In her June 8 online op-ed, “I know firsthand why Graham Platner shouldn’t be a U.S. senator,” Genevieve McDonald, the former political director of Platner’s Senate primary campaign in Maine, wrote that “he exhibits a pattern of dishonest behavior that is impossible to ignore.” She said that Democrats’ dismissal of this sordid pattern reflects “one of the deepest problems in American politics today. We have learned to excuse what we should condemn.” She concluded: “The answer to a broken political culture is not to accept it. Demand better from those entrusted with power or seeking it.”
As a lifelong Democrat, I find Platner’s passion, plain-spokenness and populist appeal to be refreshing additions to the Democratic Party. But those qualities cannot supersede the importance of character. The Republican Party’s transformation under Donald Trump offers a cautionary lesson in what can happen when voters discount personal conduct in favor of political expediency.
The response from Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan) to accounts of Platner’s mistreatment of women — “Frankly, I’m sick of it” — resonates. Such allegations, taken together with his past online rhetoric and Totenkopf tattoo, suggest character unbecoming a Democratic leader.
On the day I was commissioned as an Air Force officer, I was gifted the book “Character Is Destiny” by Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona). Trump’s indecent character has tragically transformed McCain’s party, underscoring how the personalities of those we elect to high office shape a political party. I urge my fellow Democrats to prioritize decency and character when evaluating political candidates. The destiny of our party — and country — demands it.
T. Michael Spencer, Washington
Regarding the June 7 The Nation article “Platner rallies in Maine, says his past has been ‘weaponized’ in the race”:
I’m concerned when those who proclaim their opposition to mistreatment of women begin to pull their punches and make excuses for it out of political expediency. Democrats keenly covet Susan Collins’s Senate seat in Maine, and, as a result, many of them are willing to credit Graham Platner’s ridiculous excuses. Who knew that disrespectful and demeaning attitudes toward women were symptoms of alcohol use and post-traumatic stress disorder? I’m reminded yet again that power often triumphs over principle.
John D. Lynn, Edwardsville, Illinois
Many women learned that their defined role under the patriarchy was a trap in the 1950s to late ’70s, during second-wave feminism. Many men are still caught in their version of that patriarchal trap. Graham Platner has, by all appearances, escaped that trap by realizing he was drinking to escape, a few years after leaving the service. We should all understand that the healing process in escaping is not a one-and-done thing but takes some time. Give the guy a break. The people of Maine seem to be doing so.
Anne Johnson, Brownsburg, Indiana
Here comes the bride, walking her own path
Back in the ‘80s, when I was a young adult, my father would often warn me: “The most dangerous place for a woman is in her own bedroom.” The June 7 front-page article “No letup in pace of domestic killings,” which reported that “in the first two days of June, authorities said, three fathers killed their children and the mothers who raised them,” made clear that nothing has changed. My father told me he would not walk me down the aisle because “it represented a property transfer.”
Rather than viewing a wife as a human being with feelings and free will, the manosphere seems to want to return to the law of coverture. I applaud any progress made toward curbing gun violence and getting men very needed mental health services, but no amount of either will ever be enough to prevent domestic violence if we don’t recognize and reverse societal recursion to repressive doctrines.
Luella Johnson, New York
A House divided from the Constitution
Regarding Theodore R. Johnson’s June 4 column, “A great reverse migration is shifting the balance of power in the U.S.”:
The Constitution used to be treated like a rulebook. Today, it increasingly resembles a suggestion box. Actions once described as unconstitutional are rebranded as contested, challenged, unresolved or awaiting review. The outcome, somehow, never quite arrives.
Call it the Got Away With It Doctrine: If the president does it and Congress shrugs, it retroactively wasn’t illegal. Brilliant. Why didn’t the Founders think of that?
The administration has sent hundreds of people to foreign prisons without due process, frozen funds appropriated by Congress and defied direct court orders. Including, remarkably, orders from the Supreme Court itself.
Legal scholars have a name for this: “legalistic noncompliance.” In plain English: breaking the law.
The Constitution has not changed. Eighty-one percent of Americans agree that if a court rules something illegal, the administration must comply. Apparently, the one person who missed that memo lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
If every constitutional red light becomes a legal gray area, Americans could wake up one day to discover that the rule of law has been replaced by the rule of momentum. And momentum, unlike law, has no brakes.
Alan T. Kelly, Castlewarden, Ireland
A leg up from a legend
Regarding the June 2 Sports obituary “Hall of Famer helped Baltimore Colts become champions”:
My younger sister had a unique connection to the late Raymond Berry, the Colts’ legendary former wide receiver.
At age 3, she had Perthes disease, a childhood condition where blood flow to the femoral head (the “ball” of the hip joint) is temporarily disrupted. She had to wear a leg brace and a fitted, elevated orthopedic shoe for two years.
Her shoe came from a medical supply store in midtown Baltimore that also helped Berry, whose joint misalignment meant he often had one leg shorter than the other.
I accompanied my parents and sister to the store on a day when Berry happened to be there. He spoke at length to my sister and told her, my parents and me to never give up hope. My sister eventually recovered fully. I admired Berry from that day on for his compassion, empathy and humility.
My sister died within days of Berry. May they both rest in eternal peace.
Mel Tansill, Catonsville, Maryland
Letter submissions
Send letters to [email protected].
Submissions must be exclusive to The Post and should include the writer’s address and day and evening telephone numbers. Letters are subject to editing and abridgement. Please do not send letters as attachments. Because of the volume of material we receive, we are unable to acknowledge submissions; writers whose letters are under consideration for publication will be contacted.
Post Opinions wants to know: What do you wish you had known earlier? What nuggets of wisdom, gleaned from years of experience, would you share with your younger self? Send us your response, and it might be published as a letter to the editor. wapo.st/wise_words
The post Graham Platner and the Trumpification of the Democratic Party appeared first on Washington Post.
