Opinion | Graham Platner and the Rise of the ‘Dirtbag’ Democrat

David French: Hey, Michelle.

Jamelle Bouie: Hello, hello.

Cottle: Hello, hello. All right. This week I want us to talk about Graham Platner, the headline-grabbing Democratic Senate candidate at the center of Tuesday’s Maine primary elections. What does his rise say about where Dems are placing their bets on the future leadership of the party? And bigger picture, what is the role of morality and authenticity in politics today?

But first, I want to talk about the Republicans in Congress, which is one of, I know, everybody’s favorite topics on the show. They’re starting to show a wee bit of spine. This past week, the House voted for a resolution demanding that Donald Trump withdraw forces from Iran. To make this possible, four Republicans had to cross the aisle and join with Democrats. Now, two weeks ago, after Trump announced his $1.8 billion political slush fund, there was also serious pushback from his own party. Why are we seeing this pulse now, and what do you think it means going forward? David?

French: Yeah, it’s a great question. I would say there’s a couple of things happening: One is I think it’s actually true that, believe it or not, Trump is getting even more brazen. So, when you’re talking about the slush fund, for example, we had a good time talking about that as, is this one of the most monarchical things that he’s done? You know, he subverted Congress, he subverted the judiciary. It was a remarkable power grab, just a breathtaking act of corruption. And so I do think there is a difference in degree in some of what Trump has been doing. Also, launching a war without preparing the American people, without going to Congress — I mean, you’re going to chip away.

And then also, I actually think this internal purge that Trump has been mounting is backfiring on him, at least in the short term. He’s gotten rid of Senator Bill Cassidy, he’s gotten rid of John Cornyn. He’s gone down to the state legislative level and intervened to endorse primary candidates at the state level. And I’m not sure that it’s actually doing what he wants it to do, because he’s obviously seriously alienated the Republicans in the Senate.

And a number of Republicans can see the polling, just like everyone else, and see the results of elections before the midterms — between the general election and the midterms. So, all of these things together are not adding up to what you would call normal political accountability, because normal political accountability, we’d be far down the road ——