Well, i can’t read his mind. But he claims to believe:
I will be a strong supporter of a Medicare for All system, moving away from the for-profit insurance system that has brought us nothing but grief.
We need strong border security and a path to citizenship. We cannot do one without the other.
We need strong border controls and a path to immigration (and kidnapping people off the streets is unconscionable)
In the Senate, I will fight for urgent action on climate change.
I will oppose ANY cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, and work to pass improved Medicare for ALL.
Lifting the payroll tax cap would make Social Security solvent for decades to come, while allowing for COLA increases. It’s long past time to protect Social Security for future generations.
The Wabanaki of Maine are entitled to true sovereignty and self-determination. Too often, the state and federal governments have run roughshod over tribal sovereignty.
I will support expanded cold storage capacity for cooperative processing, grant programs to expand the maritime workforce, and provide significant resources to contain invasive species.
I will support the PRO Act, to protect the right to organize and provide significant penalties for illegal union-busting
I will support a union job requirement for all jobs funded by federal dollars. Omitting this was a major failure of the IRA, one I look forward to remedying in the Senate.
I will oppose any federal support for private school vouchers.
Government intrusion and surveillance into every aspect of our lives should concern every American. The surveillance state has gone too far, and I will work to restore safeguards and due process.
This extends to the government’s regulation of some of the most private and personal decisions a person can make: whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term. I support a strong federal guarantee of the right to choose.
In addition, I’ll support legislation to restrict corporations’ use of AI to surveil, track, and subject Americans to predatory pricing practices.
It’s time to raise the federal minimum wage – and index it to inflation,
I am tired of seeing politicians using small groups of people as a punching bag – be it race, or gender identity, or sexual orientation.
I will support passing, at last, federal LGBTQ anti-discrimination legislation.
I will always fight to defend Medicaid so that people with disabilities can continue accessing the care and services they’ve had their entire lives.
And yes, this is cherry picking on my part. There’s also some “eat the rich” in there, and other populist stuff. And stuff about supporting ex members of the armed forces, and…
And also:
I have not minced words on this issue. We are sending American taxpayer dollars to underwrite the starvation of Gaza, in what can only be accurately described as a genocide.
Which may be a reason @Babale opposes him so vigorously.
But denying that he makes progressive promises is also fake news.
I have no idea who this person is but I suspect you’ll find broad agreement here that the opinions he is quoted as having are dumb.
Probably more discussion of what is presented ac and thought about “masculinity” by the Democratic Party overall belongs in the GD “Male Inequality” thread. The opinions of that piece do track with a misconception held in some parts of D leadership that “masculinity” means all the features that get called “toxic masculinity” to the disaffected feeling ignored younger male voters who swung to Trump. It doesn’t. The things Platner are accused of, the allegation of his shoving a former girlfriend in a room and holding the door shut until she calmed down as if she was a child being given a time out, cheating on former girlfriends and by sexting cheating on his wife, drinking too much in his past, misogyny or putting women down in any way… none of these are approved of by those looking to see some positivity to traditional masculinity on the D side, they are not traditional masculinity.
If the Democrats fall to slopulism and the Platner types take over the way MAGA did, America is fucked. Not Israel, America. And most likely, the entire fucking planet will follow.
His platform as presented on his website? I guess a couple of those are “progressive”, like the climate stuff. I don’t really think the Medicare slopulism is necessarily progressive - his platform on that is nearly identical to Nick Fuentes and every other slopulist out there, right or left.
In terms of what he actually campaigns on, though? Pure unadulterated eat the rich slopulism.
Well, reforming the American health insurance system and protecting minorities are two of the progressive ideals i most support. So we clearly disagree there. And i think both are unambiguously progressive.
Is Nick Fuentes “unambiguously progressive”, at least on this specific issue? He wants universal healthcare and to get private corporations completely out of the healthcare business.
I didn’t realize we were judging these things on the basis of what Nick Fuentes does, or does not, support.
And if we aren’t, then bringing him up is just poisoning the well.
I guess he is. I’m not very familiar with Nick Fuentes’ policy proposals, so I’d want to read what he or his supporters claimed before saying for sure. But even bad people often endorse a good idea or two.
It looks like you’re missing a word there so I don’t know what the second example is, but raising the minimum wage is more of a progressive policy than most of the other examples, but again unlike climate or virtue signaling about Native American tribes (what did Platner actually suggest doing for them, by the way?) it’s an issue that does have support across the horseshoe on the far right - Josh Hawley, the far right Republican, introduced federal minimum wage legislation. It’s mostly a populist issue.
You’ll need to be a bit more specific there. What do you mean by ‘progressive’? I can see three options
Ideals that align with the political philosophy known as “Progressivism”
Ideals held by the current day loosely aligned group of American politicians on the left flank of the Democratic party that are known as “Progressives”
Ideals held by the group described in option 2 that are somewhat unique to them, that actually differentiate them from either Liberals slightly to their right or far right populists across the horseshoe gap from them
I assume we are mostly interested in the third category, because we are trying to determine whether Platner actually demonstrates a commitment to principles that set him apart from far right populists; yes, “Eat the Rich” is a message that’s popular with progressives, but it’s also popular with the far right.
No, it’s more like “Hitler was a vegetarian, so you being one doesn’t automatically make you a far left hippie type even though that’s the stereotype”.
Platner’s support of Medicare for all shows that he is a populist. Other populists include Bernie Sanders, Nick Fuentes, AOC, Cadance Owens, and Josh Hawley. Without more information, it’s not nearly as certain as you are acting that he is the Left type of populist and not the Right type of populist, or just very committed to Populism and not really caring about left OR right. Just saying “he supports Medicare for all and complains about the rich a lot” doesn’t convince me he is progressive because Nick Fuentes does all those same things. And unlike Bernie or AOC, Platner kept a Nazi tattoo on his body for decades.
“His website mentions native Americans but he himself never does” is not particularly compelling evidence either.
To be fair, the tax the billionaires, freeze rents, economic populism was just referenced as “Gen Z socialism” by The Economist this last week, and its message is definitely part of what got Madami elected. There is reason to think that it will be a growing factor beyond the mid terms and into the next cycles. Right now at least the GOP, and specifically Trumpism, has lost its sheen to many voters, especially but not only younger ones, but same old same old, and often old, Democratic establishment mantras are not hitting any chords … the AOC wing (with all that entails, including anti-Zionism and an eat the rich mindset) may not prevail but it is ascendant. And some establishment Ds are afraid, understandably.
Platner’s economic populism (assuming no bait and switch as some seem to fear since he reminds superficially of Fetterman) is definitely part of that movement, that Bable calls “slopulism” out of concern for America. They are the “none of the above” choice, neither Trump nor establishment D, that is winning elections fairly frequently right now, and is custom fit for Maine’s large swath of Independent voters.
Fact: Platner got a tattoo in 2007 that was, in actuality, a Nazi symbol.
Fact: In February 2019, Platner participated in a discussion on Reddit about that specific Nazi symbol, which proves that, by that date, he knew what it was. Cite
Fact: Platner later deleted his post in that discussion, an acknowledgment that it was proof that he knew what it was.
Fact: Platner kept his Nazi tattoo until at least October 2025 Cite.
Fact: Platner claimed that he got rid of the tattoo as soon as he learned what it was.
I don’t like Collins. I think she has supported a lot of bad things, some of which are nazi-easqe. But i didn’t think she’s a Nazi, and i didn’t think that’s a winning argument.
