Graham Platner Is Gone (We Hope), But His Lessons Are Not

Graham Platner may be out of the Maine Senate race – his meteoric campaign having self-destructed and deservedly so – but he left a gift for the GOP on his way out the door.

No, it’s not Susan Collins’ re-election chances, which just increased exponentially as the Democrats scramble to replace Mr. Totenkopf Tattoo with a last-minute substitute in a move eerily reminiscent of the Kamala Harris for Joe Biden switcheroo that backfired so badly in 2024.

Actually, I am talking about something that is at risk of being lost in the rubble of Platner’s once-ascendent but now imploding campaign – his populist message that attracted voters and energized supporters.

Lest you think I’ve gone full-blown Commie on you, rest assured that this dyed-in-the-wool Christian conservative capitalist would never entertain such a preposterous idea. That would be akin to buying a steerage class ticket aboard the RMS Titanic and then selling your life jacket to the highest bidder so you had some spending money for the trip home.

Iceberg ahead!

What I am referring to is not Platner’s economic message of wealth redistribution based on class envy, but rather the simple fact that there is a growing affordability crisis in America that Republicans seem oblivious to or determined to ignore. Platner recognized it and tapped into it successfully. So did Zohran Mamdani and a number of other Progressive and Democratic Socialist candidates.

The plain truth is that young people in particular are struggling to make ends meet let alone get ahead in life. We mock them for living in their parents’ basement but provide no economic lifeline for them to grab onto and no blueprint to follow for future financial success. They are too often stuck behind the economic eight-ball of student loan debt compounded by soaring home prices, high interest rates, and escalating energy costs.

The sad truth is that a college degree doesn’t guarantee you anything these days other than decades of loan payments to go along with your high-interest car payments and your exorbitant monthly rental payments on a studio apartment in a not-so-nice part of town.

It’s no wonder that younger voters are flocking to candidates who offer them a listening ear and promise them a better way… even if it proves to be fool’s gold.

The first Republican candidate who actually takes the time to listen – I mean really listen – to the angst and struggles of Gen Y and Z voters will reap an unprecedented electoral harvest. They just want to be heard; not blown off with some out-of-date platitudes by people two and three times their age who never had to face the economic headwinds they do now.

We have got to find a way to bring down housing and energy costs and to make post-secondary education more affordable. Incentivizing the construction of smaller starter homes or requiring builders to include scaled-down models in order to receive zoning permits would be two steps in the right direction. After all, not everyone needs – or even wants – a 2,500 or 3,000-square foot house. Case in point: My wife and I are flourishing in our 1 BR/1.5 BA house... and we did just fine in our 34-foot trailer, too, where we lived for three years as full-time stationary RVers while we planted a church.

As for reducing college costs, if the federal government would stop subsidizing post-secondary education, I am confident that tuition costs would drop dramatically. As it is now, college administrators simply take Uncle Sam’s money and raise tuition costs accordingly. Everyone wins but the students, who are saddled with ever-burdensome loans to repay.

The same thing goes with healthcare, another mega industry that represents 18% of the U.S. economy. You would think the bureaucrats inside the Washington Beltway would realize that every time you subsidize something, it winds up costing more. Unfortunately, that takes common sense, something that is in very short supply on Capitol Hill.

The other part of Platner’s campaign that I hope the GOP picks up on and runs with is the undercurrent of frustration that lies just below the surface all across America. Frustration with the status quo, frustration with the two-tiered justice system, frustration with the double-standard between the powerful elite and the common man.

Simply put, Americans are angry because they feel "the system" has conspired against them... and to a large degree, it has.

Yesterday, I shared a meme on Facebook that showed Bernie Sanders juxtaposed with comedian Steve Harvey. Sanders is shown next to a sign that reads, “Nobody working 40 hours a week should be living in poverty.” The sign next to Harvey rebuts Sanders’ sign with the words, “Then stop giving their money to people working zero hours a week.”

I have been posting comments and sharing memes on social media for more than 20 years… and I have rarely seen the reaction I have received to this simple post. As I pen these words, more than 150 people have shared my original post and several thousand have “liked” or commented on it on more than four dozen different group pages. I fully expect those numbers to double, triple or even quadruple by the time this article is published.

Once again, the first GOP candidate who addresses this growing sense of political and economic injustice head-on will become the most popular Republican since Ronald Reagan – and before him, Teddy Roosevelt. Hardworking Americans are sick and tired of having their pockets picked by Uncle Sam… and their hard-earned paychecks distributed to illegal aliens, welfare moms with multiple kids by multiple dads, left-wing political organizations posing as social service providers, and foreign countries that hate our guts.

There… I said it.

Now maybe someone in the Republican ranks can grow a spine and say it too… while at the same time, showing some empathy and compassion for young people who want to experience the American Dream but don’t know how or where to begin.