How hard is it not to run a Nazi?

Crash Course subscribers can join the conversation. Click the speech bubble icon to comment or tap the heart to leave a like.

The news, in brief …

• Arizona AG sues Mike Johnson for refusing to swear in Democrat for weeks

  Attorney General Mayes called on Johnson to "respect the will of the voters" and seat Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva. Read more.

• “Allowed Trump to win”: Sanders points out Harris campaign flaws on conservative podcast

  The Vermont senator criticized Harris' campaign on comedian Tim Dillon's podcast. Read more.

• Trump sanctions Russian oil companies, calls for immediate ceasefire

  The Trump administration put sanctions on two major Russian oil companies and pressed for peace talks. Read more.

• “Never thought of as much”: Trump downplays demolition of White House’s East Wing

  The president unveiled a model of his planned ballroom and an adjusted price tag of $300 million. Read more.

• ICE recruits struggling to pass fitness test with 15 push-ups and 32 sit-ups

  More than a third of trainees in Ga. failed ICE’s fitness test after administration already lowered requirements. Read more.

• “Egregious”: Even Trump fans aghast at his demand for $230 million in “taxpayer dollars”

  Staunch Trump defenders Scott Jennings and David Urban warned the president to pull back his demand. Read more.

Make me smarter …

How the Proud Boys invented antifa

The far-right gang has been fully absorbed by Trump's White House. Read more.

Primary concerns …

There are undoubtedly some areas where a person’s work might intersect with the output of Nazi Germany. Nuclear physicists are unlucky that fission was discovered under Hitler, but can easily note that Otto Hahn was an avowed opponent of Nazism. Historians who study famous Americans will, of course, find Nazi sympathizers like Charles Lindbergh and outright supporters like Henry Ford.

Rocket scientists have it the worst, having to grapple early on with the legacy of Wernher von Braun. Braun was a fundamental thinker in the field who also happened to serve in the SS. Most fields, famously, are not rocket science, however. That goes double for the unpredictable and inexact art of politicking. It should be remarkably easy for either political party to run a campaign in 2025 without the taint of a regime that ceased to exist 80 years ago. And yet…

Senate hopeful Graham Platner stumbled out of the gate. The harbormaster and oysterman from Maine joined a crowded Democratic Party primary in Maine. His slick campaign quickly earned the support of a host of unions, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders. The contributions flowed in, and Platner seemed well on the way to a showdown with the long-serving Republican incumbent, Sen. Susan Collins.

A questionable Reddit posting history came to light last week, after which Platner revealed an even more suspect tattoo. A skull and crossbones inked on his chest bore a striking resemblance to the totenkopf, a widely recognized symbol of the Nazi SS.

The progressive Platner assured the hosts of “Pod Save America” that he was “not a secret Nazi” and had the tattoo covered up with a riff on a Celtic knot almost immediately. He showcased the new work in a semi-shirtless interview with a local news station.

There’s an ancient internet adage called Godwin’s Law, which holds that as an online argument goes on, the probability of mentioning Hitler gets closer and closer to one. In the years since it was coined, other forum philosophers have riffed that any debater who mentions Nazis has lost the argument. The case of Platner forces us to revisit this dusty truism with a bit of a twist: Have you lost your campaign if you have to publicly distance yourself from the Third Reich?

The continued success of JD Vance and other members of the MAGA movement says no. But we’re willing to toss out another theorem, call it Platner’s Law: If you find yourself on the local morning news show with your nipples exposed, your run for office is probably cooked.

What do you think? Can the Democratic Party find a young-ish candidate to win against Susan Collins? Would we have fewer surprises if upstarts like Platner ran for the House first? Should the party just call it and open a Spirit Halloween in their headquarters with all these closet skeletons? Sound off in the comments.

From the Culture Desk …

“Breaking the Deadlock” shows us what civil discourse could look like

When illogical shout fests are passed off as debate, this considerate roundtable may be just what we need. Read more.

ALSO FROM SALON

In partnership with

We don’t do “business as usual”

The world moves fast, but understanding it shouldn’t be hard.

That’s why we created Morning Brew: a free, five-minute daily newsletter that makes business and finance news approachable—and even enjoyable. Whether it’s Wall Street, Silicon Valley, or what’s trending at the water cooler, the Brew serves up the context you need in plain English, with a side of humor to keep things interesting.

There’s a reason over 4 million professionals read the newsletter daily—and you can try it for free by clicking below!

Join 4M+ Readers Now