Originally published at: A Few Thoughts On Graham Platner, Who Definitely Proves Your Point - TPM – Talking Points Memo
Kate and I discussed the ongoing Graham Platner controversies on last week’s episode the podcast. As I explained, having never fallen hard for Platner as so many did I come at the matter from a different perspective. I was basically a soft skepitc. Not against him but also not wowed. Because of that I wasn’t…
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A Gestaltian take is that over a short period of time (but long in political cycles) we’ve seen candidates who seem to be, and certainly cast themselves as principled, only to turn into VERY unprincipled and self dealing rouges. It’s a phenomenon that may have a markedly different scale and incredulity depending on which party, but both parties have and are experiencing it. We’re in a trust death spiral when it comes to participating in this entire polity. It’s a push pull dynamic where the more the system seems hypocritical the more you want to rip it up and start over and you need a movement to do it… which requires a champion, in an era when no one has a fresh history. In the case of Donald it’s a scrubbed fictional history. In Platner we have a relatable, exposed and vulnerable character who seems willing and able to be all that and still roll with it. People want to believe in Platner like they wanted to believe in donald. His message is only being reinforced by the failed mythos of Trump/MAGA. But… but…we still have the distrust of the likes of Sinema/Fetterman/
Borrowing from Faulkner, I theek that I have the borrowed/paraphrased quote, Platner is who people want him to be.
Same goes for Fetterman, Jones and Northam.
Good night.
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