Post-Platner Politics: Dems Fight for Wales After Shedding Their Values

 This week, Democrats are fighting to keep Maine after shedding their morals.

The controversy in Maine over Graham Platner was a modern remake of the scene from “A Man for All Seasons” in which Sir Thomas More confronts Richard Rich, a former protege who lied in court to secure his conviction in exchange for being named attorney general of Wales. As Rich passes by, More asks: “For Wales? Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world … but for Wales!”

For Democrats, they might not even have Wales to show for their “profit.”

Platner withdrew from the race Wednesday night. Even with that decision, Democratic politicians will be wearing the mark of Platner for the rest of their careers after dismissing earlier allegations in their quest to take back power.

Of course, a Platner withdrawal from the Senate race could well prove an upgrade. After all, it is hard not to improve on an alleged Nazi-tattooed, Hamas-praising, veteran-bashing, sex-texting, Communism-embracing accused rapist. However, politicians such as Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon Whitehouse, Ro Khanna, and others will long wallow in a post-Platner party.

These Democrats led the mob against now Justice Bret Kavanaugh, insisting that women had to be believed. Whitehouse said he is “unimpressed” by the allegations from multiple women as “a lot of nothing.” He also reminded voters that one of the alleged victims is a Republican.

Warren was equally undeterred, bouncing on the stage with Platner while proclaiming that he was “My kind of man.” It did not matter that he was accused of rape and other abuse. He would deliver a major committee chair for Warren if they retook power.

As with Swalwell, the establishment moved to destroy Platner only after polls showed him unlikely to beat Sen. Susan Collins. Suddenly, the same pattern emerged. CNN and the Washington Post suddenly ran stories of new allegations just days before the deadline for Platner to voluntarily withdraw. The same candidates and media that downplayed the allegations earlier suddenly became a convention of Claude Rains in claiming to be “shocked, shocked” that yet another woman was raising the same allegations.

For Whitehouse, the new woman had the benefit of being liberal since apparently the alleged rape of Republican women was “seemed like a lot of nothing.”

The media also pushed back that there was no reason for them to have believed the earlier women before the polling changed.

Bulwark’s Michelle Goldberg at least acknowledged her role in the early press pump for Platner while calling for his withdrawal. Gone now is her gushing account in the New York Times of how he proved “nothing like the edgelord caricature I encountered online.”  She added, “Platner is magnetic. Like Obama, he seems to promise a politics that is fundamentally progressive while going beyond debased partisan sniping.”

The Maine Democratic Party has announced that it will choose his replacement. After an anti-establishment election in which Platner won by 72 percent and crushed the sitting governor in fundraising, the Democratic Party announced that “We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner’s team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate.”

For many, it sounds like a Kamala Harris redux by the Democratic establishment, though they will hold a “convention” of 600 people to make the selection. The rhetoric could backfire.

The irony is that these politicians are drawing distinctions that would have been unthinkable just months ago. Ro Khanna insisted, after withdrawing his support and appearing at a rally for Platner, “I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line.”

The problem is that women had previously accused him of such violence, but Khanna endorsed him anyway. The goalpost moved higher and higher for women, where rape (involving a liberal woman) was now the red line for Democratic politicians.

The actual red line appeared to be polling that showed that Platner could not deliver his side of the Faustian bargain. He could not deliver Maine. Suddenly, again, women had to be believed and the party had to choose his replacement.

The greatest irony would be Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who attracted national attention by pushing an unconstitutional effort to block Trump from the presidential ballot. Her disregard for constitutional values would be highly appealing to many in the party who want to take over the Supreme Court by packing it with an instant liberal majority.

Bellows previously campaigned on her unconstitutional actions as the ultimate “win-by-any-means” Democrat. After being roundly defeated in a run for governor (garnering only 20 percent of the vote), she could now run in the general without having run a true primary campaign.

Of course, Bellows also campaigned with Platner despite the earlier allegations but insisted that he should step aside for her.

It is all part of achieving real power. Just ask Richard Rich. Of course, it may profit these politicians nothing to give their souls for the whole world, but they may not even get Maine in the bargain.

Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”

https://jonathanturley.org/2026/07/09/post-platner-politics-the-democrats-fight-for-wales-after-shedding-their-values/