Platner's Plight

Friends,

Having spent much of my life in Maine I want to offer yet one more commentary on Graham Platner’s sorry plight and his failed senate candidacy. It is essential to say at the outset that every rape victim must be taken seriously and given support, and I believe that was achieved in the Platner drama. There is no reason to doubt Platner’s rape victim’s account, but the possibility of a political motivation regarding the timing and details about her coaching may still be part of the story.

I do not defend Platner.  But I want to offer another perspective on him somewhat different from the media pile-on he received. When I was in my twenties my best friend was a young Mainer similar to Platner. He was hard working, middle class, rough, unshaven, a rebel.  Unlike Platner who joined the Marines, my friend took the opposite route and refused to serve in the military during the Viet Nam war.  He was deeply convinced the Viet Nam war was an immoral and political disaster that he could not support, and he was willing to go to prison for his convictions. (He eventually did serve time in federal prison.) There was integrity in my friend's character that I deeply respected, and, like Platner, he may well have had a hidden past but I never really asked.  And like much of Platner’s forceful criticism of the failures of established politicians, in retrospect my friend was right about our nation’s brutal, unjustified war.

I agree Platner needed to withdraw from his candidacy because of the traumatic harm he did to another individual. But I will miss his alternative voice on behalf of all the thousands of vets like him who survived several active military tours in Viet Nam and then faced the challenges of reentry back into civilian life while dealing with PTSD, alcoholism, depression, suicide, and often failed marriages. I will miss Platner's advocacy for the working class who are struggling for their economic survival against the powerful political and economic obstacles they face. Platner's rough character and style, in spite of his moral failure, provided a credible and welcome alternative to the well-dressed, established politicians personified in Sen. Collins, his likely opposition in his failed senate race. The heavy media coverage of his unacceptable behavior unfortunately overshadowed Platner's often sensible, outspoken, alternative political platform that won over the people in Maine in the democratic primary election. I regret we will now miss the a debate with Collins that would have featured their oppositional views on government accountability and responsibility.

I assume Graham Platner will now largely and mercifully disappear from the public’s attention, but we can only hope another person, with far more education and political experience, but without heavy personal liabilities, can also courageously offer us an alternative political perspective that will call out the need to address the economic struggles of America’s blue-collar middle class. I would especially welcome someone who will lead us toward a renaissance of the New Deal reformation that has served and protected the American marginalized and working class now for decades.

Political morality is a tricky subject. Graham Platner’s naive and unprepared first attempt at politics was to run for the senate, which he might have pulled off. He will likely be remembered, however, for his rape accusations. I still have to admire his willingness to risk his vulnerability to express his opinion in the public arena on behalf of his lived truth about war and the national economics that neglected the working poor.

Peace,
Tom