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
Maybe, I'm not sure that'll happen. The leftist space in the states is relatively small and nascent and so can't really afford to be as overly demanding. It's also only relatively recently that it started to have this surge in popularity so I think it's understood that there will be errors along the way. That's not to say that said errors can be completely excused either, but there'll be some forgiveness as the culture adapts as a whole.
it already happened. Jacobin, Drop Site News, Bernie Sanders and all his associated PACS and organizations, the Squad, Hasan, Chapo Trap House, etc. all stuck their necks out covering for Platner and calling everything against him GOP smears and telling people to shut up and just vote for him if you're in Maine. Sanders downplayed the nazi tattoo as nonsense, even using his status as a Jew in a statement to shield him. The entire "progressive" wing of the Democratic Party were all totally rallied behind him before this even happened.
For most normie libs, these "progressives" are "socialists" and "leftists". It's discrediting us by association if we don't clearly distance ourselves from them, which we have been criticizing them the whole time that this sort of thing would happen and that he was toxic.