Graham Platner’s Nazi tattoo should have disqualified him. Now have we seen enough?

(RNS) — “I cannot donate to a candidate with a Nazi tattoo.”

That was my response to a Democratic fundraising email beseeching me that my funds were the best hope to change the composition of the Senate come November. Graham Platner would never gain my support — financially, as I don’t live in Maine — particularly after his claim that he did not know what the symbol inked permanently on his chest meant (a claim a former acquaintance said was false) .

I find it even more disqualifying that a person would be so ignorant as to mark himself permanently with a symbol that celebrates death in a way that did not mean anything to him or he did not fully comprehend.

It did not seem like a complicated choice to me. No matter what fantastic agendas a candidate might promote, as someone whose family has faced violent white supremacy in a Pittsburgh synagogue shooting , I would never want to grant power to someone who harnessed the values of Nazism to his flesh.

Platner is now finally facing universal calls from Democrats for him to drop out of the race, as a woman came forward this week and accused him of rape — an allegation he denies. But it shouldn’t have taken that. Platner’s…