Less than a decade ago, “punch a Nazi” was the moral shorthand of progressive politics. This week, the Democratic Party effectively nominated one for the United States Senate.

There is no graceful way to begin a sentence with the words “my friend has a Totenkopf tattoo,” and Graham Platner is not my friend. He is, as of this week, the presumptive Democratic nominee for United States Senate from the State of Maine. The party that once promised to “punch Nazis” has decided to elect one, and we are supposed to call it progress.

I do not use that word loosely. Graham Platner says he is not a Nazi. He simply chose, around 2007, to put a Totenkopf on his chest, the death’s-head insignia of the SS unit that ran the camps. He has said he did not know what it meant. CNN’s KFile, his own deleted Reddit posts, and a former acquaintance who recalled him calling it “my Totenkopf” tell another story. He has since covered the tattoo with a Celtic knot and a dog. We are expected to be reassured by the dog.

When Governor Janet Mills suspended her primary on April 30, he was the apparent winner. Chuck Schumer, who had personally recruited........

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