For weeks I’ve been debating with myself about what to think about the Graham Platner situation in Maine, and I’ve finally come to a conclusion.
Donald Trump has made a hypocrite of me.
Yes, a well-meaning hypocrite, serving — I’d like to think — the interests of the country and of (blush) humanity itself.
Still, a hypocrite, who finds himself supporting a candidate mired in #MeToo controversies who also wore a Nazi-adjacent tattoo for most of his adult life. Yes, he may be a progressive, like myself, but he is not the kind of candidate I would, in general, rush to support.
And yet, I do. I’ve (mostly) gotten over my apprehensions for one reason — because I can’t afford to have them. And if more scandals come to light — as they might — maybe Platner would resign and Maine Democrats would get to nominate someone new for the Senate race. We saw how well that worked in the Biden-Harris handoff.
And yes, I blame Trump, who has made hypocrites of us all — those who knowingly support him despite his many crimes, both literal and figurative, and those who bend their consciences in an effort to stop him.
I mean, in Colorado we’re facing a similar conscience issue this November when a 2028 Democratic-friendly gerrymander is on the ballot. I oppose gerrymandering, whichever party does it. But what choice do we have?
Want early access to
Mike’s columns?
Subscribe to get an
exclusive first look at
his columns twice a week.
Trump started the gerrymander wars, which are now being used, with the blessing of the Supreme Court, to erase majority-minority districts. And Democrats, many of whom voted for good-government, commission-drawn districts, have no option but to embrace, at least temporarily, gerrymandering hypocrisy. The stakes are just that high.
It’s either a vote to counter Trump’s malevolent strategy or a vote to allow Trump to continue his rout of democracy.
I write this on Tuesday afternoon as Maine voters go to the polls. It’s apparently a foregone conclusion that Platner, running basically unopposed, will overwhelmingly win the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate to run against longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
I didn’t have a vote, of course. Neither did you. But that doesn’t mean that those of us who care about saving American democracy don’t have a say. We do.
The question is: What are we saying?
Some progressives argue — with merit, I believe — that Platner, a veteran who admits to having had an alcohol problem, has copped to many of his sins and admits he is a work in progress as a human being. And, yes, it’s disconcerting that the only woman who has accused Platner of actually laying hands on her is a Republican operative he used to date a decade ago.
But here’s what makes me a hypocrite. If I believed the worst about Platner, if I think — as I do — that Platner lied about his understanding of the tattoo, I’d still want him to take on Collins. It’s simple pragmatism. The polls say the oyster farmer and veteran with the rough-edged charisma has a reasonable chance of beating Collins.
And for Democrats to have a chance to win back the Senate, they must win in Maine, the only Senate tossup state in which Trump was defeated in 2024. They must win in at least three other states, too, but without Maine, the game is almost certainly over. And Trump wins. Bigly.
Here are the stakes. If Republicans keep control of the Senate, there’s every chance that Trump will be able to nominate two more Supreme Court justices, adding to the three he has already appointed. If Dems win back the Senate, however, and if, say, Samuel Alito and/or Clarence Thomas retires, the Dems can probably stop Trump from packing the court.
Would you rather have Platner, with the controversies that have roiled his campaign, or would you rather see Trump add two more justices to the three he has already appointed? That’s the question in its most direct terms.
And then there’s the matter of Collins, the oft-concerned Republican who does vote against Trump some of the time. She voted to convict him in impeachment trials half the time (meaning one of two). She voted against the ballroom.
But speaking of the Supreme Court, Collins, who says she is concerned about the allegations against Platner, voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, whose alleged #MeToo offenses carry far greater weight than anything Platner has been accused of. Kavanaugh also, we should remember, voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, despite assuring Collins he wouldn’t.
And if a Republican moderate, Collins has also regularly minimized — at a minimum — Trump’s bald-faced corruption while voting with him on the war in Iran.
But let’s go beyond Collins, who in this race is merely a Trump stand-in. You don’t see Trump bad-mouthing her, do you? Any Republicans who say Platner should be disqualified in the grab-them-by-the-pussy era of Trump, in the adjudicated-rapist era of Trump, in the many-times-accused era of Trump have to know they can’t be taken seriously. And the thing is, the party that once (hypocritically?) promoted family values, no longer even pretends to care.
If Trump and his MAGA buddies cared about character, they wouldn’t have nominated Ken Paxton — a titan of corruption whose wife is divorcing him on Biblical grounds — for Senate in Texas.
This is what they do in place of character:
Trump, without evidence, is accusing California Democrats of rigging elections there because, as every election-savvy person predicted, Democratic mail-in votes came in late. And Trump sycophants, like House Speaker Mike Johnson, back up Trump’s claim saying he has no evidence but that everyone “instinctively” believes that Trump is right
”I’m not saying it’s rigged,” Johnson said of the California primary election before saying “it stinks to high heavens.” He added: “Some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream that it’s impossible to prove, but I think everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here.”
Instinctively, everyone knows something is wrong with the rigging accusations, just like the 2020 rigging accusations and all the others. I can’t wait for Tina Peters to weigh in.
Look, the standards of character under Trump have been crushed into something entirely unrecognizable. Character, we’ve learned, no longer matters, particularly to a party that, despite all the obvious evidence, twice elected Trump.
This is not just a man who lies about anything. He lies about everything, no matter how petty.
On Monday night, as you must have seen or heard, Trump was booed lustily during the National Anthem at Madison Square Garden during the Knicks-Spurs NBA playoff game.
☀️ MORE FROM MIKE LITTWIN
Politicians often get booed at these events, particularly if their presence, as Trump’s presence did, becomes a great hassle for those getting to the arena and then to their seats.
But I know you can guess Trump’s reaction. It would be hilarious if it weren’t so typically sad.
After the game Trump said, with even less evidence than he has ever had about rigged elections, that the boos he received were actually mostly cheers. Watch here and decide who you’re gonna believe — Trump or your lyin’ ears.
OK, maybe I’m a hypocrite. But, it turns out, after all these years, we must fight malignant Trumpian hypocrisy, even if it’s with all the hypocrisy we can stand.
Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.
The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun’s opinion policy. Learn how to submit a column. Reach the opinion editor at opinion@coloradosun.com.
Follow Colorado Sun Opinion on Facebook.