The rise of U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner has been an interesting phenomenon in American politics. Seemingly from out of nowhere, the troubled Maine leftist — who now faces allegations of mistreatment and (in one case) physical abuse from ex-girlfriends — became the presumptive Democrat frontrunner to take on longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in what will be one of the most-watched Senate races this fall.
Riding on a message of left-wing “economic populism,” Platner and his media allies have sought to cast him as an average “working-class” oyster farmer who “has never been close to money and power” and is willing to take on the establishment in Bernie Sanders-esque fashion. In doing so, it seems the left is trying to frame the Marine veteran as the “picture-perfect” candidate needed to bring disaffected white male voters into the Democrat fold.
But like many Democrat Party claims these days, the problem with this messaging is that it’s entirely contrived out of thin air. The notion that Platner is a “working-class populist” with humble beginnings rings as true as assertions that men can become women and vice versa.
As even The New York Times has admitted, the “working-class” Platner comes from the very wealthy elite he now rails against on the campaign trail.
The Maine Democrat was born as “the son of a Dartmouth College-educated lawyer [and] the grandson of a famed Connecticut architect.” His “humble” upbringing included briefly attending a fancy Connecticut prep school and later graduating from a more local private high school. (Platner’s campaign has argued that “[h]is parents paid for the local private school” and that, “at the pricier Hotchkiss, he had financial aid,” according to The Wall Street Journal.)
Platner enlisted in the Marine Corps in the years following graduation, at which point he would go on to complete several overseas tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was during his time in the service that Platner — who once mocked a wounded veteran as a “dumb motherf-cker [who] didn’t deserve to live” — got his now-infamous Nazi-linked tattoo. The Maine leftist’s claims that he didn’t understand its meaning until recently have fallen apart under scrutiny.
Platner’s military service has become a prominent feature of his campaign and opposition to “endless wars.” He’s more specifically tailored it to attack Collins for previously supporting the Iraq War. The Maine Democrat has repeatedly claimed, “Susan Collins voted to send me to Iraq,” while ignoring the fact that he voluntarily enlisted to serve more than a year after Congress authorized the conflict.
It was following his service that the “populist” Platner took a job with the military contracting company Constellis (formerly known as “Blackwater”).
The irony is particularly rich. As the Washington Free Beacon’s Chuck Ross recently observed, “Graham Platner says he’s different because moneyed interests can’t buy him. He literally went to work for Blackwater/Constellis as a contractor in a war he morally opposed just for the money.”
But that’s not all there is to Platner’s “working-class” facade. The Maine leftist’s continued reliance on his wealthy family’s fortune further undermines the populist image he’s spent months trying to cultivate.
The Free Beacon reported last month how Platner’s father, “a prominent local attorney,” gifted his son a $200,000 loan in 2017 “to finance his home.” The report seemingly contradicts Platner’s claims that he made the purchase with the “support of the [Department of Veterans Affairs] VA.”
The Times separately reported how Platner’s father and in-laws “also paid for his and his wife’s travel, lodging and fertility treatments in Norway this year.” Platner’s mother, on the other hand, is the owner of an “upscale” restaurant that just happens to be the “biggest customer” to Platner’s oyster farming business.
See, folks? He’s just like every other middle-class American worker — his rich family boosts his livelihood, and he has a Nazi tattoo, a sexting and infidelity problem, insane Reddit posts, and several other scandals plaguing his campaign.
While he tries to pretend otherwise, Platner’s entire appeal rests on an image that doesn’t exist. He’s not a working-class everyman, but another Democrat concoction no different than frauds like Beto O’Rourke and James Talarico.
Should Platner formally become the Democrat nominee in Maine’s Senate race, don’t expect corporate media to be honest about that reality. After all, they’re the ones who helped create him in the first place.
