Graham Platner’s Defenders Are Not Serious People

“Semi-fascist.” That was how Joe Biden described “some Republicans” ahead of his stemwinder on how the GOP was corrupting the nation’s “soul.” Kamala Harris dropped the “semi” when accusing Donald Trump of harboring affinities for national socialism, a charge that the experts said fits within the ideology’s modern “looser definition.” Indeed, the GOP’s latent Naziism is overdetermined. It’s evident in their malign misuse of “redistricting and gerrymandering,” political instruments Democrats scrupulously abjure, to the “body language” and “hand gestures” that are rendered suspect by virtue of Republicans’ use of them.