Julia Conley
Aug 19, 2025
Launching a US Senate run to unseat five-term Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, oyster farmer Graham Platner on Tuesday made clear in his inaugural ad that beating the “fake” moderate also means taking on the power-hungry billionaire class that has helped keep her in power all these years.
The enemy that the vast majority of Americans and Mainers have in common, said Platner, “is the oligarchy.”
He has big 2018 John Fetterman energy for me, but like if Fetterman had a job prior to holding office. I don’t trust anyone who proudly boasts about being a combat veteran in a war other than WW2.
That’s the vibe I’m getting too. I feel like the word “oligarchy” is just being used for marketing here. None of this “oligarchy is the enemy” messaging says anything beyond that. Its just endlessly finding phrases so they don’t have to say capitalism or talk about it in any meaningful way.
The bandwagon use of oligarchy stood out to me before anything else too. That’s nothing more than a judas goat term being used by social fascists to make baby leftists vote blue no matter who. It belongs on those “In this house we believe…” signs that liberals immediately removed from their lawns after Trump won.
That somehow manages to be sadder than at least 5% of the things her base does. Maybe even 6% but that would displace getting the hexcode of her campaign colour tattooed on their wrists like holocaust victims.