Subject: Re: Breakkfast with Graham Platner
He went on to say that the true division in this country isn’t between liberals and conservatives but between economic elites and everyone else. These elites, in his opinion, have fomented political divisions to stay in power because their main goal is economic monopoly; politics simply serve that purpose. If he wins office, he said, it would be in part because conservative working-class voters saw themselves in him and trusted him to represent their interests.

All three of those sentences are probably wrong. And political malpractice.

As for the first two points, there are real differences between liberals and conservatives, on issues that matter deeply to both groups, on things that have nothing to do with politics. And both groups by their revealed behavior show that these things are very very important to them. The things that get you completely excommunicated from either coalition are typically cultural issues, not economic ones. That's why there's corporate Democrats and populist Republicans, but virtually no pro-Life Democratic caucus or pro-choice Republican caucus. Those divisions are real. They matter to people. And you do a disservice the people in your coalition who care deeply about things like abortion, gender identity/LGBTQ rights, patriarchy/white supremacy issues, and the like to say that those things don't exist. Or that they're manufactured by elites, rather than reflect actual values that people hold and care about and think are important.

And as for the last....look, Maine is a blue state. No, it's not Maryland or Massachusetts. Still, it hasn't voted for a Republican for President since 1988. Virtually every member of the House elected from Maine for the last 40 years has been a Democrat. The same is true of the state legislature, where the Democrats have basically controlled for the last 40 years as well. Having a Republican Senator is an anomaly. Susan Collins has held her seat because she is a canny, well-connected incumbent and overperforms because she's spent the better part of two decades cultivating tangible separation from the national party while still wielding power within the system due to her seniority. Not because Maine is predisposed to elect Republicans. If Platner wins, it will because he was able to get all those majorities who voted for Harris and Biden and Clinton and Obama and Kerry and Gore and the other Clinton to vote for him. They want to vote for Democrats - it's just that a non-trivial portion of them like Susan Collins as their Senator.