will they be brave enuff to leave them as a monument 
(#jacobin David Sirota, Branko Marcetic and Ben Burghis)
text collection of bylines
Graham Platner Could Be the Bellwether of a New US Populism
Graham Platner has traversed a long and unlikely road to become the Democratic nominee for the US Senate in Maine. Can he beat longtime GOP incumbent Susan Collins and live up to the promise of his firebrand populist campaign? #sirota 30.05.26
You’re Being Lied to About Graham Platner
We read Graham Platner’s whole Reddit archive. The vilification of the Maine candidate for Senate doesn’t square with what he actually wrote in his posts. #marcetic 27.10.25
Why the Smears Against Graham Platner Didn’t Work
Opponents went all in on smearing Graham Platner as a Nazi based on a bad tattoo choice. It didn’t work. Maine voters decided they’d rather have universal health care and an end to reckless wars than a polished politician with an unblemished past. #burgis 07.05.26
Democrats Cynically Wield “Wokeness” Against Graham Platner
Establishment Democrats spent a full year complaining the Left forced them to be “woke.” But then a left populist, Graham Platner, threatened to win in Maine, so they went right back to trying to cancel someone over old internet posts. #marcetic 24.10.25
Judge Platner’s Character by How He Fights the Oligarchs
The fact that Graham Platner still holds a general election lead amid scandalous personal revelations should give us hope. Voters may be shifting to judge politicians more on their willingness to take on economic inequality and war than their private lives. #sirota 02.06.26
I actually never bothered to look up his military record so I don't even know that he ever actually killed anyone. Outside of the dialectics he was always irrelevant to me. Another aspect of him was always that he always struck me as all bluster and bravado, compared to the former military I've spoken to who tend to be much more reserved, possibly ashamed, about their actions with the military. This gave me the impression that he never actually saw combat based on my own preconceptions.
That said for whatever reasons those were mostly ignored by the media but the evidence for the SA charge is much stronger and more public than anything I've seen.
This is what Platner posted on reddit when they asked him why he joined the Marines: