Graham Platner, a phony populist, rebranded rich kid, and self-described communist, is now the Democrats’ presumptive nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine. Barring unforeseen events, he will face centrist Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in November’s general election. He currently leads her in the polling average (though it’s always worth noting that Collins famously trailed in every single public poll before comfortably winning reelection in 2020).
Platner is a candidate with an extraordinary amount of baggage, which Democratic base voters have eagerly embraced as features, not bugs. Their own party’s incumbent governor didn’t stand a chance in the primary race, as she couldn’t compete with his Nazi tattoo, profane “authenticity,” and full-blown, belligerent policy extremism. She dropped out last week. Democrats want him. His chorus of defenders is left dismissing and downplaying his Nazi tattoo in various ways, claiming that he’d emerged from a “rough period” in his life. He’s “struggled” in his past, they admonish voters, evidently unaware of the very awkward historical reference that particular word choice invites.
Others pretend that he didn’t really understand the meaning or history behind his tattoo, which has been one of his shifting excuses for why he selected the well-known Nazi image to be permanently inked on his body (he later tried to blame U.S. military culture). For reference, one conservative writer notes that the “Totenkopf” image is “not just a Nazi symbol. It’s very specific. The tattoo of [Totenkopf] that he has on his chest is of the Nazi watch guards who stood over concentration camps watchtowers and purposely shot Jews at will from within those walls.”
Platner has recently stated that he was “appalled” to learn of his tattoo’s Nazi symbolism, explaining that he simply thought it was a cool-looking, generic skull and crossbones. There’s just one minor problem with this spin: It’s demonstrably untrue. A CNN investigation found that Platner acknowledged the Nazi connection for years, in private conversations and online postings. The article cites two acquaintances who confirm that Platner spoke about the Nazi connotations years before the present controversy.
Add to the mix Platner’s own former campaign manager, who quit working for him and refused to sign a lucrative nondisclosure agreement. “Graham has an antisemitic tattoo on his chest,” she wrote in a social media post, and “he knows damn well what it means.” Again, that is the woman who was running his campaign. Platner chose his Nazi tattoo, lied about his Nazi tattoo, apologized for and covered up his Nazi tattoo (upon “discovering” what it was), then effectively un-apologized for it when he realized his core supporters either don’t care or affirmatively love it. Apropos of nothing, Platner has also become an obsessive and virulent critic of Israel, the world’s lone, tiny Jewish state, a prerequisite for “progressive” adoration these days.
Anti-American Communist streamer Hasan Piker, who said America deserved 9/11, has publicly praised Platner’s long-standing “pro-Hamas” views (his phrasing, meant as a compliment). Platner has also “promoted a social media post from the neo-Nazi Holocaust denier Stew Peters, and he also sat for a lengthy interview with antisemitic conspiracy theorist Nate Cornacchia, claiming he was a longtime fan,” as chronicled by Philip Klein.
None of us can have perfect knowledge of what resides in Platner’s heart, but we do know what is tattooed on it. The demands that people move past this serious judgment and character red flag, among several others, are particularly rich coming from a political party that routinely and baselessly smears its opponents as Nazis. But their guy’s Nazi tattoo requires nuance, you see. “People can change,” leftist commentators bleat, urging a level of forbearance and forgiveness they would literally never extend to a Republican candidate. “Mainstream” Democrats seem to have made their peace with all of this. They want control of the Senate, so just win, baby. He may be a Nazi tattoo Communist, but he’s their Nazi tattoo Communist. Relatedly, what becomes of their hectoring, utterly empty “Country Over Party” sloganeering remains to be seen.
THE DEMOCRATS ARE ACTUALLY GOING TO VOTE FOR A NAZI
This motto has been endlessly invoked by leftists and their journalist allies in recent years, as a means of scolding and shaming Trump supporters. The gist of the sentiment is that opposing Trump is too important for the country to fall along partisan lines. It’s an attempted appeal to patriotism, launched by members of a political coalition that hardly prizes love of country (that’s not a cheap shot or smear. It’s what they themselves tell pollsters, especially when their ‘side’ is out of power).
If the “country over party” lecturers cannot bring themselves to oppose someone like Graham Platner against Susan Collins, a liberal-centrist Republican who might as well be the platonic ideal of what they pretend to value in a “good” Republican (she even voted to convict Trump after his second, post-Jan. 6 impeachment), they should abandon their entire, phony guilt trip. “Country over party” as a one-way partisan racket exposes the “principle” at stake for what it actually is: A cynical power play from party-over-country poseurs.