The Senate race in Maine says everything you need to know about where the modern Democratic Party's priorities actually lie. It involves a controversial candidate with a documented history of disturbing behavior, two of the most prominent Jewish politicians in America, and a cold political calculation that should leave every honest observer shaking their head.
Graham Platner is now the presumed Democratic nominee for the Senate in Maine. You’ll hear over and over again from the media that he’s a veteran and an oyster farmer, but he’s also a self-described communist, and the proud owner, for nearly two decades, of a Totenkopf tattoo — that's the skull-and-crossbones symbol used by Nazi SS units responsible for the systematic murder of millions of Jews during World War II.
Platner claims he got the tattoo in 2007 during a drunken night in Croatia while serving in the Marines, and that he only recently learned of its Nazi connection. No one really believes that story, and he's since covered it up, as if that changes anything.
The thing is, the tattoo wasn't the only problem.
Old Reddit posts surfaced showing Platner calling himself a "communist," describing police as "bastards," and dismissing challenges faced by military sexual assault victims. Other bigoted and misogynistic posts have also been discovered.
Yet none of it bothers Bernie Sanders.
Sanders endorsed Platner early on, with all the enthusiasm of a man who sees a vehicle for his agenda, and when Platner became the de facto nominee, he was thrilled.
“Congrats to Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine," Sanders wrote on X Thursday. "He's surging by taking on the billionaire class and fighting for working families. Americans are tired of status quo politics. They want REAL change and that's what Graham will deliver."
It’s funny how bigotry, misogyny, and being an actual Nazi sympathizer seemed to make no difference to Sanders, a Jewish senator who has spent decades comparing conservatives to fascists.
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Then there's Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, another Jewish Democrat. Now, for what it’s worth, he personally recruited Gov. Janet Mills to run for the seat, after Platner was already in the race and generating significant grassroots support. Mills had every structural advantage: name recognition, a built-in campaign apparatus, and the backing of the Senate Minority Leader himself.
But all the enthusiasm from the left was for the guy with the Nazi tattoo.
Bizarrely, even Schumer has reversed course. According to the New York Times, the two men spoke by phone after Mills dropped out. A person familiar with the call said they "agreed that Democrats needed to win Maine and take back the Senate majority from Republicans," with another describing it as "cordial" and focused on "the importance of unseating Senator Susan Collins." Schumer and DSCC chair Kirsten Gillibrand also released a joint statement bashing Collins and pledging to support Platner.
So the man Schumer spent months publicly snubbing is now his guy. The Nazi tattoo? Apparently, not a dealbreaker once a Senate seat is on the line. The bigoted online posts? No bother.
It would be shocking if it weren’t part of a longstanding pattern. Democrats have a long, well-documented history of this exact trade-off. They spent decades offering nothing but reverence for the late Sen. Robert Byrd, a former Ku Klux Klan leader, because he delivered votes.
The formula hasn't changed.
Principle gets shelved when power is within reach. Sanders and Schumer, both Jewish men who have built careers warning about the dangers of right-wing extremism, are now backing a candidate who wore a Nazi death squad symbol on his chest.
All to flip one Senate seat.
Even John Fetterman, who isn’t even Jewish, isn’t willing to sell his soul to support a Nazi sympathizer.
