The Progressives searched for and recruited a Maine senatorial candidate who’d appeal to gun groups, but they may have missed their target audience with this pick

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The group describes itself as "working class, progressive, anarchist, socialist, communist, eco-warrior, animal liberator, anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, PoC, LGBTQ-plus."

The Maine Wire:

Sullivan aquaculturist [great renaming — so much better than “Oyster Farmer” —ed] Graham Platner, the ex-Marine running against Gov. Janet Mills (D) for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, instructed members of the Socialist Rifle Association on paramilitary tactics, according to newly uncovered social media posts.

The progressive star revealed in an Aug. 8, 2020 post that he’d provided advanced firearms instruction to the far left group, including a “defensive handgun course” he put on in June of 2020, shortly after the Black Lives Matter riots erupted across the country.

I’m all for everyone exercising their 2nd Amendment rights, and if a group of lawful citizens wants to band together and be trained in gun use, why not? Still, the “Socialist Rifle Association” seems an unfortunate choice of organizations to belong to for a senatorial candidate who was selected because of his potential appeal to rural voters. Here’s who Wikipedia, at least, says they are:

The Socialist Rifle Association (SRA) is a socialist gun rights advocacy group based in the United States, which is dedicated to "providing working class people the information they need to be effectively armed for self and community defense."[5][6]

Membership

In July 2019, a third of the SRA's 2,000 members identified as LGBTQ and 8 percent are transgender.[25] The organization claimed 10,000 active members in November 2020.[4] The SRA has 52 local chapters operating in 33 states.[15]The organization is headed by a National Assembly consisting of elected representatives from each chapter.[15]

Ideology

The SRA describes the goal of their organization as "to provide an alternative to the mainstream, toxic, right-wing, and non-inclusive gun culture that has dominated the firearms community for decades. We seek to provide a safe, inclusive, and left-leaning platform for talking about gun rights and self defense, free from racist and reactionary prejudices, while providing a platform for the working class to obtain the skills necessary for all aspects of community defense."[26][self-published source] The group describes itself as "working class, progressive, anarchist, socialist, communist, eco-warrior, animal liberator, anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, PoC, LGBTQ-plus."[27]

Points of unity

Membership of the SRA is predicated on the acceptance of particular points of unity:

  • We are working class and poor people dedicated to educating our class in the safe use of firearms for personal and community self-defense as well as recreation and subsistence hunting.

  • We are a multi-tendency association of social democrats, communists, and anarchists united by class, for our class. We respect one another's political stances and differences, especially when we disagree.

  • We are dedicated to Liberation and Freedom of ALL people and therefore oppose all forms of oppression and exploitation.

  • We are party to our local communities and as such we volunteer in various ways to further the connections between leftist political radicals and the unorganized communities in which we live. We help feed, house and protect other working class and marginalized folks.

  • We stand against the disarmament of the working class.

  • We are dedicated to arming the working class, both physically and mentally.[2]

Platner had such a bad week last week that last night he brought out his mother to defend him before an appreciative audience in (mostly gay) Ogunquit, but I doubt that even the support of a loving mom will be sufficient for his campaign to regain traction. Chuck Schumer must be rubbing his hand with glee.

Really? The Wobblies?

And given the tendency of transgenders to commit mass shootings, is training these poor, mentally ill creatures to shoot more accurately really such a good idea?