The Irony of Graham Platner's Campaign

Most people don't know this, but the rise of Graham Platner wasn't remotely organic, and there is almost nothing real about his origin story or his campaign. Jim Geraghty did a superb job explaining the process by which a wealthy, mentally unstable guy who was kicked out of an exclusive private school and who bragged about how he went off to war because he wanted to kill people was transformed into a working-class everyman oyster farmer. Platner was handpicked, groomed, artificially constructed, promoted through a sophisticated public relations campaign, and elevated to superstar status. The phrase “it’s an op” –...