Graham Platner once appeared as the answer to Democrats’ electoral woes. The Maine Senate candidate boasted a biography and persona that oozed blue collar machismo, something clearly lacking in the modern Democratic Party.
He was a veteran with multiple combat tours. He currently works as an oysterman, giving his assertive populism an authenticity Democrats long for. This was a man who could supposedly take on MAGA on its own terms by arguing that left-wing populism, not Trumpism, was the real solution to the heartland’s troubles.
But that was then.
Now, Platner embarrasses the liberals who once championed him. It was recently uncovered that he declared himself a communist and a zealous supporter of Antifa violence in online posts. It also turns out he had a Totenkopf (“death’s head”) skull-and-crossbones tattoo, an image associated with the Nazis’ paramilitary wing. It’s unlikely a candidate with an SS tattoo can survive in a Democratic primary, but who knows? There are new rules for American politics.
Whether Platner’s political career is over or not, his elevation illustrates the left’s desire for masculine, white, working-class candidates. The party is insecure about its lack of appeal to the demographic that made Trump president. This deficiency makes Democrats worry they’re out of touch and wimpy. Platner seemed like the perfect rebuttal to criticism that the Blue Party is too elitist and woke, until the discovery of the very non-woke tattoo.
The Maine oysterman isn’t the first chud (a term used to describe typical working-class men in the heartland) to capture Democrats’ hearts and minds. Richard Ojeda and John Fetterman are two of the most prominent examples. Ojeda, a highly-decorated Army veteran, gained national attention in 2018 when he ran for a U.S. House of Representatives seat in deep-red West Virginia. He made a name as a masculine progressive who could appeal to Trump voters, at least in the view of the national media. He would lose his race by 12 points and has since become a perennial candidate for office.
Fetterman, the sloppily-dressed Pennsylvania senator, was similarly touted as the left’s answer to MAGA’s working-class appeal. He wore hoodies and gym shorts instead of suits. Along with his goatee and large size, he looked more like a guy coming to fix your air conditioning than a typical politician. He won his Senate seat in 2022, despite a debilitating stroke. Many liberals thought Fetterman could advance left-ish populism that would win back the working class. Instead, he’s become the most hated Democratic senator among liberals, and there’s an effort to push him out of the party over his ostentatious centrism. Republicans are more likely to say nice things about Fetterman than his own party.
Republicans have similarly struggled with their elevation of unqualified minority candidates. Herschel Walker and Royce White are two recent examples. Walker, a former football star and close Trump friend, seemed the perfect Republican Senate candidate for Georgia. Then the stories of his love children and paid-for abortions came out and crippled his campaign. White, another former professional athlete, stands as the most Insane Clown Party candidate in the GOP so far. From his advocacy of insane conspiracy theories to hilarious allegations of mismanagement of funds (he was accused of spending substantial amounts of campaign cash at strip clubs), White brought embarrassment to the Minnesota GOP when he became its nominee for the Senate. Like Walker, he lost his race.
Neither party has seemed to learn from these failures. The Democrats continue to search for their Great White Hope to restore their blue-collar credibility, while Republicans keep looking for non-white conservatives. These figures are embraced to counteract perceived electoral weaknesses and offer their respective parties a chance to sell their policies in ways perceived culturally palatable. But they’re still expected to toe the party line.
The Graham Platner types are not supposed to repudiate Democrats’ wokeness or liberal immigration policies. They’re supposed to affirm these ideas and promote them to the working class. Rather than an effeminate liberal scold telling you “refugees welcome,” you now have a belligerent vet trying to fight you for supporting mass deportations. Liberals love that. They want voters to think that the men who served and the truly masculine stand with their policies, not with Republicans. But that’s a tough sell. No matter how tough or how many tattoos a Democratic everyman may have, it’s still going to be tough to win back the white working class. These people didn’t just turn on Democrats due to the party’s style. They didn’t like the party’s policies either, especially Democrats’ support for open borders that threatened their jobs and their nation’s cohesion.
Republicans, meanwhile, want minority candidates to champion conservative causes to refute liberal charges that they’re racist. It hasn’t worked so far, nor have these candidates attracted much black support. However, Republicans are making progress among other non-whites.
Whatever happens to Platner, he does exemplify a desire among some Democratic elites for normal white guys to be their leaders. Liberal policies and rhetoric may be anti-white and anti-male, but liberals still want a traditionally masculine politician to sell that program to the public. This kind of political calculus isn’t new and it’s borne fruit before, including in recent years. In 2020, the extremely woke Democratic party still nominated the old-school, geriatric, white Joe Biden for president. Something similar could happen again in 2028.
Platner is part of the Democrats’ general aimlessness. They can’t figure out what they want to be and what they stand for, so they’re opening up to new possibilities and figures who can shake the party out of its listlessness. Here’s a charismatic, red-blooded guy who can make the Democrats the party of the common man again! Unfortunately, this knight in well-worn Carhartts has an SS tattoo, introducing a stumbling block in the Democrats’ quest to find purpose in the Trump era.
The identity-obsessed Democrats are having an identity crisis, and the solution to their woes still eludes them.
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