Mike and Abbie McMillen are active Democrats who have extensive experience in government, the private sector and nonprofit organizations. They live in Portland and Hancock County.

Graham Platner burst onto the Maine political scene without a statewide presence. People are having to get to know him in bits and pieces, giving his opponents an opportunity to pick apart the pieces. Revelations about his past have been repeated endlessly in the press and online, to the point that they have become “memes.”

To combat this, his whole story needs to be told. It’s a classic American story of the hero’s growth and redemption. Recall the example of one of Graham’s heroes, Gen. Smedley Butler. He served in 26 foreign combat missions and was the most decorated Marine in U.S. history.  However, he concluded at the end of that illustrious career that “war is a racket” and refused to lead a violent assault on Washington to overthrow FDR at the behest of the plutocrats of his day. 

Consider that at the impressionable age of 18 Graham was trained as a Marine. He spent the next eight years as a warrior. Those of us who have never served in combat find it hard to imagine the consequences for the participants, although we witness some of those consequences in our homeless and addicted populations, and in the rage and hostility of those drawn to militias and other anti-social movements including the MAGA version of the Republican Party.

Graham not only survived the experience of war, but prevailed, remarkably becoming a free-thinking person, sacrificing himself and his family to attempt to save democracy by means other than with a gun.  

This is a strong test of character and intellect that seems lost on some Democrats who insist on feeding all candidates through a retrospective “purity” screen consisting of standards of social consciousness and sensitivity few can achieve, especially few suited to the rough and tumble world of current American politics.

Many Democratic leaders of the past (Lyndon Johnson, Jack and Bobby Kennedy, Bill Clinton, even FDR) would, no doubt, have failed such a screening but nonetheless went on to great accomplishments for the American people.

Discounting the ability of someone to change attitudes and priorities is a major fault of the current Democratic Party. It causes them to gravitate to mediocre candidates perceived as “safe.” Those are not the candidates who will set the Democratic Party on the path of fundamental change that the American people so clearly crave, nor curb the excesses of the current authoritarian regime.

To the contrary, we assume that the growing hostility toward Graham by the Democratic establishment is because he is running not only against Susan Collins, but also against the complete failure since the 1970s of the Democratic Party to deliver broadly and deeply for the American people on the promise of a better life for all.

Increasingly the Democrats are viewed as just one side of the “money” party, padding the pockets of fat cats almost as much as do their Republican colleagues, while the prospects of average Americans are allowed to wither in the political wilderness.

We need Graham Platner, and more candidates like him, with vision and courage, tattoos and all.