The Hypocrisy of the Democrats Who Defend Graham Platner
The article discusses the controversy surrounding Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate with a Nazi tattoo. It highlights the hypocrisy of Democratic leaders who support him despite the tattoo's significance. The author argues that this acceptance reflects a troubling trend of partisanship overshadowing moral judgment.
- ▪Graham Platner is a Democratic candidate running against Senator Susan Collins in Maine.
- ▪He has a tattoo of the Totenkopf, an insignia associated with the Nazi SS, which he claims he did not understand the significance of.
- ▪Democratic leaders have publicly supported Platner, raising concerns about their stance on Nazi symbolism and partisanship.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
IdeasThe Hypocrisy of the Democrats Who Defend Graham PlatnerThey wouldn’t be so accepting of his Nazi tattoo if he were a Republican.By Mike NelsonJoe Raedle / GettyMay 29, 2026, 3 PM ET ShareSave For decades, Nazism and the anti-Semitism underlying it have marked zero on the Kelvin scale of villainy—the metric against which all other forms of evil are compared. This is so well understood that we now have cultural phenomena such as Godwin’s Law, the theory that online debates inevitably lead to Nazi comparisons, and the “everything I don’t like is Hitler” meme. But their existence proves the point: If one wishes to say that something is irredeemably bad, Nazis are the benchmark, the absolute.Yet recently this understanding seems to have grown less universal.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at The Atlantic.
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