“Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.”
— VOLTAIRE, 1764
It’s at least a little bit ironic to me that my brilliant French wife hates the sentiment behind this quote from the most famous of French philosophers. When Nicole was working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, one of the sayings floating arounf among scientists was the English translation of this.
“The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
You would think my wife must be a Democrat, because if you look at some of the reaction to Graham Platner’s victory Tuesday in Maine’s Senate primary, some Democrats are practically wetting themselves in panic.
Platner, who will be 42 by the end of the year, is without question a flawed individual. He got a nasty tattoo when he was a young Marine, he has sexted with women on the Internet and there are women who have said they were uncomfortable around him. But he is appartently part of what former Vermont Governor Howard Dean called “the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party,” and Maine Democrats preferred him as a candidate to Janet Mills, the state’s 78-year-old governor.
He will run against five-term Sen. Susan Collins, who has been called the most moderate Republican in the Senate. That’s all well and good, but Collins has never cast a decisive vote against anything that matters to Donald Trump. Yes, she was one of seven GOP senators to vote to convict Trump in his second impeachment, but it was obvious he was going to survive.
She did vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, a vote he won by a 50-48 margin. She later expressed shock that Kavanaugh had lied to her when he said he considered Roe v. Wade settled law and not something the Supreme Court should revisit.
Thanks, Susan.
Yes, Platner is flawed and maybe kind of a mess. But I could name a dozen Republicans who have become very rich through questionable ethical moves while in office and one southern senator who is the biggest secret drag queen in Washington.
They obviously fear Platner. They’re already attacking him and saying when the Republicans had a bad senator, they cut him loose. If they mean Bob Packwood, who died last week at age 93, the situation was very different.
Packwood had actually assaulted numerous women, and losing the seat in 1995 didn’t change things in the Senate all that much.
Besides, Democrats returned the favor in 2018 when they forced Al Franken to resign over what turned out to be false, trumped-up charges. The problem there came from Democrats — many of them women — who were angry Franken wasn’t perfect. Franken, by the way, has been happily married to the same woman for more than 50 years.
I probably would not have voted for Platner in the primary, but Democrats need to understand that if it’s possible to deprive Trump of his Senate majority, it would be a blessing for America. Just the knowledge he couldn’t nominate any more Supreme Court justices would be a real boon.
Platner might be in big trouble in any state other than Maine, but Mainers might be the most independent voters in the country.
I trust them to do the right thing in this election.