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Why the left ignored Graham Platner’s red flags | America, Actually

What should the progressive left take away from the collapse of Graham Platner’s campaign?

In a special episode of America, Actually, Vox’s Astead Herndon speaks to progressive commentator Emma Vige

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@Whackadoo1 From YouTube ↗ 14 Jul 2026 11
Emma has lost a lot of credibility and I don't think she understands this yet.
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If they dont have good character, then how can you trust that they will stick with the plaform you agree with.
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Oh no “the left” ignored obvious racism and it led to disaster… again????
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Have you tried interviewing somebody who was against Platner all the way instead of enthusiastically supporting him like Emma here? She clearly isn't equipped to examine what went wrong.
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@BigDoctah From YouTube ↗ 11 Jul 2026 25
It's almost as if feminist haven't argued for decades that the personal IS political. You don't have to tell people of color that white leftest don't draw the line at racism. We've known that all along. The fact that she credits Bernie Sanders for the leftest movement in the democratic party, as if Jesse Jackson and Chirley Chisolm before that didn't run for president as progressives long before him is indicative of the problem with the white left, who continue to put themselves at the center, to their own detriment. We need an intersectional progressive movement. Bernie actually distanced himself from that foundation which was set from black progressives who ran before him. When will they ever learn?
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@itsbeebaby From YouTube ↗ 10 Jul 2026 50
Emma is Britta from Community 😂 “I can excuse racism and SA, but I draw the line at criticisms of my preferred candidate.”
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You don't get to say it's not about moral character when a large part of your justification for supporting him came from believing he had this amazing personal growth and redemption arc. Truly a shameful performance from Emma throughout this entire interview.
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@kirkw.72 From YouTube ↗ 10 Jul 2026 28
I appreciate the host's incredulous response to Emma saying Platner has leverage.
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Emma is just full of excuses and gaslighting. She's mask-off here.
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The fact that the Blackwater mercenary was the best pick makes me think there are no good progressives in Maine.
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Emma you’ve clearly learned nothing. Your apology is insincere. Take a day off air to do some self-reflection. I’m so tired of independent media personalities shaping the narrative with their nonstop reckless and unserious ‘hot takes’ on grave national issues, then facing zero accountability.
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All I hear is excuses from her. There were so many warning signs and she was happy to look past them all because he said nice things. This is what happens when we don't hold people accountable
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There are grifters on the left. You don’t put someone in power based on just what they say. We shouldn’t invest power into people who have shown themselves to be of poor character
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Wow. At 6:59 she says she doesn’t care if the politician goes home and he is a secret NahZi. That is a level of dangerous, inhumane YT privilege that I cannot even believe. As an 8th-generation Black American, whose ancestors fought to survive Klan sheriffs and YT supremacist in every system in this country, I find her comments disgustingly ignorant.
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She's a fool. She's basically saying that she doesn't care how bad skeletons in closets are as long as it's not found out and it's someone she likes. Like @TheKavernacle said, she would have never been as graceful towards an IDF solider as she was towards Platner.
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@pennyo6381 From YouTube ↗ 9 Jul 2026 110
Morals and politics go hand in hand. How are people supposed to trust a politician with a history of racism and nazism to pass bills and take action that would benefit them? What an ignorant comment from her.
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The people of the left didn't ignore it. People have been yelling about this the whole time.
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Red line was not him being a war criminal and killing afghans n iraqis but its when he sexually assaulted a white american woman
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Being a mercenary isn’t a Reddit post it’s murder
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if you don't care about character then stop calling out others for flawed character