{"id":2358,"date":"2026-06-22T04:38:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T04:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=2358"},"modified":"2026-06-22T04:38:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T04:38:30","slug":"opinion-graham-platner-is-not-representative-of-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=2358","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Graham Platner is not representative of America"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Of all the reasons that Maine residents were given to vote for Graham Platner in his race for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate \u2014 and many of them boiled down to beating Donald Trump and Republicans \u2014 the most disturbing one came from Bill Maher. <\/p>\n

Read more Fear of data centers outpaces knowledge about them<\/a><\/p>\n

After telling his HBO audience ahead of the primary that \u201cwe need to restore balance in our government, and a Democratic Senate would help a lot with that,\u201d the talk-show host explained that, actually, we are all Graham Platner.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet used to it,\u201d he said. \u201cAmerica is a country filled with a lot of broken, horribly educated, phone-addicted, sort of nutty people. And as long as we live in a representative democracy, we are always electing our reflection in the mirror.\u201d <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know that I would call Maher a serious thinker, but a lot of people I respect have gone on his show. And he is someone who encourages free speech and open debate more than the typical talking head. So I wonder whether this view is more common among the American populace than I\u2019d like to think. <\/p>\n

Is America a country filled with broken, horribly educated, phone addicted, nutty people? Without getting theological, there is no doubt that Americans (like all human beings) are not perfect and most of us are struggling in one way or another. If we are to believe the latest reports from the U.S. Department of Education, 1 in 4 young adults are functionally illiterate. So horribly educated? Check. We\u2019re averaging more than five hours a day on our phones, too. Are we nutty? Let\u2019s say the headlines are not encouraging. <\/p>\n

Are we Graham Platner though? Is the man with the Nazi tattoo representative of America? Are most of us sending sexually suggestive messages to people besides our spouses? Do most veterans denigrate their fellow soldiers? Are most boyfriends locking women in bedrooms or twisting their arms behind their backs? I sure hope not. <\/p>\n

Read more Who\u2019s the best coach in the Big 12? On3\u2019s Brett McMurphy thinks it\u2019s BYU\u2019s Kalani Sitake<\/a><\/p>\n

Even Maher acknowledges that he finds Platner\u2019s behavior frightening. \u201cI wish the tattoo was the scariest thing about Platner. It\u2019s not. That would be his solution to a home invasion, which is to rape the home invader.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the question is whether to simply accept awful behavior from our politicians because we are awful people. Are we electing a mirror image of ourselves? That is, as Maher no doubt knows, not what representative democracy means. Which is not to say it\u2019s a new justification. <\/p>\n

When the infamous \u201cAccess Hollywood\u201d tape was released during the 2016 presidential campaign, it was not uncommon to hear Donald Trump\u2019s defenders say that his thoughts on \u201cgrabbing women\u201d were just \u201clocker room\u201d talk, as if men all over the country regularly say such things behind closed doors. Maybe some do, but does that mean we want them to be said by the president of the United States? Or any prominent figure in public? Is it hypocritical to expect people to behave a different way in public than they do in locker rooms? Yes, and that\u2019s fine. <\/p>\n

Reading the recent obituary of Bob Packwood \u2014 the senator from Oregon who was forced to resign after allegations of years of sexual misconduct with more than 20 women surfaced \u2014 is a reminder that this is not a new struggle. How should voters weigh the possibility of \u201cwinning\u201d against a record of disgusting behavior? Even many feminist groups were torn about whether to push for Packwood\u2019s ouster because he was a liberal Republican and a staunch ally of abortion rights. <\/p>\n

Americans have long been attracted to the idea that our politicians should be relatable. As the saying goes, is this a person you would want to have a beer with? There is a populist impulse too that our politicians should not think they are better than us. Heaven forbid a lawmaker gets tagged as an elitist. It is not that Americans demand a politician who is perfect. And maybe our standards for behavior (as well as education and general nuttiness) have declined in recent years. But many of us haven\u2019t given up hope that it is still possible to elect decent human beings to political office. <\/p>\n

Read more Faith without politics<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bill Maher says Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is the logical outcome of a representative democracy. He’s wrong. America deserves better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nOpinion: Graham Platner is not representative of America - American Movers Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=2358\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Opinion: Graham Platner is not representative of America - American Movers Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bill Maher says Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is the logical outcome of a representative democracy. 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