Despite media scrutiny and attacks on his character, progressive Senate candidate Graham Platner continues to gain support in Maine, with 58% of voters backing him. His platform focuses on making life more affordable, shifting the Democratic Party away from corporate interests, and ensuring the wealthy pay their fair share. #GrahamPlatner
From someone with absolutely no horse in this race I feel this is looking a gift horse in the mouth. No matter how bad he turns out to be (which, yeah, I don’t think I’m convinced he’ll be a principled anti-imperialist in office), he’s not going to outdo establishment democrats by much. The way American democracy is going it’s worth the bet, I think.
For this race, I agree. The worst he can be is a Fetterman… Who sucks but is still better than fucking Dr. Oz.
But be careful with this line of thinking. It’s very similar to how the right ended up voting for Trump. It’s actually how a lot of really awful governments gained power. “Anything different” than the current catastrophe does not inherently mean better.
My point was more that you lose if you get anything to the right of an outspoken progressive, and given the speed of Trump’s consolidation of power the amount of loss is essentially unchanged. Therefore, better on someone who might realistically be an outspoken progressive is the optimal move. It’s kind of like “you can get bitch slapped, or you can toss a coin and you either get bitch slapped extra hard or get a cookie.” The damage is being done either way, so you might as well bet on the cookie.
I dunno. I feel like a few countries made a similar bet (but to a higher extreme) during the Arab spring and it went extra bad. It’s important to be careful about who and what you’re trying to replace an authoritarian system with.
From someone with absolutely no horse in this race I feel this is looking a gift horse in the mouth. No matter how bad he turns out to be (which, yeah, I don’t think I’m convinced he’ll be a principled anti-imperialist in office), he’s not going to outdo establishment democrats by much. The way American democracy is going it’s worth the bet, I think.
For this race, I agree. The worst he can be is a Fetterman… Who sucks but is still better than fucking Dr. Oz.
But be careful with this line of thinking. It’s very similar to how the right ended up voting for Trump. It’s actually how a lot of really awful governments gained power. “Anything different” than the current catastrophe does not inherently mean better.
My point was more that you lose if you get anything to the right of an outspoken progressive, and given the speed of Trump’s consolidation of power the amount of loss is essentially unchanged. Therefore, better on someone who might realistically be an outspoken progressive is the optimal move. It’s kind of like “you can get bitch slapped, or you can toss a coin and you either get bitch slapped extra hard or get a cookie.” The damage is being done either way, so you might as well bet on the cookie.
I dunno. I feel like a few countries made a similar bet (but to a higher extreme) during the Arab spring and it went extra bad. It’s important to be careful about who and what you’re trying to replace an authoritarian system with.