The guy pictured above, should you not immediately recognize him, is Graham Platner, an oyster farmer from the State of Maine. That's Maine in the background!
Platner is running for the United States Senate, as a "progressive" candidate, and as a Democrat, and is seeking to replace Maine's current Senator, Susan Collins, who is a Republican. Platner has been endorsed by Bernie Sanders (who votes with the Democrats, but who is not, actually, a Democrat himself). Platner has also been endorsed by by the UAW.
Ousting Collins, in next year's election, is a very high priority for the Democratic Party, but the Democratic Party leadership, in Washington, D.C., is not too keen on Platner. I think it might be that "progressive" stuff. Instead of backing Platner, high-ranking Democrats from D.C. have prevailed upon the current Governor of Maine, Democrat Janet Mills, to enter the race.
Most of what I have read about Platner has centered on the tattoo he previously had on his chest (which tattoo has since been removed, after controversy erupted). The tattoo contained Nazi imagery, but Platner says he didn't realize the origin of the image that was placed upon his body, some years ago, in Croatia, when Platner was out having a good time with some buddies, and was, admittedly, intoxicated.
New York Times' columnist Michelle Goldberg wrote about Platner in a column dated on Halloween. Goldberg was, she writes, disinclined to travel up to Maine to meet with Platner, because she figured that his campaign was on the verge of collapse. Some of Platner's past posts on Reddit, along with the now-removed tattoo, were going to knock him out of any serious consideration, the way Goldberg figured it, so why waste the trip?
People "on the ground" in Maine convinced Goldberg that maybe Platner has a chance, after all, and so she did travel north to meet with him. That personal visit changed her mind. Goldberg's column, which you should try to read in its entirety, was titled "Graham Platner Isn't Finished," and it gives Platner a pretty good review. Here are two excerpts from the column, both of which caught my attention (emphasis added):
For all his criticisms of our amoral, billionaire-dominated system, [Platner] said, “Americans are fundamentally good people. People that I disagree with politically are fundamentally good people. They show up for each other. They care about each other.”
Platner has been heavily influenced by the work of Jane McAlevey, a labor organizer who wrote extensively about building community power. McAlevey was deeply critical of the professionalization of the left. “Advocacy doesn’t involve ordinary people in any real way; lawyers, pollsters, researchers and communications firms are engaged to wage the battle,” she wrote in her 2016 book “No Shortcuts.” The purpose of organizing, as she saw it, was not to mobilize those who are already activists, but to do the difficult, methodical work of bringing new people in. That’s the project Platner tried to enlist the crowd in.
“I am asking you for your time,” he said. “I am asking you for your labor. I am asking you for your discomfort.” To organize effectively, he added, “you have to have conversations with people you know you disagree with, and you need to remain open and compassionate and empathetic.”
I very much agree with both McAlevey and Platner. I, too, think that Americans are "fundamentally good people," and I agree that to organize effectively "you have to have conversations with people you know you disagree with...."
Waiting for "political leaders" to solve our political problems for us is not a winning electoral strategy, and it certainly won't solve the real economic, social, environmental, and political challenges we face.
So, I'm with Goldberg. Let's see if Graham Platner, and the people of Maine, can give us a lesson in what real politics demands. Let's see if the upcoming Senate battle, in Maine, can help us understand what kind of politics is required of us at this time in our history. My claim, repeatedly made, is that only a politics premised on "self-government" - in which ordinary people themselves get involved, and in which they organize without primary reference to "party" - is the only kind of politics that can produce the kind of real changes that we really need!
Just as a brief "footnote," ordinary people getting involved, in order to change some basic economic and social realities, is what got Zohran Mamdani elected last Tuesday, as the next Mayor of New York City.
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