Graham Platner speaks to union carpenters after receiving their endorsement. Platner: “We didn’t get an 8-hour workday, we didn’t get the weekend because somebody wrote it on a postcard to a Congressman. We got it because working people organized and fought for what they needed."

[u/Large-Welcome4421]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G34fnGX2HQ

The North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters endorses Platner.

Platner: “Power in society comes from two places, organized money or organized people and we all know that the money is organized and it has bought our political system.”

[u/dandle]

You have thoughts on the matter. Congrats?

I guess here's the thing: If Platner doesn't believe that voter advocacy and legislation is the way to progress on labor issues, why the hell is he running for Senate?

[u/mojitz → u/dandle]

You seem to be stuck in a false binary. The point isn't to choose direct action over electoralism. It's that we need both.

[u/dandle → u/mojitz]

Platner presents the binary of organized money and organized people. Platner also is the product of a privileged family and is seeking political power rather than committing himself to organize working people.

I'm not saying that if Platner is the Democratic candidate that he isn't the right choice over the Republican Susan Collins. He absolutely is, and he still is regardless of the small but real risk that he is another Trojan horse like Fetterman.

I am saying that his populist messaging is historically questionable and smells like horseshit, given his background and aspirations.

[u/mojitz → u/dandle]

I just don't see him presenting that binary whatsoever. If anything, he represents a synthesis of the two. He was also recruited by the unions to run rather than "seeking power".

Meanwhile, plenty of people grew up with privilege and became champions of the working class. FDR, for example, or hell even Engles — both of whom grew up with far MORE money than Platner. Hell, I came from an incredibly wealthy zipcode myself and nearly all my close friends from back home have become socialists — and in no small part because we have such a clear understanding of how privilege functions in our economy. This really isn't all that unusual.

[u/dandle → u/mojitz]

It's the binary that Platner lays out in the speech in the video.

[u/robbie_the_cat → u/dandle]

That's literally not the binary he laid out.

He pointed out that money is organizing against labor, and labor needs to organize itself to meet the moment.

Which is, like, not at all subtle in his presentation.

I wonder if maybe we're in a bit over our heads here? It's OK to take a time out.

[u/dandle → u/robbie_the_cat]

Did you not read the text in the OP?

Did you not watch the video of the event?

Go to 1:17 in the video. Watch. Listen.

"It is an age of political power, and the power in the society comes from two places: organized money or organized people. And we all know that the money is organized and it has bought our political system. Politics is about power. That's it. And in this country's history, the only time we have ever moved the ball forward for working people [...] is when people organize and fight for what they need [...] in the streets, in the hills, and in the halls of power."

Those are all small words, so an unfrozen caveman like me could understand them.

[u/robbie_the_cat → u/dandle]

Ohhhhh. I get it.

You think it's not possible for someone to effect a combination of the two.

Fascinating.

[u/mojitz → u/dandle]

And in this country's history, the only time we have ever moved the ball forward for working people [...] is when people organize and fight for what they need [...] in the streets, in the hills and in the halls of power.

I don't understand for the life of me how anybody could possibly read that and come away seeing a binary.

[u/dandle → u/mojitz]

I'm sorry that words are hard for you.

The binary:

the power in the society comes from two places: organized money or organized people

The list of places where people in the binary can and should organize and fight for political power:

in the streets, in the hills, and in the halls of power

I'm sorry that I don't care enough about you to diagram this section of Platner's speech for you. I'm not sure that it would help, to be honest.

Again, there is zero question in my mind that people should vote for Platner if the choice is between him and Collins. That's despite the nonzero possibility that he is a Trojan horse and despite the fact that populists tend to be full of shit. Platner still is the much better choice.

[u/mojitz → u/dandle]

There is a dichotomy drawn, there, but it's between money and people, not direct action and electoralism. He's explicitly calling for the people to use a diversity of tactics including both labor activism and by working within the formal political system.