“Extreme Makeover” is a brand of that has succeeded both when applied to participants who needed to change their health habits, hygiene and clothing choices, as well as when applied to participants homes, which had disrepair or structural issues that needed fixing.
The programs “worked” because the premise is simple: People and domiciles â no matter how messed up â can change, can be made attractive and functional with the right amount of attention, care and craftsmanship.
Now comes a new offshoot: “Extremist Makeover.”
While not yet a reality show on a platform, this reboot is far advanced in development within the Democratic Party.
The Democratic candidate for the seat in Maine â currently occupied by perhaps the most moderate, intelligent, trusted, hard-working and admired senator on both sides of the aisle, Sen. Susan Collins â is going to be oysterman Graham Platner.
Platner is not a “liberal.” Hes not a “leftist.” Hes an extremist. Platner is from that land “beyond the fringe” in American that occasionally throws up onto the election beaches a candidate from the wacky left or wacky right after an intra-party primary campaign, a nominee who simply doesnt play within the “10s,” much less the “40s,” of American political football.
The extremists luck out in the primary for a variety of oddball reasons, and then their parties pretend to be surprised when their oddball nominees get thumped in the .
So, I predict, it will turn out with Mr. Platner, whose many, er, idiosyncrasies have been tumbling into public view for a couple of months now.
Platners most famous “eccentricity” thus far is his “Totenkopf” tattoo of the deaths head worn proudly during the Nazi era by Hitler’s Schutzstaffel (SS), particularly by the SS-Totenkopfverbaende, one of the original three branches of the SS, along with the Allgemeine SS and the Waffen SS. The SS-Totenkopfverbaende were guards at the concentration-extermination camps. Of many vile symbols of that regime, this is the equal of any of them when it comes to projecting evil purpose and deadly, arbitrary killing. Asking for that tattoo is a deliberate choice. and years is another.
So, too, are the has made over his life, which cover the waterfront of bigotries and what we used to quaintly call “hate speech,” but which Democrats now call either “opportunities to grow,” or, more truthfully, auditions.
Sen. Collins has faced leftist Democrats before in past elections. In her most recent campaign, in 2020, Democrats nominated the very left-wing Speaker of the Maine House, Sara Gideon. Despite being outspent by more than 2-to-1 (pro-Gideon spending was just shy of $48 million, while Collins war chest was $23 million) and being behind in nearly every single major poll from start to finish, Collins won her race by nine points, even though then-candidate beat President Donald Trump by the same margin. So nearly 20% of Mainers in 2020 switched from voting for a Democrat at the top of the ticket to a Republican on the next line in the Senate race.
Thats not just because Collins is genuinely liked and admired across Maine, which she is. Collins is also the powerful Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and thus in a position to help Mainers across the board, from every employee at Bath Iron Works, to every lobsterman or fisherman beset by ridiculous federal regulations, and every year-round Mainer beset by soaring heating costs in the winter because of Democrats obstructing pipeline permitting that would significantly lower the cost of getting energy to the Pine Tree State.
And its also not just because Collins is so widely respected that she is on the Senates Intelligence Committee, where only the most trusted senators from both parties serve, superintending the nations most secretive programs.
It is also because Collins is a superb politician, always out and about across her state asking Mainers for t
