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this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2026
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I mean, the joke of this election cycle has been the candidates on display:
Susan Collins: A woman who has never seen an NDAA she hasn't supported, who fully endorses our direct military interventions around the globe and our indirect espionage, sabotage, and misinformation campaigns targeting enemy states and religious groups, and who hates any kind of labor movement with a burning passion
Janet Mills: A Zionist to her core, a neoliberal ghoul, and a socially reactionary shit who squandered the goodwill of Maine voters for nearly a decade and became the single most reviled governor in the country. Someone who is functionally indistinguishable from Susan Collins on every political issue you could name, with the singular exception of who the Majority Leader of the US Senate should be.
Graham Platner: An ex-military/ex-mercenary who has fully recanted, adopted an anti-imperialist position, organized and campaigned against all of the above, and is hoping to run for office on an anti-Zionist, anti-Imperialist platform on the grounds that he's been on the front lines and hates what he saw.
Like, I don't think Platner should be in the US Senate. If he's a Shoot-and-Cry ex-imperialist, he can do that shit from the sidelines and endorse a proper progressive candidate instead. But now that he's the frontrunner against these other two turds... I'm not sad about it.
What I mostly can't comprehend is, why in the fuck is there not any better candidates in the whole state? Same with Pingree who ran unopposed for the democrats... How is that even possible??
In my small commune of about 60k people, there are more candidates for the counsel from every single political party than there are counsel seats. How is it in any way possible, or for that matter appropriate, to be unopposed in any kind of election? It makes no sense to me.
Running for office requires a combination of charisma, organizational skills, and self-delusion that most people don't possess. And it also requires enormous amounts of free time. Collins is a career politician. Mills is a career politician. Platner is on 100% disability from the US military, so he doesn't need to pull down a 40-hour work week in between campaign appearances.
Well, part of the problem is that you do just have a 60k person community with multiple seats at play. So the stacks are relatively low and the possibility of winning is relatively high. Maine is 1.4M people, presumably a much bigger stretch of territory to canvas, and it's just the one position you're trying to win. Platner pulled in $4.6M in a quarter to fund his campaign. Three months! And he raised more money than some people see in a lifetime. How many of your commune candidates are getting that kind of donation for a counsel seat?
I can hope he's a Smedley Butler type, but yeah I'm glad that wasn't the race I had to decide on
Yeah, don't get me wrong: Platner is clearly the best choice given those options. But I hate that these are the people to choose from in this particular race.
Besides, after Fetterman's heel-turn, I'm leery of any candidate with a checkered past. I do believe in second chances, but some jobs are just too important and corruption-prone to risk it.
One did it in my state and she was so far “left” then switched immediately when elected. People can’t blame us for being worried. If he is great then fine, but far too many times the let these absolute liars in. Far right actors pretending to be left. I’ve been called all these names before for being weary and I’m unfortunately near always right.
My condolences. I sincerely hope politics in your area change for the better.
The problem with being able to see the future clearly is not with accuracy, nor being able to do it at all. It's getting other people to listen, believe you, and act on that information. That's the hard part.
Fetterman was always a shill for Israel. He was the DNC's dog in the Pennsylvania fight. He looked like a schlub, sure. But he'd already spent four years as lt. governor under millionaire industry flak Tom Wolf. Fetterman officially toed much of the party line on social and economic issues, which was good-enough for primary voters when his opponent was a shill as bad as Conor Lamb. But he hasn't really turned heel so much as he won't shut up about this one issue everyone hates him for.
Definitely possible Platner's going to spend the next six years screaming "Sandy Hook was an inside job!" once he takes office, and make his entire personality about hugging a gun. But I haven't seen this out of him just yet.
He's not my ideal choice for Senate.
But I do find a certain dramatic irony in reviewing the three people who had the best chance of winning in November, sizing up the guy with the Totenkompf, and deciding he's the least fascist guy on the ballot.