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He says enough good things that he’s worth throwing some weight behind. Importantly too, (and unfortunate it has to be this way) he’s a macho white veteran. He’s speaking TOO and FOR this demographic who happens to have too much weight in the US political discourse.
A lot of what he says I generally agree with, but he is, like any politician, imperfect. He’s the best we got against Susan Collins though. If his image can be the voice of reason to this demographic of desperately macho white dudes in the US, then let’s ride the wave until someone better comes along.
He's an unapologetic war criminal who brags about his love of war crimes and got a Nazi tattoo to commemorate those crimes.
But "he says enough good things" and calls himself progressive, and that's good enough for you?
What allegations do you have that he personally committed a war crime? Who did he torture? What innocent civilians did he murder in cold blood?
And I'm going to need better than "he was a US military soldier who served in Iraq, therefore he is automatically guilty of war crimes." Did he serve at Abu Ghraib prison? Yes, but that was years after the torture came to light, and there has never been any allegation that he was directly involved in the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners. He was ordered to guard prisoners at a place where years prior some evil shit happened. For this you slander him as a war criminal.
Your definition of "war criminal" is so expansive that almost any US veteran would be disqualified. Fine if you want to take that stance, but that's far from the standard of even most progressive American voters. If you have such extreme views, fine. There's no way I can say your views are objectively wrong. There's no objective way to set the dial on individual moral culpability and military service. But one thing that can be said is your views are wildly out of step with the American electorate. Most folks do not see having served in uniform in Iraq or Afghanistan as disqualifying. If you polled asking people, "does merely having served in Iraq mean someone is a war criminal?" Less than 10% would say yes. It's a fringe viewpoint, and it's not really one we should be basing our electoral strategy on.
Not really the sentiment. If he can steer disaffected white men away from the Republican Party, that’s a good enough start for someone. That doesn’t mean he’s perfect.
Perfection is the enemy of progress. We can’t wait for the perfect candidate. We have to use people who have enough cult of personality to ultimately get to something better.
I don’t want to see another 2024 election outcome. I did NOT want to vote for Kamala, but the unfortunate reality is that if we didn’t we’d be stuck with Trump. I get exactly why people wanted to “make her pay” but we have a rigged electoral system, you’re only making yourself pay when you do something like allow Trump to be voted in.
100% agree with you here. The key to winning is having a candidate the disaffected white men will be willing to vote for because they are the largest GOP voting block. If the Dems ran more guys like Platner then they’d win more often. That simple.
Citation?
This is bullshit. He's spoken about how the military sold him an idea that it didn't give him, for example. He also wants to decrease military spending. I've seen nothing similar to your claims, except that tattoo, which he got while in the military, not to commemorate it.
What alternative are you proposing?
He so unapologetic about the war he thanked Susan Collins for sending him.
Yep. And that makes him popular with macho white guys. I love villains, I especially love villains who are on my side.