by Neal Urwitz
Yes, Republicans tolerate and even promote far worse behavior than do Democrats. Yes, people deserve a chance to redeem themselves, especially those that have served our nation. Yes, Democrats could use some younger leaders.
But we Democrats also must be honest with ourselves: we didn’t exactly bathe ourselves in glory during the Graham Platner debacle. We were so desperate for a working class, white, male hero that we allowed ourselves to be duped. We forced ourselves to ignore the pile of red flags and lambasted the people who pointed out the emperor had no clothes. Worst of all, we ignored our bedrock principles–like tolerance, honesty, and listening to women about sexual and domestic violence–because we didn’t want to admit we were wrong.
It’s critical we not repeat those mistakes in Michigan. If we lose Michigan’s senate seat, we will almost certainly lose the senate and, with it, a chance to check President Trump’s terrifying ambitions.
Full disclosure: I disliked Platner from the jump. I’m Jewish, so the Nazi tattoo was game over. Yet I am a part of the chattering class that so thoroughly screwed this up, and it’s not like I never ignored my thundering doubts about a candidate I liked.
Moving forward, there are a few lessons we need to take away both from Platner’s unfitness and from the people who supported him long after it was clear he was not a good person. And we need to apply them in Michigan.
First, the “would I be okay with what he said or did if he was a Republican” test is a good one. If a Republican had a problematic tattoo we would all be calling for him to step aside; indeed, we did exactly this over Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Jerusalem Cross. If a Republican candidate had a Nazi tattoo we would never have believed that he “didn’t know what it was” and considered him a bigot. Similarly, we would never have given a pass to a married Republican candidate trading sexts with women on an app used by 13-28 year olds, yet that’s exactly what Platner’s supporters did.
Second, we must ask ourselves if the candidate is who he says he is, or if he is pretending to be who we want him to be. That was likely the driving impetus behind Jon Favreau calling Platner a “good and decent man.” Yet even a cursory look at Platner’s background showed that Platner the man was not the same as Platner the candidate. Platner the candidate was a working class oyster farmer and veteran who had worked through his demons. Platner the man’s parents were a prominent attorney and a successful restauranteur who sent him to the Hotchkiss School, one of the most elite (and expensive) private schools in the nation. And, as we found out, his demons were still with him.
We wanted a working class white guy; we got one cosplaying as one instead, and we chose to believe the lie.
Finally, we must expunge our propensity for willful ignorance. People like Rick Wilson attacking Lyndsey Fifield when she came forward about Platner’s domestic violence was ugly. The people who “believe[d] women” during the Me Too movement who nevertheless viciously demeaned Platner’s accusers credibility (like Ryan Grim, Rep. Ro Khanna, Zaid Jilani, and Glenn Greenwald among far too many others) was nauseating. When such accusations arise about Democrats, we must ask ourselves “do we think this allegation is really false, or do we just want it to be?”
Unfortunately, these lessons apply now, here in Michigan. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is not a rapist, but his supporters’ playbook is the same as Platner’s defenders:
We would never forgive a Republican’s repeatedly lying about his record, like claiming he erased $700M of medical debt despite not having done so or claiming to have never supported “Defund the Police” despite tapes proving the opposite. Yet we’re accepting El-Sayed’s dishonesty.
We are choosing to believe a story we like that is demonstrably false, namely El-Sayed’s claim to be a physician despite the fact he has never held a medical license, and that he’s a progressive hero despite the fact that he’s wealthy and won’t provide a straight answer on his tax returns (sound familiar?).
Finally, his supporters are claiming he isn’t antisemitic (just antizionist), but it’s likely that’s just what they want to believe; campaigning with Hasan Piker (who called Orthodox Jews “inbred” and called a Jewish man a “bloodthirsty pig dog,”) and El-Sayed’s hesitance to condemn a terrorist attack against a Jewish preschool point to a man who is at least comfortable with antisemites.
We must learn from the Platner debacle if we are to avoid the devil’s bargain Republicans made with Trump. Republicans traded their souls for a sack full of policy wishes, and ended with neither. That is not a bargain Michiganders should accept.
Urwitz is CEO of Enduring Cause Strategies. He was previously a speechwriter for and political advisor to the Secretary of the Navy during the Biden Administration.
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