Graham Platner, Jews, and Israel

This is a response on social media to someone defending Platner:

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Platner didn’t remove/cover over the tattoo until he was shamed into doing so by the media. This tattoo is a TotenKopf tattoo, the death head image used by the Nazi Waffen SS who were in the front lines murdering Jews in the death camps and in the East. He has never apologized. He seems to have known what the tattoo meant over the years, but has tried to make that go away. To my knowledge, while he has generally condemned antisemitism, he has not explained what his specific views of the Shoah are. Calling the tattoo a youthful mistake is way, way insufficient. If he had apologized and explained why he did what he did was wrong, he would have a much better reception.

On this basis, if Platner is the future of the Democratic Party (as some have suggested), Jews don’t have much of a place in such a party.

Most Jews and many African Americans have warned Democrats about Platner, but White people haven’t bothered to listen. They apparently have already forgiven Platner. There aren’t many Jews or African Americans in Maine. So there you go. Apparently they know more than we do. When most Jews tell Democrats that someone has an antisemitism problem and they don’t listen, we already have a clear answer on how a large number of people view Jews. It’s honestly hard to miss.

I hope Platner proves me wrong by taking a more humane path. I truly do. But, if history has lessons to teach, we shouldn’t ignore obvious warning signs.

If I lived in Maine, unless something changes, I could not vote for either Platner or Collins. I’ve already explained Platner. But Collins is a coward who enables Trump, and she does virtually nothing to support democracy. Every step of the way she undermines our freedoms and only does what’s best for her politically. It’s gross.

I’m watching Trump, Republicans, and SCOTUS undermine and try to wreck our democracy, but many Democrats care more about ostracizing Israel and Jews than they care about the Constitution and the values that underlie it. Yes, we’ll likely get through this, but living through it sure is painful and exhausting.