Sanders, Jackson, Platner Take Aim at Oligarchy With Maine Labor Day Rally
"We do not live in a system that is broken. We live in a system that is functioning exactly as it is intended," said Graham Platner, running for US Senate. "We live in a system that has been built by the political class to enrich and support billionaires on the backs of working people."
Sen. Bernie Sanders headlined a Labor Day rally in downtown Portland, Maine on Monday as part of his ongoing "Fighting Oligarchy" tour, where he joined hands in solidarity with the two candidates—Troy Jackson and Graham Platner—both of whom embrace the Vermont independent's democratic socialist message and a critique that argues concentrated wealth and power have corrupted both major political parties at the expense of working people.
Platner, an oysterman from the small coastal town of Sullivan seeking to win the Democratic primary in order to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins in 2026, launched his campaign last month by stating flatly that "the oligarchy is the enemy."
During his remarks Monday at the Cross Insurance Arena, Platner brought the crowd of over 6,500 people to their feet multiple times by blasting the ruling class and lamenting the struggle of too many Maine families.
"Politicians have made a series of decisions over the last 40 years that have resulted in the world that we see today. Their choices have left many of us with very little while, very few accrue vast amounts of wealth," he declared. "In 1990, there were less than 100 billionaires in the United States—today there are over 800. I ask you: when you look around, do you see a community and a state that is eight times wealthier than it was in 1990?"
Sanders rally with Graham Platner and Troy Jackson
"Much of the world that we have today is the specific result of policy choices made by establishment politicians. And the shameful truth of all of this is the blame cannot simply be left at the feet of one political party," said Platner. "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. Support must be earned and that will never happen as long as Democrats are part of the same corporate apparatus that the Republicans are."
Platner's bid against Collins, who has held the seat in the US Senate since 1997, is seen by some political observers as a long shot, but Platner was emphatic that voters in Maine are no longer fooled by what he described as her political "charade" in which she postures as a moderate while backing President Donald Trump's far-right, pro-corporate agenda.
"No one cares that you pretend to be remorseful as you sell out to lobbyists," Planter said of Collins. "No one cares while you sell out to corporations and no one cares while you sell out to a president who are all engineering the greatest redistribution of wealth,—from the working class to the ruling class—in American history."
"Symbolic opposition does not reopen hospitals," he continued, referencing the destruction repercussions of Collins' support for the GOP megabill earlier this year that will strip hundreds of billions from Medicaid. "Weak condemnations do not bring back Roe v. Wade. Sellling out the same working class voters who've delivered mandate for change after mandate for change is not forgivable. A performative politics that enables the destruction of our way of life is disqualifying for the role of United States Senator."
Platner drove home his message that the ruling class, both in Maine and nationwide, is at the heart of the struggles and challenged the idea that voters don't understand the term "oligarchy"—something that segments of the Democratic Party establishment have argued as Sanders toured the country this summer with his message.
"I keep getting told that voters don't know what that word means," said Platner. "But from the standing ovation, I assume everybody knows what it means because we know what's happening when we're getting robbed blind. But let's be clear, we do not live in a system that is broken. We live in a system that is functioning exactly as it is intended. We live in a system that has been built by the political class to enrich and support billionaires on the backs of working people."
The state of Maine, he declared amid a standing ovation, "deserves better than Susan Collins and Maine deserves an alternative who is not at risk of being mistaken as being beholden to the same status quo that she is. I am running because it is time for change."
Planter vowed to "beat back fascism," called for defense of democracy, and said people must embrace a notion of freedom that goes beyond a "romantic freedom"—one that recognizes the affordability crisis that makes life so difficult for working people.
What people need, he said, is a "freedom to not be condemned to scraps and to struggle, but to live with the dignity and fulfillment that gives us the society we deserve. Where instead of dreaming of a life where we can get by, we can afford a life that allows us to dream."
Following Platner, Troy Jackson, a seventh-generation logger from northern Maine who turned to politics on a working-class platform and rose to become president of the State Senate, is among those seeking to become the next governor of Maine when Gov. Janet Mills, also a Democrat, leaves office next year.
"I'm running because it's time to put power back in the hands of the people," said Jackson, after recounting his days in the woods, struggling to provide for his family while the wealthy owners of the logging companies grew ever richer and ever greedier.
"I'm running for governor because the American dream of putting down roots and owning a home and being able to provide for your family with a good-paying job is moving way out of reach," said Jackson. "I am running for the people who worked their entire lives and still can't afford to retire because the economic system in this country is rigged against them. And I'm running for all the workers who've been told to do or go home who've been told that they're replaceable and that their lives are disposable."
Like Platner, Jackson railed against the "status quo" and while he credited Democrats in the state for doing many important things over recent years, also admitted the party had fallen "woefully short" on many issues.
During his speech to conclude the rally, Sanders said this year's Labor Day comes at a perilous time in US history, with Trump's authoritarianism coinciding—and not coincidentally—with obscene levels of economic and political inequality.
Sanders said that the hundreds of thousands of people he has now spoken to as part of the "Fighting Oligarchy" tour have made it clear to him that there is a shared set of beliefs that can overturn the assault on democracy and working people that Trump is now leading.
"We have been to 15 states—and now I can say from Maine to California and a lot of states in between. And we've talked to over 300,000 people," said Sanders. "And what I can tell you without any fear of contradiction is the American people do not want an oligarchic form of government."
"They do not want to live under a kleptocracy where a president gets rich by being president and they sure as hell a sick and tired of the ongoing war of the rich against the working class of this country," he continued. "This is an unprecedented and, in fact, dangerous moment in American history and we have got to respond in an unprecedented way. And the way we respond is to build the kind of strong, progressive grassroots movement, the likes of which this country has never seen."
Echoing Platner, Sanders said that simply denouncing and confronting the Republicans will not be enough to turn the tide.
"What we need to do—which the Democratic Party, the leadership does not do—is have a vision of where we want this country to be," said Sanders.
"What I am begging of you is don't think small, think big," he continued, championing Medicare for All, robust support for public education, an end to disastrous US foreign policy—including support for the Israeli assault on Gaza, an expansion of Social Security, and serious efforts to curb rising food costs and the housing crisis that is crushing working people from coast to coast.
"Brothers and sisters, we got to be thinking outside the box in this state. We got to elect Graham and we got to elect Troy and other good people, but they can't do it alone," said Sanders.
The trick of the ruling class, he told the crowd, is "they basically try to say that ordinary people are powerless."
"What they're saying is they have all the money, they have all of the power, you got nothing. And they can do anything they want and you can't stop them," Sanders continued. "Well, I think we've got some news for them. Not only can we stop them, not only will we stop them, but for the future of this country and in fact the world, we must, must stop them today."
"On Labor Day—when we thank the unions for all they have done for the working class of this country—we understand and remember what a union is," he concluded. "A union is the understanding that one person cannot do it alone. That we all have got to come together to fight with and for each other. And what the union movement is about is solidarity forever."
