As a card-carrying Democrat for 62 years, I would have preferred an experienced alternative to Gov. Janet Mills to run against Sen. Susan Collins. I cannot support Graham Platner.

Platner’s bid for U.S. Senate is the product of a slick, well-financed marketing campaign that reminds me of a state fair midway barker practicing a time-honored shell game.

Don’t look here. Forget his lack of any relevant experience. Forget his comments about survivors of rape and sexual assault. Forget the Nazi tattoo he had emblazoned on his chest. Forget his insulting comments about Black people. Forget how he derided rural Mainers as “racist and stupid.” Forget that, with a diagnosis of PTSD, he worked after his military service for Blackwater, a private group charged with killing Iraqi civilians. Forget that his contrition for his Reddit posts only occurred after he failed to conceal them. Forget that his progressive platform of ideas, adopted from several organizations, came to light only after he declared his candidacy. And, most importantly, forget that all of these statements and actions were done as an adult and not as an impetuous teenager.

Then what should we look at? Nothing of substance but a series of hollow 5- to 10-second advertisements on television declaring that he “loves all Mainers,” or he “supports our troops” or he “represents the unrepresented.” Once the marketing curtain of populism and anti-establishment rhetoric engulfing Platner is stripped away, he remains the “empty oysterman’s suit” of Maine politics, the Wizard of Ads.

Lawrence Kaplan, MDS 
Cape Elizabeth