I’ve long ago given up on expecting David French apply himself to anything other than his distaste for President Trump. I think the last straw for me was his defense of Kamala Harris as the pro-life choice in the 2024 election.
In any case, yesterday French actually had some criticism for a Democratic star, Graham Platner. He does a pretty fair job of pointing out that Platner has a long history of sketchy comments and behavior.
Platner has claimed that he didn’t know what the tattoo meant and that it was the result of a drunken mistake he made when he was in the Marines. If you believe this (and obviously I don’t), he then, by his own account, carried a death’s head tattoo on his body for almost 20 years, apparently without the slightest curiosity as to what it was (though there are reports — which he disputes — that he called his tattoo “my Totenkopf” in 2012).
After news of the tattoo surfaced, Genevieve McDonald, who had recently resigned as Platner’s political director, questioned whether he truly didn’t know what the symbol signified. “He’s not an idiot,” she wrote. “He’s a military history buff.”
Platner also has a long history of internet trolling. He declared himself a communist. He’s said that all cops are bastards. He’s affirmed the belief that white people are “actually” racist and stupid. He repeatedly called people online “retarded.” Speaking about women who were concerned about sexual assault, he wrote: “Rape is a real thing. If you’re so worried about it to buy Kevlar underwear you’d think you might not get blacked out f——d up around people you aren’t comfortable with.”
He’s agreed with the idea that Black people don’t tip, adding his own two cents: “It always amazes me how solid this stereotype is.”
Platner’s response has been that he was a different person after he left the military. But French correctly points out that Platner was still saying some of these things just a few years ago.
…that difficult period apparently wasn’t over in 2020, which is when he agreed that white people were racist and stupid, and it was still going strong in 2021, when he called himself a communist. He didn’t delete his posts or cover up his tattoo until after he decided to run for office.
I’ve written about every bit of this in much more detail than French does here. None of it is remotely new at this point seven months later so why is French writing about it now?
David French’s stance at the NY Times has, for several years now, been that he’s a conservative Christian who is offended by President Trump as a person. So along comes Graham Platner who also seems to be a pretty offensive and crude character and he’s now becoming a favorite among Democrats, including his own readers at the NY Times. As far as French is concerned, it’s the same thing all over again.
The slide begins when you tell yourself that the stakes are just too high for normal politics. Of course I wouldn’t support this candidate in better times. But now? American democracy is at stake.
Millions of Republicans justified their votes for Trump in precisely those apocalyptic terms…
You twist yourself into knots finding ways to impose standards on your opponents while defending your allies for the same conduct. The exact wrong answer to a Republican Party that’s flirting with fascism is a man who chose to put vile Nazi imagery on his own body and kept it there for years.
In short, Platner reminds French a lot of Trump and the behavior of Democrats rallying to him reminds him a lot of Republicans. And this must feel a bit awkward because he’s supposed to be against that sort of thing, but he knows his readers are for it.
I know there are readers who will object strongly to this analysis. We’re not Republicans, you’ll argue. We’re not as vulnerable to demagogues. And maybe you’re right. Maybe you do have a stronger commitment to character and integrity than Republicans. After all, you didn’t nominate a man like Trump, right?
But how strong is that Democratic commitment? The Democrats (and the country) just endured an electoral catastrophe in part because a prideful president and a phalanx of his advisers concealed the true extent of his mental and physical decline.
Suffice to say, the list of recent Democratic political scandals is deeply depressing. One doesn’t have to excuse an ounce of Trump’s misconduct to say that the Democratic Party hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory during these dark political days.
I’ll save you the trouble of clicking on those links. He’s referring to the following.
- Rep. Eric Swalwell dropping out of the governor’s race and then the House.
- Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick abandoning her House seat to avoid being thrown out for alleged fraud.
- Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation.
- Mayor Eric Adams and allegations of bribery.
- Sen. Menendez sentencing for bribery.
He’s also left out the scandal of Mayor Karen Bass’s involvement in downplaying her failures in the LA wildfires.
All of which, in my view, is vastly less important than the outright lying about Joe Biden to the entire public. Years of gaslighting at the highest levels deserves more than a single sentence of condemnation.
So, I’m glad that David French is kinda sorta realizing that Democrats are no different than the party he has made a career out of trashing for the past decade. Maybe he could try writing about that a bit more often instead of just feeding his audience the Trump bashing they crave. I won’t hold my breath for that sort of basic fairness though. I suspect yesterday’s column will turn out to be a fluke.
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