Key Takeaways
- Democratic Senate candidate Graham Plattner faces scrutiny over past controversial online remarks and a tattoo.
- Plattner emphasizes personal transformation, asserting individuals can evolve their perspectives and language.
- He critiques the Democratic Party's perceived shift towards corporate interests since the 1990s, away from labor.
- Plattner's campaign priorities include addressing affordability, healthcare, and reasserting Congressional war powers.
- He identifies working-class disillusionment in Maine as a key political driver, similar to support for Trump.
- New Yorker contributor Calvin Tompkins reflects on his 100th birthday and a career profiling artists.
Deep Dive
- Graham Plattner, a combat veteran and small business owner, was recruited by labor unions to challenge Senator Susan Collins in Maine.
- He has prior experience as a community organizer, planning board chair, and harbormaster, finding these roles rewarding due to their direct impact.
- Plattner enlisted in the Marine Corps despite his father's concerns about the Iraq War, motivated by a lifelong interest in military history.
- Plattner faced scrutiny for online comments made in his late 20s and early 30s regarding police, LGBTQ+ people, sexual assault survivors, Black people, and rural whites.
- A photo of a Marine tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol also surfaced; Plattner stated he did not realize its connotation and later apologized.
- He frames his candidacy on personal transformation, arguing people from generations with extensive social media histories should be allowed to change and grow.
- Plattner distinguishes between sustained hateful ideologies and past immature or ignorant comments, suggesting the latter can indicate growth if the behavior ceases.
- Plattner asserts the Democratic Party has become overly aligned with corporate interests, mirroring the Republican Party.
- He cites the 1990s and the Clinton administration as a turning point where the party leaned into deregulation and corporate interests.
- The Obama administration's response to the 2008 financial crisis, which prioritized bank bailouts over homeowners, is viewed as a continuation of this problematic direction.
- Plattner's campaign rejects donations from PACs, including fossil fuel PACs and large corporate or dark money groups, relying on individual and labor PAC contributions.
- He served eight years in the military (four in the Marine Corps, four in the U.S. Army National Guard), including active combat as a machine gunner in Ramadi in 2006.
- Plattner advocates for reclaiming war powers from the executive branch, asserting Congress's constitutional duty.
- He criticized military actions in Venezuela, calling the situation a "worse and dumber" rehash of the Iraq War due to lack of clear justification and legal ambiguity.
- Plattner advocates for regulations, taxation, and antitrust enforcement to prevent the exploitation of working people by capitalism.
- He shares his personal experience as a disabled combat veteran receiving VA healthcare, which afforded him the freedom to pursue his passion for working on the ocean, becoming a diver and oyster farmer.
- This contrasts with many in his Maine community, where hardworking people struggle to start businesses or afford basic living expenses, with some working multiple jobs to pay rent.
- Plattner observes widespread sentiment in Maine, across Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, that the current political and economic system does not benefit them.
- He connects this disillusionment to issues like collapsing healthcare due to corporate greed and AI-driven claim denials, and rising costs, such as a constituent's 60% rent increase with few housing options.
- Plattner believes Donald Trump capitalized on this anger by confirming feelings of being "robbed by the system," despite offering incorrect solutions.
- New Yorker contributor Calvin Tompkins, writing since the early 1960s, reflects on his 100th birthday and a career profiling artists.
- He describes the early 1960s as a pivotal moment in art, comparable to Paris in the 1920s, recalling early profiles of artists like Jean Tinguely, John Cage, and Robert Rauschenberg.
- Tompkins maintains an ongoing curiosity, profiling younger artists such as Simone Lee and Rashid Johnson, demonstrating consistent passion for new work.
- His recent diary entries for The New Yorker's centennial focus on personal experience rather than political commentary, offering a perspective on life and decency.