{"id":1246,"date":"2026-06-05T11:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=1246"},"modified":"2026-06-05T11:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:07:08","slug":"opinion-in-politics-after-trump-nothing-is-disqualifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=1246","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: In politics after Trump, nothing is disqualifying"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
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After a decade of Trumpism, it should come as no surprise that President Donald Trump\u2019s ethos (presenting scandal as strength, outrage as authenticity and public disgrace as evidence you\u2019re a \u201cfighter\u201d) has trickled down into congressional campaigns of both parties.<\/p>\n

Read more Horoscopes June 5, 2026: Mark Wahlberg, take the high road<\/a><\/p>\n

In Maine, for example, controversial oysterman and veteran Graham Platner, a Democrat, appears poised to face Republican Sen. Susan Collins, after incumbent Gov. Janet Mills\u2019 failure to launch led her to drop out of the Senate primary.<\/p>\n

Under old \u201cpre-Trump\u201d rules, Platner\u2019s campaign would have withered instantly after revelations that he once had a Totenkopf SS tattoo, previously identified himself as a communist, said Black people were poor tippers, and wrote that white people \u201cactually are\u201d as racist and stupid as Trump thinks they are.<\/p>\n

Instead, after all this surfaced, Platner actually rose in the polls. Considering the circumstances, there are several reasonable explanations for this.<\/p>\n

Maybe Maine Dems have concluded that moral purity tests are politically suicidal after years of watching heterodox figures like Joe Rogan and Elon Musk drift away from the party. Maybe Platner\u2019s rough-edged outsider persona simply feels more authentic than another interchangeable politician in a pantsuit droning on about \u201cworking families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the difference is that, unlike Trump or Texas\u2019 scandal-plagued Republican Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton, Platner has at least attempted contrition.<\/p>\n

Or maybe Maine Democrats have absorbed the same lesson Republicans adopted in 2016: Once voters stop treating scandal as disqualifying, policing your own side for off-the-field behavior starts to look like unilateral disarmament.<\/p>\n

I mean, who could blame them for thinking you\u2019ve got to fight fire with fire? America, after all, reelected Trump after 34 felony convictions.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

At a certain point, continuing to insist that \u201ccharacter matters\u201d starts sounding like advice Ward Cleaver might have offered Wally on \u201cLeave It to Beaver.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Maine isn\u2019t the only example of voters viewing scandalous behavior as a \u201ckeeping it real\u201d feature, not a bug.<\/p>\n

Another just took place in Texas, when the aforementioned Paxton crushed normie incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in a Republican primary runoff, garnering nearly 64% of the vote.
\nPaxton, it\u2019s worth noting, was previously indicted on felony securities fraud charges, impeached by the Texas House on allegations including bribery, accused by senior aides of abusing his office to help a donor and real-estate developer and accused by his wife (a Texas Republican politician) of infidelity, just to name a few of his greatest hits.<\/p>\n

Yet, not only did the scandals not doom Paxton, they probably helped him. They signaled a willingness to fight, casting him as both a victim and an outsider. There may be no purer expression of trickle-down Trumpism than Paxton, which probably explains why Trump endorsed him.<\/p>\n

Read more Walters: Medi-Cal cuts, tax increases loom as Capitol lawmakers dicker over the budget<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

At this point, you might be thinking that all is lost. But there are counterexamples that lend to optimism.<\/p>\n

Paxton\u2019s Democratic opponent in Texas, for example, offers a stark contrast, as well as an opportunity to test the level of our societal decline in November.<\/p>\n

Texas Democrats could easily have nominated their own chaos agent in Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a progressive firebrand whose flair for viral combat suggests she understands the incentives of modern politics perfectly well.<\/p>\n

Instead, they chose James Talarico \u2014 a young state legislator, former middle-school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian \u2014 who projects the kind of earnest optimism that lands somewhere between Barack Obama and Pete Buttigieg.<\/p>\n

If a Democrat like Talarico can win in deep-red Texas \u2014 against a scandal-plagued candidate who shouldn\u2019t get within 10 miles of the U.S. Capitol \u2014 it will perhaps provide a modicum of hope that red lines still exist, and that some voters still believe character is destiny.<\/p>\n

But regardless of who wins that matchup, the fact that both Paxton in Texas and Platner in Maine emerged as their party\u2019s respective Senate candidates (Platner won\u2019t technically be the Democratic nominee until after the Maine primary in June) still suggests something profound has shifted in American politics.<\/p>\n

Not long ago, the scandals attached to either man would have ended a campaign overnight.<\/p>\n

Today, they function more like r\u00e9sum\u00e9 enhancements. Because the defining lesson of the Trump era may be this: Nothing is disqualifying anymore.<\/p>\n

If a failed nepo baby and middling reality-TV star can become president, survive endless scandals (think \u201cAccess Hollywood\u201d), rack up felony convictions, be found liable for sexual abuse, sit by and watch a Capitol riot, and then return to power anyway, traditional ideas about character and electability are simply no longer relevant.<\/p>\n

The question now is whether Trumpism has become America\u2019s permanent political operating system \u2014 or whether the new rules apply only to Trump himself.<\/p>\n

November will offer some hints.<\/p>\n

Matt K. Lewis is the author of \u201cFilthy Rich Politicians\u201d and \u201cToo Dumb to Fail.\u201d \u00a92026 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Asking Eric: My partner says I need to split all possessions with his wife<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As controversial candidates surge in Texas and Maine, traditional ideas about character are no longer relevant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nOpinion: In politics after Trump, nothing is disqualifying - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=1246\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Opinion: In politics after Trump, nothing is disqualifying - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As controversial candidates surge in Texas and Maine, traditional ideas about character are no longer relevant\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=1246\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-05T11:07:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=1246#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=1246\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\"},\"headline\":\"Opinion: In politics after Trump, nothing is disqualifying\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-05T11:07:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=1246\"},\"wordCount\":849,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=1246#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/3028fee7ff58ae2c9e9c6ff0a2d20953.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=1246#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=1246\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=1246\",\"name\":\"Opinion: In politics after Trump, nothing is disqualifying - 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