With Graham Platner in Maine, the Democratic Party defended an obviously unfit candidate until the polls indicated that the candidate would be a general election loser, dumped that candidate after he had already won the primary, and then decided to insert its own establishment pick without letting voters have a say.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is exactly the same thing the Democratic Party did with Joe Biden.
Democrats have dumped Platner under the pretense that the sexual assault accusation against him by an ex-girlfriend was a bridge too far, despite the abusive misconduct accusations from other ex-girlfriends apparently not being enough for the party to move on. Democrats defended Platner through those past accusations, through the despicable comments he made on social media, and through the fact that he had a Nazi tattoo. Platner had proven himself unfit for office time and time again.
What truly changed was the polling, which showed Platner dramatically underperforming previous Democrats who challenged (and lost to) GOP Sen. Susan Collins. Democrats defended Platner through every scandal until it became clear that those scandals were dragging down his poll numbers, and so the sexual assault accusation became a convenient way to push him out of the race one week before the ballot would be finalized.
Democrats defended Platner all the way through the primary, where 154,000 Democratic voters chose him as their nominee, a resounding 72% of the electorate. Now, those voters are going to have their will overturned by the Democratic Party establishment, with party elites planning a nominating convention to name his replacement.
WHAT HAPPENS TO THE BRAINS BEHIND GRAHAM PLATNER’S RISE AND FALL? THEY’LL FIND ANOTHER OYSTER FARMER
This is the exact playbook national Democrats executed with Biden in 2024. They defended Biden despite it being clear that his cognitive decline left him unable to perform his presidential duties for years. Biden racked up the votes in the Democratic presidential primaries, won the nomination, then was forced out of the race after a bad debate and worse poll numbers made it clear he couldn’t win. The Democratic establishment then chose Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee with no input from voters.
That makes the Platner situation the second time Democrats foisted a terrible candidate on their voters and then cut those voters off at the knees. The party of “defending democracy” has now twice undermined its own democratic process because it didn’t like the direction it was heading (despite the party setting that direction itself). The Democratic Party evidently hates its own voters as much as it hates America, as Democratic elites are now making a habit of stripping those voters of any decision-making role in primaries.