The Real Deal: Susan Collins Is Very Concerned

Sparking a populist fire, the "Fighting Oligarchy" tour in Portland brought tireless Bernie, aspiring governor Troy Jackson, and electrifying veteran, oyster farmer, harbormaster, and unabashed populist Graham Platner - come, finally, please, to rid us of odious collaborator Susan 'I'm-Sure-He's-Learned-His-Lesson' Collins. With his "plainspoken fury at the billionaire economy," Platner's unafraid to "beat back fascism," "name the enemy - oligarchy" - decry Gaza's "genocide," and summon "a life that allows us to dream."

Boasting he can now say he's barnstormed from California to Maine - and drawing over 300,000 people en route - Bernie told a revved-up Labor Day crowd here of over 6,500, triple his likewise ardent audience in 2016, to "think big" and in unprecedented ways to combat our "unprecedented and dangerous moment in American history." On his travels, he's learned Americans "do not want to live under a kleptocracy" where they "sure as hell are sick and tired of the ongoing war of the rich against the working class." His now-decades-old solution: Building a "strong, progressive grassroots movement" to make real "a vision of where we want this country to be." The trick of the ruling class, he said, is "to say that ordinary people are powerless," that "they have all the money, all the power, you got nothing, and they can do anything they want....We must, must stop them today."

Toward that end, he brought his own, newly endorsed firepower. Jackson, a 5th-generation logger from northern Maine who became president of the state Senate on a progressive platform, wants to replace Janet Mills as governor next year; he argues that in an economic system rigged against them, he's running "to put power back in the hands of the people," for "all the workers who've been told they're replaceable (and) their lives are disposable." Since announcing his Senate bid two weeks ago, Platner, 40, has raised over a million dollars and many hopes his breath of fresh populist air can defeat the odious Collins, allowing Maine to tip control of the Senate back to Democrats in 2026. Platner's generated so much excitement tour organizers reportedly had to move the event to a bigger venue; he says he views the uproar as "essentially incomprehensible."

Born and raised in the small coastal town of Sullivan, Platner is widely praised as "the real deal": A modest, much-loved, hard-working, plain- talking, Philip-Seymour-Hoffman-voiced guy with an impeccable resume and "the honesty to call out the villains causing our pain" who "embodies the populist energy many Americans are looking for" - but Dems have failed to embrace. Even as up-front populist Sanders remains the country's most popular politician, Democrats' and Harris' craven clinging to the center last year earned them today's minus-32 approval rating, an exodus of working class voters, and Platner's wrath. In his 4th ever post on X, he raged, "Nothing pisses me off more than getting a fundraising text from Democrats about how they’re fighting fascism...It's such bullshit. We’re not idiots. Everyone knows most of them aren’t doing jack shit right now to fight back."

In a launch video that's racked up over four million views, and in his freshly-minted speeches, Platner is incisive, eloquent, straight-forward. Watching his state "become essentially unlivable for working people,” he says, makes him "deeply angry...The fabric of what holds us together is being ripped apart by billionaires and corrupt politicians." "Everyone in Maine knows, in their bones, the system is screwing us," he says. "We do not live in a system that is broken. We live in a system that is functioning exactly as it is intended...that has been built by the political class to enrich and support billionaires on the backs of working people." On fraught issues further from home, he is similarly direct. "What is happening in Gaza is a genocide," he told Jewish Insider. "None of this benefits working-class Americans, and I refuse to take money (for) our funding of a genocide."

As a longtime progressive - with an old, stained Bernie coffee mug - he acknowledges the seeming contradictions of his four combat tours, Marines and Army, in the "forever wars" of Iraq and Afghanistan he now denounces. “I thought I could do some good," he says. "I might have read too much Hemingway." By his early 30s, having been "blown up a few times," he realized the military and Afghanistan were "not a place for me anymore." He came home with two herniated discs, a traumatic brain injury, and then-undiagnosed PTSD, which qualified him for 100% disabled status from the VA; he used his benefits to attend George Washington University on the GI bill but, still struggling, eventually returned to Maine. He soon found solace and "a new purpose" on the water, taking over the small experimental Waukeag Neck Oyster Company farm back in Sullivan.

The website for the farm, "nestled between the tidal waters of Frenchman Bay and the rocky coastline of Sorrento," cites the singular flavor of their oysters "thanks to this special tidal exchange with deep, cold Atlantic waters and warmer waters from the bay...Handling the oysters often and with great care (makes) our oysters plump, sweet with a clean finish." Platner likes to add political context, describing a 5,000-year history of oysters from the Passamaquoddy tribe collecting them in shallows - "protein that doesn’t run away" - to locals learning from them to an 1800s status symbol to their decline and then resurgence after academic efforts to revive them: Indigenous and working-class economy to capitalist decimation to rebirth through science. Today, he touts aquaculture as key to a sustainable future; he also gets to sometimes work with his mom, whose restaurant serves his catch.

He cares deeply about his home town and state, has long supported community efforts - food banks, indigenous rights, veterans' health care - and is beloved by locals as "an everyday guy interacting with regular people." He recently spoke at an event for Troy Jackson in nearby Belmont; his entry into electoral politics is so new he was originally booked to cater the event, so he worked shucking free oysters for two hours, got up and gave a speech, then cleaned up his kitchen and talked to people. They were impressed he doesn't even wear a glove for shucking: "He's the man of steel!" He's a Star Trek fan and firearm instructor who spends many weekends at the gun range, and has mostly working-class friends, Trump voters among them. He and his wife Amy hope to start a family; for now they have a cat and two dogs, including one named Zevon, for Warren.

He's seen an avalanche of support since his entry into the Senate race, which was sparked by current horrors: People getting kidnapped by masked federal agents, friends who can't afford housing, the genocide in Gaza, outrage over Dems' failures to "impede the destruction of every American institution that matters (by) people who have already torched the rulebook." And, of course, the egregious hypocrisies and transgressions of Collins, from her obscene vote for fascist frat boy Kavanaugh to her support for Trump's disastrous big ugly bill that will cut Medicaid and rural health care even as she babbles about her support for them. "Symbolic opposition does not open hospitals, and weak condemnations do not bring back Roe v. Wade," he says. "Performative politics that enable the destruction of our way of life is disqualifying for the role of a U.S. Senator."

Eyeing her sixth stale term, Collins has seen her approval rate plummet. She's famously declined to hold a town hall for years, and at her rare public events she's often jeered and heckled. After she was booed at a recent road opening in Searsport, she whined, "Demonstrators seem to be part of the political world nowadays. It was interesting to see how much misinformation they had." After a Labor Day post so lame and tone-deaf it sounded like parody - "Let us not forget those who are working hard on this holiday" - "healthcare providers" (whose jobs she's helping kill), "hospitality workers" (who aren't called that anymore), "public safety officials keeping us safe" (and rounding up brown people), "the employees in our grocery stores and those responsible for transporting vacationers" (say what?) - she was savaged by Mainers basically telling her, "Go fuck yourself."

"Oh honey, you forgot years ago," ran one comment. Also: "Remove and replace," "Hollow words," "Silent complicity," "Oysterman '26," "Tell us more at your next town hall," "Cool, now tell us about the Epstein files," "Girl pack your bags," "Susan, you're flailing," "Get stuffed," "Do better," "Your time has come," "Don't you have something to be concerned about?" "Have you ever gotten Cheeto dust in your eyes at work?" "We need more than platitudes," "Whatever, Susan," "Are you clutching your $3,000 pearls?" "Let us remember them, salute them, and then forget about them until next Labor Day," "Remember all the federal workers who would still be doing their jobs if they hadn't been fired," "Labor Day is about THE UNIONS. Thank you for your attention to this matter," "The people are pissed," and "Have you found the Epstein files yet? Or are you only concerned about them?"

Because, per Platner, anyone challenging Collins or trying to raise up working people "has to be labeled the most lefty nut-job ever," her spokesperson babbled in response, "Susan Collins has a proven record of putting Mainers first...Graham Platner, on the other hand, is spending his time cozying up to Bernie Sanders and (his) radical, anti-Israel agenda." In truth, Platner's insurgent campaign must first win over establishment Dems, who want the safe Gov. Janet Mills to run; as proof, he notes he hasn't heard from any outside Maine. Still, he thinks of community organizing as the ultimate endurance test: "If you believe in a better world, you need to get right with the fact you may never see it....It’s not about getting me or anybody elected. It’s about using this as a mechanism (to) build a working-class movement, an apparatus for change even if no one else shows up."

In Portland, many people showed up, and they were hyped from the moment Platner sheepishly began, "Until recently, I thought harbormaster of Sullivan Maine was going to be the extent of my political career." He offered hard truths. On mainstream pols: "Blame cannot simply be left at the feet of one political party. We have two parties that want the votes of working people, but neither has done anything lately to earn it. No one is owed allegiance (as) long as Democrats are part of the same corporate apparatus (as) Republicans." On Collins, her "charade" wearing thin: "No one cares you pretend to be remorseful as you sell out to lobbyists...corporations... a president all engineering the greatest redistribution of wealth in American history." On labor, women's, civil rights, gay rights, anti-genocide movements, "legacies not of asking permission" but organizing and taking power for "the society we deserve." And the candidates to make it happen.

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