Anchor Struck

I’m tempted to post about Trump’s increasingly bizarre take on the reflecting pool brouhaha, but I’d like it to reach brouhaha-ha!ha! status first. Instead I wanted to weigh on on Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for senator in Maine this fall. The GOPers have made much about some flaws in Platner that I’d like to address.

Platner has taken a ration of shit for a having a Nazi skull-and-bones tattoo. He got it during a drunken night on leave while serving in the U.S. Marines. He said he selected it at random when he and a fellow Leatherneck decided it would look cool. A former girlfriend of his claims that Platner knew it was a Nazi symbol, although she is a conservative activist and may have an agenda issue. Regardless, he has had it covered over.

As a former Marine, I can verify that almost all Jarheads get a tattoo, traditionally while soused. Platner’s campaign website is for democracy, the Constitution, small business, better health care, a cleaner environment, immigration reform, strong unions, affordable child care, a higher minimum wage, term limits and an end to pointless wars. He would be a shitty Nazi.

Platner also has been excoriated for racist and sexist comments he posted on Reddit from 2013 to 2021. He has apologized for them. In 2025 his wife Amy Gertner reported that he had been sexting with other women. He stopped, and he and Gertner resolved the situation through counseling.

Platner has blamed some of his behaviour on PTSD. He served three combat tours in Iraq with the Marines, and another tour in Afghanistan with the Maryland Army National Guard. He once admitted “I might have read too much Hemingway.” It doesn’t excuse some of his behaviour, but it helps explain it. I can tell you as a Vietnam War veteran that PTSD is a heavy lift. Very heavy at times.

And, isn’t it precious that the Republicans can criticize Platner’s indiscretions while they kowtow to a sexual predator? Happy summer solstice!