Author | Lightnews

Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 3h

Yeah, he has handled it poorly, it rightly undermines trust in him. And to be more specific about “economic leftism”, I just mean that Platner seems more hostile to billionaires and big corporations, more likely to tax them, more supportive of universal healthcare. Those are key for me.

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Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 3h

I might be coming around to “pro-Palestine people should vocally abandon Platner and pressure Mills” to maybe end up with a Senator Mills who is actually good on Palestine? But for me personally, Platner’s economic leftism is also important and idk if Mills can be pressured on that. Plus filibuster…

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Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 3h

Yeah, good point. Idk, I just felt yesterday like “wow this is so bad, he’s gonna have no choice but to drop out.” And then today the poll, the video at his town hall, etc, made me think he’s not going to drop after all. And if he doesn’t, harder (but not impossible) for new candidates to get oxygen

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Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 4h

Yeah, I think I agree. This better choice has yet to appear, but I hope it does. There’s certainly still time.

Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 4h

Yeah, honestly not a vain hope. Mills might see which way the wind is blowing on Israel-Palestine and change her position, as many other Dems have. Or more charitably, she might sincerely change her mind on it as many other Dems (voters and party insiders) recently have. We can and should hope so.

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Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 4h

And just to finish, Mills and Platner are obviously both preferable to Collins.

pro-Palestine Dem > pro-Israel Dem > Republican

Pretty much every time, for me.

Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 4h

Last year she called Portland, ME and Belfast, ME “antisemitic” for voting to divest from Israel:

Governor Mills addresses antisemitism, condemns municipal votes to divest from Israel

Governor Janet Mills spoke Monday at the Jewish Community Alliance in Portland to address the growing issue of anti-Semitism.

wgme.com

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Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 4h

Similarly here. I agree with all of you here that the bad things about Platner are bad. But to me he remains preferable to Mills due to their differences on policy. If he stays in, and it remains Platner vs Mills, I don’t agree that any of this stuff outweighs policy platforms (including I-P).

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Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 4h

Which, just to make everyone mad at me again, is the same reasoning I had for not wanting to criticize Biden as long as he looked like he he inevitable Dem nominee. He was bottom of my list in 2020 primary, and I wanted him not to run in 2024. But Biden was always obviously preferable to Trump.

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Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 4h

I still think Platner *should* drop out to make room for a different pro-Palestine candidate. I just unfortunately no longer think he *will.* Which makes me loathe to criticize him. If I went to the ballot and he was the only pro-Palestine candidate with a chance of winning, I would vote for him.

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Reposted by Jackson 🏳️‍🌈

Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 15h

The dialogue is a whole other thing but the bit about "fuck you shoot me I'll die for this shit" and the reaction is the crux here, from Gandhi's time on down, no authoritarian in history ever knows how to respond to this and it's why it beats them whenever deployed

Blasphemous Jones @blasphemousjones.bsky.social · 2d

"Man goes scorched earth on ICE agents kidnapping people in his hometown."

Source:
old.reddit.com/r/PublicFrea...

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Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 5h

I don’t understand thinking that I-P is:

-important enough to justify sitting out 2024 (where neither candidate was sufficiently pro-Palestine, but they differed massively elsewhere)

but:

-not important enough to guide US Senate primary votes (where the candidates are extremely different on I-P)

Reposted by Jackson 🏳️‍🌈

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 5h

"normies do not care about this thing and so it is no use raising a stink" is imho just an excuse for not doing politics, which is the job of making normies care about something

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Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 5h

And even more important, underestimating the chance that next November, it’s Platner vs Collins and we all need to get behind Platner to help wrest the senate away from Trump.

Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 5h

I think this website is underestimating the probability that next spring, it’s Platner vs Mills and Israel-Palestine is a salient issue (as it is likely to be in every Democratic primary until the gap between Dem voters & Dem electeds closes).

I see people saying things that are hard to take back.

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Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 10h

Nice, yes, that’s a really good way to think about it. Giving vs taking. If all you’re doing is voting for the person media narratives are telling you other people will like, you’re just taking. Give back, participate, tell the party what YOU like, not just what you think others will like.

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Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 10h

It’s an extremely common attitude, aggressively pushed by almost all political media. Media figures see that prediction game as their job, so viewers/readers/listeners/voters intuit it must be theirs too.

But if we’re all just trying to predict what other people will like, the signal gets lost.

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Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 10h

3 problems if we nominate someone we don’t really believe in, hoping they’ll be palatable to the general electorate:

1. We’ll have nominated someone we don’t believe in.
2. The general electorate will notice that.
3. Our ideas about what will appeal to to the general electorate can easily be wrong.

Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 11h

Pundits love to give strategic advice about who parties should nominate to win the general. That’s fine, pundits can say whatever they want.

Your job as a primary voter is not to be a pundit predicting who you think can win the general. In a primary, you must vote *your* values and *your* judgment.

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Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 11h

Generally about primaries:

1. Your job as a primary voter is to pick the candidate you sincerely think would do the best job

2. The strongest candidate for the general election is the one who proves they can win hearts & minds by winning a primary

3. The more we adhere to #1, the more true #2 is

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Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 11h

Yeah, all of that matters, but even if he loses some elite support over this, I can see him staying in and embracing an “outsider” identity, as long as he retains some support among voters in polls. We’ll see, I guess.

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Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 11h

Yeah, good points. But also, any Maine voters who haven’t heard about the tattoo yet will now only hear about it after he has already covered it up. I think that makes it land softer.

Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 11h

But still, at least part of it was fully pre-tattoo story (but not pre-Reddit stories).

Even so, even if he takes a hit from this (he surely will), I don’t think it will erase a 34-point lead. And I don’t think he’ll drop out while he’s still ahead in the polls.

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Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 11h

I mean, put differently, the tattoo story was THE main topic of conversation in lefty politics circles for the 2 final days of this poll (20th & 21st). Platner tattoo was the only thing anyone could talk about on bluesky already on the *20th*, after that interview came out in the morning.

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Jackson 🏳️‍🌈 @nihilscio.bsky.social · 11h

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, either Platner or Mills would be infinitely preferable to Susan Collins.

We should be prepared to enthusiastically support Platner, Mills, or anyone else ME Dem primary voters might choose, when it comes to beating Susan Collins.

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