I’m not voting for him as I no longer live in Maine. All I’ve really said is I think he’s genuinely changed his way of thinking and has earned the opportunity to let the people he claims to represent decide if they want him to represent them. If you are one of those people then by all means cast your vote for Collins lmao.

I have also said it’s entirely possible I’ll eat my words. I’ve been through the Fetterman saga, and as such I promise I won’t complain if a leopard eats my face XP

and if we wanna get into it, he's denouncing funding the genocide in Gaza while endorsing increasing funding for gencide in latin America. of the candidates left in the field, he gives us the most chance to organize on the margins, but he still sucks. the reality is he sucks because he's a politician. people who don't suck don't get into office. the system isn't designed for that. still, we have incentives as organizers to get more less worse into office. but we still have to confront that no one can liberate the people but the people themselves.

shit. i broke my rule. time for another walk

All good 👍

Broadly more or less yea? I haven't seen the specific thing you linked before though, and also you were quite vague about what you meant in your last comment.

I would appreciate if you could explain a bit more what you are meaning, and educate me a little.

Is there a candidate in the giving free ghost bolt cutters, dynamite, autoriffles, body armor, ammunition, etc. to the people of Maine?
If not, you have a populist. Because a true “leftist” empowers the people.

"Find" one? Like just pluck a candidate off the street?

The problem is that as we get younger candidates who were active in their youth online or on social media, the likelihood that you will find a squeaky-clean candidate gets lower and lower. It's not that politicians of old were paragon of society, it's just that the dumb shit they did as kids wasn't preserved forever in the largest archive of human knowledge for anyone to trawl up literal decades later.

If anyone found my old reddit account they'd probably consider some of the stuff I've posted there over the 12 or so years of when I was active disqualifying on it's face.

We, as a society, are going to have to get used to excusing some historical bad behavior in favor of believing that people are indeed capable of positive change over time.

No, "find" like "do something better with your time than shill for politicians".

It's not just what he said, it's what he DID.

That aged like milk. Maybe even “high meat”. Leopard approached my face. Thanks for the lesson y’all. Idk. I think there is discussion to be had about second chances, defectors, and the role they can play in how we organize on the left, but in the end the conviction a lot of my peers and comrades had on him early on was very much correct.