DON’T BE STUPID, BE A SCHMARTY: The Party With the Nazi Tattoo.
Susan Collins, the incumbent, is the very definition of a moderate Republican. Collins isn’t making Schumer back the Nazi Tattoo Guy; Collins is, in fact, a great excuse not to back the Nazi Tattoo Guy. Not that Chuck Schumer should need an excuse to decline to back Platner. This one’s easy.
Platner certainly hasn’t toned down the Jew-baiting or conspiracist pronouncements about Israel controlling America to siphon taxpayer money away from working families. It’s his whole brand. And one can expect it to continue now that Schumer is approving of that brand.
One need not be Jewish to understand that Nazis are bad. The moral failure here is the Democratic Party’s, not a single constituency.
That’s not to say there are no Democrats who know right from wrong. For example, Platner recently characterized Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania as “the bane of my existence”—the latest in a long line of reasons to admire Fetterman, who has made no secret of his disdain for Jew-baiters with Nazi tattoos.
There are the rare progressive activists with a conscience as well. Gun-control advocate Shannon Watts, who has been railing against the left’s support for Platner and its giddy embrace of anti-Semitic influencer Hasan Piker, tweeted today to remind everyone that Piker praised Platner by saying: “He was pro-Hamas. He was giving Hamas credit in 2014. What more do you f**king want?”
Apparently many in the party were convinced by that argument—made by a guy who, by the way, said America deserved 9/11 and is enthralled by political violence more generally.
Related: What would it take for Democrats to abandon a progressive candidate?
Listen, everyone makes mistakes, though perhaps something less drastic than permanently inking Nazi imagery on their chest. Platner keeps apologizing for every new comment that pops up, and there will almost certainly be more. What if the man has shown terrible temperament and judgment, little intelligence, and exhibited no perceptible skill that makes them right to serve in the most important deliberative body in the country? No problem.
A few years back, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) dismissed the influence of socialists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as largely irrelevant, noting that their influence extended to “like, five people.” Well, since that time, Democrats have abetted the rise of the unhinged Left at every turn, from communists to cultural wackos, and those preaching revolutionary violence. The Democratic Party has become such a big tent these days that unapologetic terror-shilling communist Hasan Piker, who tells his millions of followers to “soak the streets in capitalist blood,” has been invited into the movement by popular personalities on the mainstream Left such as Ezra Klein and Jon Favreau. Unsurprising coming from fans of Zohran Mamdani, a devotee of “globalizing the intifada” or, rather, the global violent targeting of Jews. These positions, it seems, only lift your stock on the contemporary Left. Ocasio-Cortez is quickly becoming a centrist in her party.
At this point, what could a progressive say to be shunned by Democrats? What sin could precipitate the party abandoning a candidate? It’s difficult to think of anything. And please, don’t bring up former California gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell, who is now dealing with multiple accusations of sexual assault and rape. Democrats lose nothing by abandoning a primary candidate in a deep-blue state.
Come to think of it, the only offense that could conceivably turn the progressive Left against you is openly supporting Israel, as Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has found out. Otherwise, you’re good.
No word yet if Platner will be self-funding his campaign: