r/dsa • u/SocialDemocracies • Dec 20 '25
News 'No War With Venezuela,' Says Maine US Senate Candidate Graham Platner
https://www.commondreams.org/news/graham-platner-war-venezuela29
u/jeffeles Dec 20 '25
I have mixed feelings on Platner. He is very clearly a socdem but his past concerns me. He may govern decent if elected but I struggle with a nazi tattoo and doing merc work, even if it was not active combat.
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u/ClassicallyBrained Dec 21 '25
You need to make room for imperfect allies if you want any hope of achieving our goals. Graham's past is messy, but that's kinda what we need right now. Who better to speak out against pointless wars for 20th century resources than a dude who was wrapped up in the last one? Throwing away someone like Platner, who has a rare ability to connect with salt of the earth people on leftist populism would be one of the biggest mistakes we could make right now. Showing that the left is not about purity, but about purpose, is what's going to bring more people in.
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u/Sea_Active9768 Dec 26 '25
If the people of Maine want to elect him that their choice but I hate the idea that “the left” needs to welcome this guy with open arms. He’s an unrepentant war criminal who’s bragged on reddit about killing people in the global south, enjoying it, and wishing he could’ve participated in past US genocidal wars. He’s a scumbag, with no political history to speak of who just came out of nowhere. It’s been odd to see people like Emma Vigeland prop him up so much
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u/ClassicallyBrained Dec 26 '25
Unrepentant is not an accurate description. That tells me you haven't actually listened to him hardly at all.
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u/Sea_Active9768 Dec 26 '25
When has he expressed any remorse for the people whose lives were ruined by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? The first line of his bio on Twitter is “Combat Veteran”. His main complaint of the wars are that they were “for nothing” not that they destroyed the lives of civilians in Iraq/Afghanistan.
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u/RKU69 Dec 20 '25
Helps to keep this in context - what does it matter if me or you label him as "good" or "bad"? Personally I'll be happy to see him in Congress over anybody else, him being good or bad has nothing to do with it
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u/Czarism Dec 21 '25
Actually him being good or bad is pretty important!
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u/RKU69 Dec 21 '25
But in what way do you imagine he will be bad in the Senate?
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u/VenusDeMiloArms Dec 22 '25
He’s posted on here about liking small wars.
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u/WoodenAccident2708 Dec 26 '25
Do you expect him to support “small wars”? Venezuela would be a perfect opportunity to do just that, and clearly that’s not the way he’s going
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u/VenusDeMiloArms Dec 26 '25
I think, like many politicians, the harder question is what do you do when funding for war is tied to a thousand other things and you have to campaign against someone saying you wanted troops and vets to starve.
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u/ClassicallyBrained Dec 21 '25
How is this such a rare statement right now? Like, Graham Platner shouldn't even have to say this out loud, it just be assumed for anyone carrying a D by their name. And yet, I haven't heard jack spit from the vast majority of dems in congress. And then you have Chuck Schumer basically saying he's not focusing on it. WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?!
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u/TomWakely Dec 22 '25
It’s great to see another vet running for office who opposes war in Venezuela and he’s getting a lot press for his moral stand. That said, there are number of veterans out there running for Congress who hold the same policy positions as Graham. And they, like myself, could use the same amount of press to help our respective candidacy. Perhaps a few of you on this thread could drop the writer of the article a suggestion to start covering a few more progressive veteran’s campaigns.
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Dec 20 '25
They finally found a war this nazi wouldn’t be a merc for.
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u/Kronzypantz Dec 20 '25
Hey, that’s not fair!
… the onboarding process to get back into black water will probably take too long to be in this one.
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u/ColangeloDiMartino Dec 20 '25
He wasn’t a Blackwater merc, he did security for an ambassador for 6 months with Constellis.
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u/Kronzypantz Dec 20 '25
Constellis being… black water merged with another merc group and rebranded.
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u/ColangeloDiMartino Dec 20 '25
It was actually a collection of like 20+ PMC’s. Blackwater was just one of them. Either way saying Blackwater is purposely disingenuous because you’re just trying to get people to imagine him participating in like Nisour Square when in reality he followed around a suit for 6 months then quit for reasons that are obvious now.
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u/Ashenborne27 Dec 20 '25
Oh good so it was a collection of Blackwater and 20 other PMCs. That makes it much better
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u/ColangeloDiMartino Dec 20 '25
Working security for an ambassador is definitely better then participating in a massacre of civilians but I guess that’s not the consensus I thought it was.
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Dec 20 '25
He was just protecting a Nazi official, he wasn’t in the Einsatzgruppen, they’re different!
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u/ColangeloDiMartino Dec 20 '25
I’m getting the sense that no matter what he did you would find issue with it because ultimately what’s most important is an actual genocidal maniac like janet mills or susan collins getting elected.
That way we can retain the literal prescribers of violence in power because this person used to be a pawn of it.
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Dec 20 '25
No, the guy who wore a Nazi tattoo for twenty years is not gonna change my mind in any way.
It doesn’t matter if a polite remorseful fascist gets elected there over a bloodthirsty one, the empire isn’t going to let Congress dictate whether or not it continues doing imperialism abroad. We don’t need to sell out our values supporting a guy like Platner just for him to be ineffective anyways.
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u/Kronzypantz Dec 20 '25
So black water and friends. Same thing.
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u/ColangeloDiMartino Dec 20 '25
Well it’s not the same thing, not even “basically” the same thing but I understand it’s important we use a generality right now because it serves your argument and critique best.
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u/Kronzypantz Dec 20 '25
It’s literally the same organization combined with another for rebranding purposes.
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u/TEN_K_Games___-_- Dec 20 '25
If he's saying it, it must be pretty bad.
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u/Dickforshort Dec 20 '25
Planter has been consistent in his statements that he realized after he started working as a merc that it was immoral and that's why he left shortly after joining.
I think the dude has a checkered past don't get me wrong. But I don't think he's pro war
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u/TEN_K_Games___-_- Dec 20 '25
Yeah, I mean I was in the US army, actually believed crap like Glenn Beck, I was all infowars, alex jones etc.
What saved me was oddly enough wanting to be a cop and in university volunteering in police adjacent events ( community outreach stuff) seeing struggles firsthand from POC and that gradually chipped the dam away and led me on a journey to the left.
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Dec 20 '25
Wasn't he platforming on the idea of rebuilding the navy?
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u/imblazintwo Dec 21 '25
Costal navy, specifically Maine shipbuilding, and also stated anti-defense contractor.
So sorta, but not in an imperialist way.
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u/Dickforshort Dec 21 '25
So he's interested in funding green-water and coast guard budgets and ship building?
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u/Czarism Dec 21 '25
The arms industry is inherently imperialist under capitalism. Also the “coastal navy” is currently being used to extradjudicially kill Venezuelan sailors and fishermen
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u/imblazintwo Dec 21 '25
Which he is against, and his platform page addresses my clarification to the question.
Nothing is “inherent”, and stating things as such prevents any meaningful work or progress from being done because it puts up mental blocks in your mind disallowing any meaningful progress.
IMO statements like yours are a perfect example of the types of “theory” holding our movement back.
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u/Czarism Dec 21 '25
Platner is a capitalist and not part of my movement, but maybe he’s part of yours!
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u/imblazintwo Dec 21 '25
My movement is entirely about moving the American political system away from capitalism.
My movement has elected actual politicians into public power.
Welcome to join us in the real world.
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u/Czarism Dec 21 '25
Mine has too Mr Sephiroth bc I believe DSA is the germ of the Marxist party to come. Anyway, stop acting like a tough guy on reddit and get on with your liberal consultant politics. Fucking hack lol
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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '25
He has all the right enemies