politely.  And similar things were said by other esteemed pundits on the Left.

Now these discouraging words made me sad.  I thought that now that Graham had sacrificed himself on the altar of “Believe all women,” everything would be honky-dory.  But I guess maybe things are a little less “big tent” and a little more “We know what’s good for the party so shut up and vote.”

It’s a little hard to believe that maybe Susan Collins might actually manage to squeak by in November.  But I guess we live in strange times and maybe a New England RINO is closer to an establishment Democrat than a Bernie Bro denouncing AIPAC.  Well, I won’t be too shocked either way and honestly Maine is still New England no matter how much dress-up people like Graham Platner do with rubber waders and fisherman’s hats.  Eventually all of the Northeast will be a monolith of Mamdani socialists promising to tax the rich and defund ICE.  So, when all of this comes to a head in November, we will be able to stop thinking of Maine for the foreseeable future.

But something that Platner and Trump have in common and that we should be paying attention to is populism.  Providing an economy that creates middle class jobs and lifestyles for the great bulk of the American people is what Republicans need to be designing right now.  And if they don’t, then the next Graham Platner will be popping up in Texas or Florida and that will be a much larger problem for all of us.