The Shelf Life of a Useful Man

The same machine that made Graham Platner inevitable decided that he was disposable.

We’re in the heart of the summer. America just had a spectacular 250^th birthday party, the World Cup is drawing towards the climactic final rounds, and much of the nation is trying to stay cool in a heat wave. You’re forgiven if you’re not paying close attention to politics, and to a particular political scandal in Maine. So, if you don’t know the name Graham Platner, let me introduce him as he leaves the stage. As he walks away in defiance and disgrace, Platner is illustrating a fundamental truth about the Political Vise.

Platner is a Democrat, a Marine veteran and an oyster farmer, and a novice politician who launched a populist campaign last year for the United States Senate. His target was Susan Collins, the five-term Republican that Democrats have spent decades determined to dislodge. The Maine seat is one of the few that will decide who controls the Senate next year, which is to say that Graham Platner is not a minor figure. A darling of the far left, Platner railed against corporations and against Israel, reflecting the priorities of the Democratic Socialists of America. His pugnacious style resonated with the party’s increasingly radical base; it was no surprise that last month, Platner easily defeated his more moderate opponents to win the Democratic nomination. The entire party establishment dutifully lined up behind him.

Tattoo Ü

They lined up behind a lot. Over the course of nearly a year, Platner had survived a steady stream of revelations of the kind that until recently, ended campaigns instantly. There were old Reddit posts, in which he blamed women for their own assaults and suggested they should drink less if they did not want to be raped. There was the Nazi death’s head tattoo on his chest. There were the sexually explicit texts to other women during his marriage. And then, last month, the New York Times published an account from a former girlfriend who said Platner had twisted her arm behind her back until she was, as he put it, “calm.” Through all of it, the Democrats stood by their man. Bernie Sanders – the octogenarian socialist icon – campaigned for Platner. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who had originally endorsed Platner’s opponent, affirmed his support.

On Monday afternoon, a second woman came forward, alleging that Platner had sexually assaulted her in 2021. Within hours, the Democratic establishment turned on their erstwhile darling. Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Ro Khanna, the state party, and dozens of other leftist luminaries told Platner it was time to go.

The burning question is, why was this the final straw? Why didn’t the Nazi tattoo, the Reddit vulgarity, the sexts, and the New York Times report doom the Platner campaign?

The answer is the Political Vise. The Vise is a machine, not an argument or a verdict or (as the kids say these days), a “vibe.” The progressive Political Vise is the media, liberal elites, and Democratic politicians, applying pressure from three sides to force an outcome. Graham Platner spent the better part of a year convinced that the machine was working for him. The media that built him up, the party elites who endorsed him, the small-dollar army his populism summoned? It must have made him feel personally invincible and politically inevitable. What Graham did not understand is that he was standing inside the Vise the whole time. The machine that can foist you onto the public can just as easily close around and crush you. All it takes is for the people working the handle to decide you’re more trouble than you’re worth.

Her Word vs. His Party

That New York Times story of the arm twisted behind the back came from Lyndsey Fifield, Platner’s former girlfriend. When the media discovered that Fifield was a conservative – and a Heritage Foundation veteran who had worked briefly for Nikki Haley – they had just what they needed to render her allegations useless. The Platner campaign only needed to repeat that she was a lifelong GOP operative who had dedicated her career to electing Republicans. Democrat elites decided Fifield’s party affiliation was sufficiently discrediting for them to stick by their man. Her accusation never entered the Vise, the handle never turned, and Platner never felt the pressure.

On Monday, though, the handle began to turn. A woman named Jenny Racicot told Politico that Platner sexually assaulted her five years ago. She offered extensive corroboration. She had, in fact, already spoken to the Times for the Fifield story – but the “paper of record” had buried her allegations deep in the text. Racicot is a long-time progressive who supports the Platner agenda. After the Fifield story failed to land, Racicot realized she was one accuser the party machine could not easily dismiss.

I am not sure if Jenny Racicot has read my book, but she understands the mechanism of the Vise better than many politicians. She knew that her account, however well documented, would move nothing on its own, because the party doesn’t weigh a charge on its veracity. It assesses an allegation through the politics of the person making it. A Republican woman’s word is inert; a progressive woman’s word is live. When an accuser who could not be dismissed as a Republican operative stepped forward, Graham Platner finally felt the squeeze.

A Curtain Call for Conscience

The Vise can squeeze slowly, or it can crush quickly. In Platner’s case, there was little time to waste. Under Maine law, Platner had until Monday, July 13 to step aside and let his party choose a replacement. Miss that deadline, and Democrats would be stuck with him – and Susan Collins would be all but guaranteed an easy reelection victory. When Fifield’s accusation emerged, the party had time to discredit her. That time has slipped away. A party that blithely excused a Nazi tattoo, waved away sexts and ignored an assault on a Republican woman had a convenient and timely rediscovery of its conscience.

By Wednesday afternoon, forty-eight hours after the Racicot story broke, Platner could resist the squeeze no more. The timing of his withdrawal from the race was less because a new revelation had surfaced, and more because party elites had decided he no longer served their interests.

The progressive Political Vise could not care less whether Graham Platner is guilty or innocent. It only cares whether he serves the cause. For a year he served the left well, and the machine ruthlessly protected him through one damning scandal after another. When it turned out he’d laid hands on the wrong woman – and became a liability – the same machine that built Graham Platner crushed him.