Faulty reasoning signals

• Biased Writer Voice - 44%
• Negativity Bias - 32.6%
• Appeal to Emotion - 28.1%

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Hey, everyone, Graham Platner here. While I fervently deny the latest allegations against me, it’s time for me to withdraw. We need a progressive Democratic nominee from Maine who can run unimpeded by any baggage or controversy. I’m confident that will happen and we will defeat Susan Collins come November. I want to thank those who supported me not just in Maine but around the country. Don’t give up the fight. I may be stepping away from this race, but the causes we believe in demand that you stay involved and not be discouraged. Change is possible. I do believe the arc of history bends toward justice. The 41-year-old oyster farmer could have said something like that in his withdrawal statement on Wednesday evening. Instead, Platner went down a dark hole, self-pitying, conspiratorial, solipsistic, blaming the “corporate media system,” the “political establishment,”“those in power,” and “entrenched forces” for his withdrawal. No specifics were offered. Platner is just a victim, you see . “The brutal political reality is that they are going to take everything away from us,” he said; the “they” refers to the end of Democratic support for his race. In what he must have intended to be an uplifting moment in his brooding self-pitying tirade, Platner said. “We went toe to toe with one of the most entrenched political systems in the world. And we won.” In the world? Oh, please. This is Maine, not Moscow or Pyongyang. The gruff one didn’t take on the butchers of Tehran, just J anet Mills . In his 11-minute self-referential farewell, Platner extolled the people of Maine (because the people are always wise) and laid into a conspiracy so immense— “a system that is built structurally to make sure that movements like ours cannot flourish.” I’m not a professional cartographer, but Vermont is, I think, pretty close to Maine, and it managed to elect the OG Democratic Socialist, Bernie Sanders , just fine, just like the voters in the Bronx and Boulder who fueled socialist victories in June. There’s no sinister conspiracy against Platner; quite the opposite. From the first glowing New Yorker profile of Platner to the last Michelle Goldberg column (where she apologized for not scrutinizing him better), he got as good a run from the media as you can get. The problems were all of his making. Just days ago, the party rallied around Platner despite the allegations of his former girlfriend, Lyndsey Fifield , a Republican, that he had locked her in a room. Everyone whom Platner now decries as “party apparatchiks” who should have no say in his replacement was, however nervously, ready to help Platner win, including those entrenched tyrants, Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic Leader, and Kirsten Gillibrand, chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. What undid Platner was the latest allegation, this time from Jenny Racico t, a Democrat and a former girlfriend, who said that he had raped her and had offered a paper trail corroborating her panic at the time. A better man, a better Democrat, would have used this withdrawal speech to promise to throw himself behind the eventual nominee and express confidence in America, in the “system” that got him this far, not to tell his supporters that stuff’s rigged and “someday” we’ll win. I’d say this petulance was unbecoming, but we’re way past that. It’s good that Platner’s getting out, not staying on the ballot, although he seemed to say he hadn’t yet filled out the paperwork. Please, get ‘er done and release the papers. Worries were swelling that he would take the Democratic Party down the drain with him. Roy Moore never got off the ticket in Alabama in his 2017 U.S. Senate bid , marred by creepy tales of his hitting on teenage girls. It’s good that the political novice called for an open and transparent system to replace him on the ticket, unlike the last few days of canceled events, closed doors, and guessing games he’s inflicted on the state. No one wants a replay of the summer of 2024 when a wounded president reluctantly withdrew from a race that he couldn’t win and the party eschewed the debate it should have had in 2023 about what should come next. It’s unclear what the process will yield. I assume we’ll have teachers unions and Gaza activists and regular folks weigh in, and the nominee will be liberal but not 200 Platner Proof, without his rhetorical flair or fervor but liberal enough so that they can unite the oysterman’s supporters and put up a fight against the five-term Republican Collins. Platner did speak movingly about how he never sought politics and how it was a big decision for him and his wife, Amy, to run last year. That rang true. Given what Platner knew about his extramarital sexting account, PTSD, past drinking, and weird ink, it’s safe to say it was not a wise decision. But it was a human one. Who wouldn’t be flattered enough to accept? Platner, a military history buff, presumably knows Charles de Gaulle’s supposed saying, “The graveyards are full of indispensable men.” He could have expressed the same sang-froid in his farewell, noting that the movement isn’t going anywhere, that it’s not about him, etc., etc. Mostly, though, he made it about him and what he endured, including the horror of having to hear Racicot’s rape allegation from the press. (Who else would it come from? She’s not going to, um, call you.) Highlighting his trauma upon hearing the assault charge was particularly ham-handed. Platner had considerable skills, but his tone-deaf farewell proved him to be eminently dispensable. The post Platner’s Conspiracy-Laden, Bitter Farewell appeared first on Washington Monthly .