The NYT political columnists are divided on Graham Platner’s candidacy. Frank Bruni and Michelle Goldberg think Democrats are obligated to support him, while David French and Bret Stephens (of course!) believe he is a dangerous extremist who lacks the character to replace Susan Collins. Who is correct here?
Here is my analysis:
- IS PLATNER SOME SORT OF NEO-NAZI? Definitely not. He combines a personality and background somewhat similar to John Fetterman’s with the progressive ideology of Bernie Sanders. Whatever you think of Bernie’s program, he’s obviously not a left-wing version of Trump.
- IS COLLINS A RELIABLE CHECK ON TRUMP? No. She voted for all but one of Trump’s egregious nominees and did nothing to bring ICE under control.
- WILL THE NEXT TWO YEARS REPRESENT A CRISIS IN AMERICAN LIBERAL DEMOCRACY? Yes. The more resistance Trump meets, the more autocratic he will get. Susan Collins will just wring her hands when this occurs. Platner will fight back.
In short, I agree with Bruni and Goldberg. For reasons I will set out in a future post, I have serious doubts that even a Congress with both houses under Democratic control will be able to restrain Trump, but what else can we do?