{"id":1106,"date":"2026-06-03T06:39:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T06:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=1106"},"modified":"2026-06-03T06:39:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T06:39:22","slug":"ragebait-turns-graham-platners-flaws-into-winners-with-help-from-gop-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=1106","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ragebait\u2019 turns Graham Platner\u2019s flaws into winners \u2014 with help from GOP critics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

If the Devil couldn\u2019t manage to convince the world he didn\u2019t exist, his next best bet would be to pitch himself to its inhabitants as a relatable rogue.<\/p>\n

Read more US carries out \u2018self-defense\u2019 strikes against Iranian drones and missiles, as Tehran targets Kuwait, Bahrain<\/a><\/p>\n

In Maine, Republicans are ready to pop the champagne over the seemingly endless stream of scandals hanging over Graham Platner\u2019s Senate campaign.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Platner tacked infidelity \u2014 he apparently sent explicit messages to as many as a dozen women and operated an account on Kik, a platform notorious for hosting child sex predators \u2014 onto his ever-expanding list of obscene acts.<\/p>\n

That list includes his emblazoning a Nazi tattoo across his chest, rape victim-shaming, mockery of a Purple Heart veteran, praise for Hamas, disparagement of rural Mainers and affinity for pleasuring himself in porta-potties.<\/p>\n

But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln?<\/p>\n

Still, Platner remains a viable candidate \u2014 not just in spite of, but because of his personal defects.<\/p>\n

After all, we\u2019re living in the age of ragebait, where incendiary acts, words and people are used to elicit a hostile reaction that the offending party can, paradoxically, exploit for its own purposes.<\/p>\n

Because where some see a destructive denizen of the drunk tank, others see a flawed man on a redemption arc perfectly suited for success in today\u2019s polarized, distrustful politics.<\/p>\n

Flaws weaponized<\/h2>\n

In his 2014 book \u201cThe Revolt of the Public,\u201d Martin Gurri described how elites\u2019 mismanagement of their prestigious posts and the digital revolution had conspired to create an unbridgeable gap between laymen and those in power \u2014 and thereby \u201ca gigantic erosion of trust in the institutions\u201d manned by the latter.<\/p>\n

The result? A fractured information environment that cynical, self-interested actors can take advantage of.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s in this context that Platner and his top adviser Morris Katz \u2014 a Zohran Mamdani campaign alum \u2014 have found a way to not just weather the candidate\u2019s moral failings, but weaponize them.<\/p>\n

By flooding the zone with a metric ton of deflections, counternarratives and outright lies, Platner has developed, if not the Teflon for which Donald Trump has become famous, something like it.<\/p>\n

Take Team Platner\u2019s response to the reporting on his towel-clad romp through Kik.<\/p>\n

His campaign confirmed the veracity of the reporting on his atrocious behavior.<\/p>\n

But when the candidate himself was asked about it, he mused that \u201cit\u2019s no surprise to me that the establishment media outlets are just gonna run gossip,\u201d and accused both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times of committing \u201cjournalistic malpractice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huh?<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Platner\u2019s campaign account released a video from his poor wife in which she decried the \u201cextra s\u2013tty\u201d stories about their marriage \u2014 that\u2019s<\/em> the \u201cshameful behavior\u201d she identified in all this.<\/p>\n

Katz picked up that ball and ran with it.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the latest on lefty Senate candidate Graham Platner\u2019s sexting scandal<\/h2>\n