The day before Maine’s Democratic Senate primary in June, a CBS News reporter asked Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., whether he still supported the left-wing populist candidate Graham Platner in light of the controversies surrounding him. At the time, they included a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol (which he covered up in response to criticism after it was revealed), a history of inflammatory and bigoted comments on social media and allegations that he mistreated romantic partners.
Sanders replied, “There are people in the United States Senate right now who are not saints.” He explained that he continued to enthusiastically support Platner as the kind of Senate ally who would “have the guts to take on the big money that is dominating this country, who [would] have the guts to say that every American is entitled to healthcare as a human right.”
Platner, a 41-year-old with little political experience but possessed of an exceptional ability to whip up crowds, won the primary decisively. Yet on Wednesday, just a month after that win, he suspended his political campaign for Senate following a damning report in Politico detailing an allegation that Platner sexually assaulted a romantic partner. (Platner denies the allegation.) Among the many Democrats who withdrew their support and called on him to drop out of the race was Sanders, who apparently decided Platner’s nonsaintly activities had crossed a red line.
Platner’s downfall illustrates a broader lesson for the left: Ends-justify-the-means thinking can be shortsighted — and can even backfire.
This is a preview of a column by Zeeshan Aleem. Read the full column here.
