Hundreds of miles north of me, a controversy is raging over the U.S. Senate candidacy of Graham Platner, a 41-year old Millennial who is running for the Democratic nomination to oppose Senator Susan Collins next year. Platner, an ex-Marine and an oyster farmer, had been effectively pitching an economic program focused on the working class when two disturbing stories broke. First, more than ten years ago, on reddit, he had made a number of offensive comments, including homophobic ones and ones that questioned the extent of sexual assault in the military. Secondly, it turns out that while in the Marine Corps he acquired a skull-and-crossbones tattoo similar to the Nazi Death's Head, which he has only just covered up. Meanwhile, the Democratic Governor of Maine, Janet Mills, who will turn 78 at the end of this year, has also entered the race as the establishment Democratic candidate. During the last week this situation triggered two very different op-eds by regular contributors to the New York Times that tell us a lot about splits inside the Democratic Party.
The first op-ed, by Tressie McMillan Cottom, aims more at senior Democrats who have stood up for Platner than at Platner himself. The controversy over the posts and tattoos, she writes, should have ended up "as just another weird little political story in an extraordinary political moment in American history," except that "several prominent Democrats took time out of their remaining days on God's green earth to lecture Democratic voters on learning to forgive"--specifically Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. This, she says, is a problem, because "This country is being ruled by a powerful minority that espouses deplorable minority views that polling shows a majority of voters in this country disagree with. This is a big problem. It is also the same problem as a guy wearing a Nazi tattoo." She continues:
"I cannot swear to know the minds of men like Murphy and Sanders. But, were I a betting person, I’d wager someone else’s riches that they know racism and xenophobia are inextricably linked to America’s inchoate understanding of class politics. They know that “working class” has become a powerful political totem of its own — a discursive sleight of hand used to separate out white voters’ concerns as more legitimate, more materially grounded, more important than other voters’ concerns."
In other words, even to refer to a "working class" that is by definition interracial--instead of simply focusing on "marginalized groups"--marks one as a panderer to racism. She continues: "Their rhetoric — and the conventional wisdom that flows from it — suggests that we cannot talk about economic solutions without abandoning our commitment to the Black, Latino, gay, transgender and female poor that are the lifeblood of the Democratic Party’s base. The conceit at the heart of that belief is that poor white people are too racist, and too uniquely ignorant of their racism, to vote in their best interests. Therefore, Democrats have to accept a little racism to win the working class." The only way to prove that one is a real Democrat is to put "Black, Latino, gay, transgender and female poor" people first. And ramming that point home, she adds, " If the Democratic future requires us to exchange our discomfort with casual Nazism to advance a political agenda, I am not interested."
The second column, which appeared yesterday, was written by Michelle Goldberg. She makes clear that she was initially anticipating writing a column similar to MacMillan Cottam's, but after talking to some people in Maine, she decided she had to do some good old-fashioned reporting and travel up there to see Platner in action for herself. She interviewed him at length and researched his Reddit posts, some of which suggested that leftists arm themselves against Fascism and even identified with Antifa--not the kind of thing a real neo-Nazi would write. And she attended one of his wildly popular campaign events, which are filled with voters who warm to his insistence that the Democratic Party had to return to the traditions that had given the nation Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Only such an approach would ever help the many ordinary Mainers who are losing out in our new economy. He also urged the audience to begin talking to their neighbors, the only way that a real counter-movement to MAGA (which carried one of Maine's two Congressional districts and one electoral vote last year) could grow.
MacMillan Cottam, it seems to me, focused so intently on using the power of "marginalized groups" to purge the Democratic Party of those with a different approach that she forgot a critical point: the main job of a candidate is to get elected. By that I do not mean, as she suggested, that a Nazi-style tattoo would be more likely to attract than to repel white voters. Goldberg found that very few of Platner's listeners seemed to be interested in the controversy at all. I do mean that downplaying racial issues makes sense in a state that is 91 percent white, 5 percent biracial, 2 percent black and 2 percent Hispanic might make sense. And last but not least, when Democrats face a choice between a 42-year old candidate and a near-79 year old one, the choice should be almost automatic. That is why I will vote for Seth Moulton against Ed Markey (who is a year older even than Governor Mills) next year. I no longer get any kick out of being represented by people my own age.
The New York Times opinion page seems to be evolving. MacMillan Cottum's piece would have appeared in 2020 or 2022, but I don't think that Goldberg's would have. That's a step forward for the paper, and for the country.
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