The Platner Trap [View all]

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By David French


I don’t want politicians to be “authentic.” I want them to be decent. I want them to be honest. I want them to be competent. And if they fail those tests, they don’t redeem themselves by opposing Donald Trump.

If you’re a conservative watching Democrats talk themselves into supporting Graham Platner, the Maine Democrat who until recently wore what sure looked like a Totenkopf tattoo (he covered it up after it became a political embarrassment) is to experience déjà vu. To a lesser but still familiar degree, I’m seeing Democrats engage in the same process of absurd accommodation and justification that Republicans use to excuse their deep love for Trump.

Let’s talk about that tattoo first, no matter how sick you are of hearing about it. For those who are not familiar with the Totenkopf, it’s the death’s head insignia of the SS-Totenkopfverbande, one of the three key branches of Hitler’s Waffen-SS, the armed backbone of the Nazi regime. And the SS-Totenkopfverbande arguably represented the worst of the SS. Among other duties, they were concentration camp guards, the people who were responsible for order in the industrial killing machines of Nazi Germany.

*snip*

But still, you might think, if push comes to shove, isn’t it necessary to support the lesser evil? There are two problems with this argument, however, one that’s obvious and the other that’s more subtle and insidious.

First, the obvious problem — the lesser evil is still evil. You’re still compromising your standards. You’re still empowering someone you’d never ordinarily support. If a person with an identical profile applied to be your manager at work, would you be comfortable hiring him?


https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/10/opinion/graham-platner-democrats-senate-maine.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hVA.6T_g.TxxkfMLt-N3d&smid=nytcore-android-share

I'm guessing by what I've read that some at DU agree with this. I do see some inconsistency in this logic.