The Maine Thing
Mike Nelson↱ gives it a go:
There are a couple important things going on, here: One is that party leaders never really know what to say or do when this happens. Another cannot be stressed enough: This is a Maine problem, brought by Mainers, and only to be resolved by Mainers. Primary voters in Maine chose Platner over a seventy-eight year-old governor. So, now it's the guy trying to talk the talk after being late to recognize his Nazi tattoo versus the Republican U.S. Senator who expresses grave concerns about the white supremacist, Nazi-associated authoritarianism she nonetheless supports.
It's a statewide election in Maine. The state that elected Paul LePage to the governor's office. Twice.
Consider: When Washington sent Brock Adams to the Senate, that was part of a larger American cultural problem; we could say the same of Oregon sending Bob Packwood. But this, a Democrat with a very particular sketchy history is who they have to challenge a Republican incumbent with a similarly particular sketchy present. It's Maine, it's the best they could do, apparently.
That said, what happens if Maine voters are willing to stop Susan Collins by sending Graham Platner to the Senate? If he becomes another Fetterman, Manchin, or Sinema, show of hands, who, really, will be surprised; but if that's how it goes, that's more than a Maine problem.
There is also this: That the laundering of the Nazi iconography is a viable point of political compromise reflects, in this case, an American problem.
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Notes:
Nelson, Mike. "Condemning a Nazi Tattoo Shouldn't Be This Hard". The Atlantic. 29 May 2026. TheAtlantic.com. 30 May 2026. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/05/democrats-graham-platner-tattoo/687364
Mike Nelson↱ gives it a go:
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. Nazi symbolism and more modern versions of the ancient conspiracy theories behind this intolerable ideology have found a degree of toleration within American political movements desperate for shortsighted victories. The underlying hatred that, among other things, motivated the killing of more than a third of all the Jews on the planet eight decades ago is viewed no longer as unacceptable, but rather somewhere on a scale of "problematic" issues that can be either explained away or ignored.
The most recent case is that of Graham Platner, the 41-year-old Democrat who is hoping to unseat Senator Susan Collins in Maine. Platner has a unique personal story, having reinvented himself from high-born prep-school student to blue-collar oyster farmer, and from willing Marine who talked about wanting to go to war to kill people (and who later worked for a military contractor) to a victim of Collins's vote to authorize the Iraq War. Although Platner is by no means the first politician to reshape his personal narrative during a campaign, he is likely the first to attempt an innocent explanation for having had, for 18 years, a tattoo of a Totenkopf, the insignia of the Schutzstaffel, or SS—the most dedicated and fanatical component of the Third Reich, whose members were the architects and executioners of the Final Solution.
Platner has said that he got the tattoo while "carousing" with other young Marines in Croatia, that he thought of it as simply a skull and crossbones that "looked cool," and that he was horrified when he learned of its significance. He got the image covered up once it became public. But the idea that he remained blissfully ignorant of the Totenkopf's meaning strains credulity. CNN found evidence suggesting that he was aware of its significance for years and had spoken with an acquaintance about it. Platner's former political director made comments to the same effect.
Yet recently this understanding seems to have grown less universal. Nazi symbolism and more modern versions of the ancient conspiracy theories behind this intolerable ideology have found a degree of toleration within American political movements desperate for shortsighted victories. The underlying hatred that, among other things, motivated the killing of more than a third of all the Jews on the planet eight decades ago is viewed no longer as unacceptable, but rather somewhere on a scale of "problematic" issues that can be either explained away or ignored.
The most recent case is that of Graham Platner, the 41-year-old Democrat who is hoping to unseat Senator Susan Collins in Maine. Platner has a unique personal story, having reinvented himself from high-born prep-school student to blue-collar oyster farmer, and from willing Marine who talked about wanting to go to war to kill people (and who later worked for a military contractor) to a victim of Collins's vote to authorize the Iraq War. Although Platner is by no means the first politician to reshape his personal narrative during a campaign, he is likely the first to attempt an innocent explanation for having had, for 18 years, a tattoo of a Totenkopf, the insignia of the Schutzstaffel, or SS—the most dedicated and fanatical component of the Third Reich, whose members were the architects and executioners of the Final Solution.
Platner has said that he got the tattoo while "carousing" with other young Marines in Croatia, that he thought of it as simply a skull and crossbones that "looked cool," and that he was horrified when he learned of its significance. He got the image covered up once it became public. But the idea that he remained blissfully ignorant of the Totenkopf's meaning strains credulity. CNN found evidence suggesting that he was aware of its significance for years and had spoken with an acquaintance about it. Platner's former political director made comments to the same effect.
There are a couple important things going on, here: One is that party leaders never really know what to say or do when this happens. Another cannot be stressed enough: This is a Maine problem, brought by Mainers, and only to be resolved by Mainers. Primary voters in Maine chose Platner over a seventy-eight year-old governor. So, now it's the guy trying to talk the talk after being late to recognize his Nazi tattoo versus the Republican U.S. Senator who expresses grave concerns about the white supremacist, Nazi-associated authoritarianism she nonetheless supports.
It's a statewide election in Maine. The state that elected Paul LePage to the governor's office. Twice.
Consider: When Washington sent Brock Adams to the Senate, that was part of a larger American cultural problem; we could say the same of Oregon sending Bob Packwood. But this, a Democrat with a very particular sketchy history is who they have to challenge a Republican incumbent with a similarly particular sketchy present. It's Maine, it's the best they could do, apparently.
That said, what happens if Maine voters are willing to stop Susan Collins by sending Graham Platner to the Senate? If he becomes another Fetterman, Manchin, or Sinema, show of hands, who, really, will be surprised; but if that's how it goes, that's more than a Maine problem.
There is also this: That the laundering of the Nazi iconography is a viable point of political compromise reflects, in this case, an American problem.
____________________
Notes:
Nelson, Mike. "Condemning a Nazi Tattoo Shouldn't Be This Hard". The Atlantic. 29 May 2026. TheAtlantic.com. 30 May 2026. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/05/democrats-graham-platner-tattoo/687364
