Of course, the sexting shouldn't matter -- but Collins, as a woman, will male a big deal of it nonetheless -- and that could hurt Platner with (particularly elderly) women in his base, in a race that Democrats need to win.
t's gonna be a long summer. Get ready for the crocodile tears! I
Hi Mr. Yglesias (a bit awkward, but new subscriber here, don't feel as though "Matt" or "Matthew" is appropriate, until you say so). I am from Maine, and until you or Mr. Silver (also don't know him except through his writing, so "Nate" doesn't feel right either, but I certainly mean neither of you any disrespect) provides an analysis of the 5% of votes on which Susan Collins has not agreed with the President detailing which passed (not too many would be my guess), I have to disagree with calling her a moderate. Until I have evidence that indicates she is a moderate (maybe something other than a vote analysis), I will continue to view her voting record as a duplicitous attempt to pass as a moderate in a blue state, with that attempt being abetted by a Republican leadership that knows she needs to pass as a moderate to be elected and therefore allows her to vote in opposition when they know they will win, and perhaps also assisted by you and many other journalists who call her a moderate, unwittingly or otherwise.
Beyond her votes, my view of it is that she hasn't spoken out at any length about anything in the Trump administration that would turn the stomach of an actual moderate, such as its disregard for the constitutional system that we live under and court orders, its blatant corruption and self-dealing, its face-planting, gob-smacking-ly incompetent health policy and foreign policy (Canada and Greenland as states, $0 humanitarian aid and $0 military aid to Ukraine, a war with Iran without anticipating the closure of the Strait of Hormuz?) -- I could go on.
Moderate Republican William Cohen voted to impeach Richard Nixon and moderate Republican Margaret Chase Smith was one of the first to speak out against Joe McCarthy. Susan Collins did not vote to impeach Donald Trump, instead stating, "I think he's learned his lesson," which was apparently to surround himself with sycophants in the Executive branch and Congressional Republicans who either dare not speak out or have no conscience.
People respond to Graham Platner's authenticity at his many town halls. Not only does Susan Collins never hold town halls, but it's also extremely difficult for me to see her as anything authentically except a politician who wants to cling to her office and masquerades as a moderate to achieve that goal.
Liked a lot of what you wrote.
By the way, if you ever address me, Hugh is fine, and thanks for your time.
I’ve seen and responded to a number of claims of what I believe are misinformed or dissonant thoughts.
To underscore- Ken Paxton, the Republican candidate for senate in Texas is a horrible human being. Many of his defenders incorporate the same logic and rhetoric seen here with respect to Platner.
Texas Republicans impeached Paxton
And here, in Maine, its Democrats who’ve released the compromising information because they understand how more damaging info will eventually come out. This is still a primary. I wonder how many of Platner apologists even know that? Janet mills is on the ballot still.
But Platner didn’t get the tattoo as an ignorant youth. He got it in his 30’s. His sexting stuff is none of my biz - but his judgement certainly can be questioned. He obviously understands how to avoid telling the truth whilst answering questions. Nothing I admire.
If a republican had a Nazi symbol on their body, my belief is Matt yglesias et al would not only reject this man but also use his support as evidence of the low standards set by republicans. But as is so common in today’s politics - we rationalize bad behavior on this thread and then moralize about Trump or hegseth on another.
This guy should not be in the senate. Just like Paxton shouldn’t.
When are people going to figure out how brainwashed they all are.
I'll let others debate the tattoo. My problem with Platner is his statements, explicitly shown in the video that MY links (https://x.com/davidsirota/status/2053906363563307509) that indicate he has no idea at all what he's talking about with respect to the ideas that Klein and Thompson articulate in their book Abundance. He's basically just regurgitating talking points from progressive activists like Zephyr Teachout. It's one's prerogative to argue with what Klein and Thompson are actually saying, but it's quite another to argue against a made up strawman version of what they're saying.
> Most egregiously of all, the state auditor decided to run a primary challenge to Jared Golden, which succeeded in inspiring him to resign.
What's the evidence that the primary challenge helped to bring about Golden's resignation? The assertion doesn't sound crazy to me, but I've only ever heard it made by Yglesias, and never with any supporting evidence.
This is the kind of piece that keeps me subscribed. I'm also finding these comments especially illuminating. I'm amazed at how many Slow Boring subscribers either don't see the 2nd Trump administration as corrupt authoritarian project or don't see Collins's enablement of it as disqualifying. If she thought it was corrupt authoritarianism she'd break her affiliation with the party that's doing it, but she hasn't because she thinks it's fine or at least not that important to stop. For me, this is the big question that resolves all the others and I'm surprised at how many commenters see it differently.
A clever commentator on another site, writing of Platner, said:
"Representation matters.
There are millions of angry, confused, failed-to-launch white dudes in this country, with heads full of contradictory nonsense and facile slogans, who could fix things if we'd just let them - even if they don't know how anything works....
Someone needs to give them a voice."
Snarkiness aside, there is actually something to this. Back in the day, the Ds used to get the votes of a fair share of guys like that - maybe their votes were intermediated by a labor union; maybe in an earlier era, when they thought of their crappy boss, they thought of a Trump-like lazy, bratty, loudmouth know-it-all, golf-addicted small-city proprietor's son who coded R instead of a pencil-neck from HR who codes D. There are all kinds of reasons why most of these folks don't vote for Democrats anymore, but maybe, just maybe, particularly under the present quasi-desperate national circumstances, in one state that, absent Susan Collins's wily, protean political talents, would send a Democrat to the Senate, Platner is worth a try. I sort-of think that is what MY is saying, more thoughtfully and at greater length.
I remember the good old days of the Tea Party. Some turd with a Nazi tee shirt would be in the back row of a rally and that’s all MSNBC would show to explain that the Tea Party was Nazi, racist, ungood people. Now MY gives us 17 reasons why the Nazi thing is no big deal.
This guy is pure astroturf. Absolute clown son of leftist trust funder hick libs cosplaying as working class. If he had to manage a Dunkin Donuts for a year he’d fail and probably become conservative.
Given he said his bad reddit posts and tattoo were during a "dark period" in his past I'd assume these cheating texts were also part of that, so his excuses are consistent and tell a coherent story.
Alas, these were last year, during the campaign. Why would I assume, if he gets more power, he'll be more responsible?
My main interpretation of this oppo is to look at the calendar and conclude if this is what comes out in May, I can only imagine what the Collins campaign is sitting on for later once Dems are locked into him as their nominee taking into account Platner’s quite obviously deficient character
"The only “lesson” to be learned from Maine is that Susan Collins overperforms because she’s moderate."
This is false in a very important way. Collins *looks* moderate. She puts on a hand-wringing moderate act before she supports Trump and his authoritarian party. She votes against them almost only when her vote will make no difference, when they don't need it to win. She helps her authoritarian party just as much voting in the Senate as if a hard core MAGA held that seat. Sadly, so many people fall for her act. So many people base their decisions on the superficial and words, not actions.
The lesson is that looking like a moderate is what really sells, and the more Democrats do it, the more likely it is that we save democracy. Nonetheless, while so many will fall for a Susan Collins act, few are that good at acting, so actually voting moderately in the legislature is very important and powerful.
I am a full time resident of Hancock county in the CD from which Trump got an electoral college vote. Early on I was hoping that Golden would take on Collins, also from northern Maine, and that Platner would run for Golden's seat. Instead, it looks as if Paul LePage, a Florida resident who was Trump before Trump will take the second CD. You are absolutely correct that Platner is running the wrong kind of campaign. The scandals will go away, but Collins will be a tough opponent. For the sake of Democrats taking the Senate I will vote for him, but I do not like his Bernie-style politics.
What I find so depressing is that the hyperpartisanship that is affecting both parties has trashed the idea that our civic leaders should have a baseline of good character.
Good character, an upstanding citizen. The GOP sold its soul to a deeply flawed, corrupt individual solely because he fights the liberal woke mob. He didn’t honor his marriages, bought a beauty pageant so he could walk through the young women’s dressing room when he felt like it. Screwed contractors and people selling hype and bullshit. Trump is a first-class bullshitter. A performer.
This is how you get Ken Paxton, so I presume you could come up with 15 or 26 reasons why Ken Paxton is a perfectly fine candidate. Beyond American voters now choosing people of bad character, we are descending into a populist hell. Each side is throwing out whatever red meat they feel will excite the base.
Populism is pablum, and at a time of serious problems, America is confronting a situation where we need serious people with serious ideas. Your dismissal of Plantner's flawed character tells me you have also given up looking for anything other than which performance artist can win.
Winning for what end? Do you see Platner coming up with some policies on AI, deficit, and debt reduction? What kind of military will we need in the 21st century? How is he going to repair the extensive damage Trump has done?
Given that Americans on the left and right are shedding any veneer that they care about the personal behavior of their representatives, I expect more and more Ken Paxtons and Graham Platners. Oh joy, I feel so much better about out politics.
really the nazi tat is straight up bad and i don’t know anyone who would get one
fine, he may not be a nazi, but he glorifies their symbols or finds some things they did impressive enough to tat on his body. Not only anti jew but anti american. it doesn’t matter if he “IS” a nazi if he likes some of their shit enough to tattoo it. His lies about his life are also stupid and not needed. Even ppl that aren’t exactly moral wouldn’t get a nazi tat. I don’t care about reddit or philandering but the nazi tattoo is revealing asf
Of course, the sexting shouldn't matter -- but Collins, as a woman, will male a big deal of it nonetheless -- and that could hurt Platner with (particularly elderly) women in his base, in a race that Democrats need to win.
t's gonna be a long summer. Get ready for the crocodile tears! I
Why is no one commenting that his sexting was literally Nazi ideology.....?
It undermines his entire argument that he knew nothing about the tattoo being a Nazi when he uses Nazi terminology for flirting.
Because it was fake?
Hi Mr. Yglesias (a bit awkward, but new subscriber here, don't feel as though "Matt" or "Matthew" is appropriate, until you say so). I am from Maine, and until you or Mr. Silver (also don't know him except through his writing, so "Nate" doesn't feel right either, but I certainly mean neither of you any disrespect) provides an analysis of the 5% of votes on which Susan Collins has not agreed with the President detailing which passed (not too many would be my guess), I have to disagree with calling her a moderate. Until I have evidence that indicates she is a moderate (maybe something other than a vote analysis), I will continue to view her voting record as a duplicitous attempt to pass as a moderate in a blue state, with that attempt being abetted by a Republican leadership that knows she needs to pass as a moderate to be elected and therefore allows her to vote in opposition when they know they will win, and perhaps also assisted by you and many other journalists who call her a moderate, unwittingly or otherwise.
Beyond her votes, my view of it is that she hasn't spoken out at any length about anything in the Trump administration that would turn the stomach of an actual moderate, such as its disregard for the constitutional system that we live under and court orders, its blatant corruption and self-dealing, its face-planting, gob-smacking-ly incompetent health policy and foreign policy (Canada and Greenland as states, $0 humanitarian aid and $0 military aid to Ukraine, a war with Iran without anticipating the closure of the Strait of Hormuz?) -- I could go on.
Moderate Republican William Cohen voted to impeach Richard Nixon and moderate Republican Margaret Chase Smith was one of the first to speak out against Joe McCarthy. Susan Collins did not vote to impeach Donald Trump, instead stating, "I think he's learned his lesson," which was apparently to surround himself with sycophants in the Executive branch and Congressional Republicans who either dare not speak out or have no conscience.
People respond to Graham Platner's authenticity at his many town halls. Not only does Susan Collins never hold town halls, but it's also extremely difficult for me to see her as anything authentically except a politician who wants to cling to her office and masquerades as a moderate to achieve that goal.
Liked a lot of what you wrote.
By the way, if you ever address me, Hugh is fine, and thanks for your time.
I’ve seen and responded to a number of claims of what I believe are misinformed or dissonant thoughts.
To underscore- Ken Paxton, the Republican candidate for senate in Texas is a horrible human being. Many of his defenders incorporate the same logic and rhetoric seen here with respect to Platner.
Texas Republicans impeached Paxton
And here, in Maine, its Democrats who’ve released the compromising information because they understand how more damaging info will eventually come out. This is still a primary. I wonder how many of Platner apologists even know that? Janet mills is on the ballot still.
But Platner didn’t get the tattoo as an ignorant youth. He got it in his 30’s. His sexting stuff is none of my biz - but his judgement certainly can be questioned. He obviously understands how to avoid telling the truth whilst answering questions. Nothing I admire.
If a republican had a Nazi symbol on their body, my belief is Matt yglesias et al would not only reject this man but also use his support as evidence of the low standards set by republicans. But as is so common in today’s politics - we rationalize bad behavior on this thread and then moralize about Trump or hegseth on another.
This guy should not be in the senate. Just like Paxton shouldn’t.
When are people going to figure out how brainwashed they all are.
I'll let others debate the tattoo. My problem with Platner is his statements, explicitly shown in the video that MY links (https://x.com/davidsirota/status/2053906363563307509) that indicate he has no idea at all what he's talking about with respect to the ideas that Klein and Thompson articulate in their book Abundance. He's basically just regurgitating talking points from progressive activists like Zephyr Teachout. It's one's prerogative to argue with what Klein and Thompson are actually saying, but it's quite another to argue against a made up strawman version of what they're saying.
> Most egregiously of all, the state auditor decided to run a primary challenge to Jared Golden, which succeeded in inspiring him to resign.
What's the evidence that the primary challenge helped to bring about Golden's resignation? The assertion doesn't sound crazy to me, but I've only ever heard it made by Yglesias, and never with any supporting evidence.
This is the kind of piece that keeps me subscribed. I'm also finding these comments especially illuminating. I'm amazed at how many Slow Boring subscribers either don't see the 2nd Trump administration as corrupt authoritarian project or don't see Collins's enablement of it as disqualifying. If she thought it was corrupt authoritarianism she'd break her affiliation with the party that's doing it, but she hasn't because she thinks it's fine or at least not that important to stop. For me, this is the big question that resolves all the others and I'm surprised at how many commenters see it differently.
A clever commentator on another site, writing of Platner, said:
"Representation matters.
There are millions of angry, confused, failed-to-launch white dudes in this country, with heads full of contradictory nonsense and facile slogans, who could fix things if we'd just let them - even if they don't know how anything works....
Someone needs to give them a voice."
Snarkiness aside, there is actually something to this. Back in the day, the Ds used to get the votes of a fair share of guys like that - maybe their votes were intermediated by a labor union; maybe in an earlier era, when they thought of their crappy boss, they thought of a Trump-like lazy, bratty, loudmouth know-it-all, golf-addicted small-city proprietor's son who coded R instead of a pencil-neck from HR who codes D. There are all kinds of reasons why most of these folks don't vote for Democrats anymore, but maybe, just maybe, particularly under the present quasi-desperate national circumstances, in one state that, absent Susan Collins's wily, protean political talents, would send a Democrat to the Senate, Platner is worth a try. I sort-of think that is what MY is saying, more thoughtfully and at greater length.
I remember the good old days of the Tea Party. Some turd with a Nazi tee shirt would be in the back row of a rally and that’s all MSNBC would show to explain that the Tea Party was Nazi, racist, ungood people. Now MY gives us 17 reasons why the Nazi thing is no big deal.
This guy is pure astroturf. Absolute clown son of leftist trust funder hick libs cosplaying as working class. If he had to manage a Dunkin Donuts for a year he’d fail and probably become conservative.
Given he said his bad reddit posts and tattoo were during a "dark period" in his past I'd assume these cheating texts were also part of that, so his excuses are consistent and tell a coherent story.
Alas, these were last year, during the campaign. Why would I assume, if he gets more power, he'll be more responsible?
My main interpretation of this oppo is to look at the calendar and conclude if this is what comes out in May, I can only imagine what the Collins campaign is sitting on for later once Dems are locked into him as their nominee taking into account Platner’s quite obviously deficient character
"The only “lesson” to be learned from Maine is that Susan Collins overperforms because she’s moderate."
This is false in a very important way. Collins *looks* moderate. She puts on a hand-wringing moderate act before she supports Trump and his authoritarian party. She votes against them almost only when her vote will make no difference, when they don't need it to win. She helps her authoritarian party just as much voting in the Senate as if a hard core MAGA held that seat. Sadly, so many people fall for her act. So many people base their decisions on the superficial and words, not actions.
The lesson is that looking like a moderate is what really sells, and the more Democrats do it, the more likely it is that we save democracy. Nonetheless, while so many will fall for a Susan Collins act, few are that good at acting, so actually voting moderately in the legislature is very important and powerful.
I am a full time resident of Hancock county in the CD from which Trump got an electoral college vote. Early on I was hoping that Golden would take on Collins, also from northern Maine, and that Platner would run for Golden's seat. Instead, it looks as if Paul LePage, a Florida resident who was Trump before Trump will take the second CD. You are absolutely correct that Platner is running the wrong kind of campaign. The scandals will go away, but Collins will be a tough opponent. For the sake of Democrats taking the Senate I will vote for him, but I do not like his Bernie-style politics.
Matt, was this your take on Anthony Weiner?
What I find so depressing is that the hyperpartisanship that is affecting both parties has trashed the idea that our civic leaders should have a baseline of good character.
Good character, an upstanding citizen. The GOP sold its soul to a deeply flawed, corrupt individual solely because he fights the liberal woke mob. He didn’t honor his marriages, bought a beauty pageant so he could walk through the young women’s dressing room when he felt like it. Screwed contractors and people selling hype and bullshit. Trump is a first-class bullshitter. A performer.
This is how you get Ken Paxton, so I presume you could come up with 15 or 26 reasons why Ken Paxton is a perfectly fine candidate. Beyond American voters now choosing people of bad character, we are descending into a populist hell. Each side is throwing out whatever red meat they feel will excite the base.
Populism is pablum, and at a time of serious problems, America is confronting a situation where we need serious people with serious ideas. Your dismissal of Plantner's flawed character tells me you have also given up looking for anything other than which performance artist can win.
Winning for what end? Do you see Platner coming up with some policies on AI, deficit, and debt reduction? What kind of military will we need in the 21st century? How is he going to repair the extensive damage Trump has done?
Given that Americans on the left and right are shedding any veneer that they care about the personal behavior of their representatives, I expect more and more Ken Paxtons and Graham Platners. Oh joy, I feel so much better about out politics.
really the nazi tat is straight up bad and i don’t know anyone who would get one
fine, he may not be a nazi, but he glorifies their symbols or finds some things they did impressive enough to tat on his body. Not only anti jew but anti american. it doesn’t matter if he “IS” a nazi if he likes some of their shit enough to tattoo it. His lies about his life are also stupid and not needed. Even ppl that aren’t exactly moral wouldn’t get a nazi tat. I don’t care about reddit or philandering but the nazi tattoo is revealing asf