Lindsey Graham betrayed democracy. Did he deserve grace from Dems in death?
Stephen Robinson thinks they are not taking it personally enough.
Editor's note: I was on break when Lindsey Graham died and then Stephen Robinson wrote a great piece. So I put this together. I promise to get back to my holiday! Anyway, today's edition goes out to everyone. If you're not subscribing, I hope you will consider it. This newsletter is how I make a modest living. Link at the bottom. (PS: Don't forget the tip jar! Thanks!) –JS
I thought it was OK for some Democratic Senators to say respectable things about Lindsay Graham after his sudden death Sunday. Not because they meant it – I don't care if they did – but because I thought they needed room to move if they believed social norms were politically convenient. Things go more smoothly when you don't speak ill of the dead, especially in America, where Democrats are held to a higher standard than Republicans.
But I also thought it was OK for Democrats to speak plainly without concern for etiquette. In my view, Hunter Biden combined both aspects. He said he would "choose" to remember the Republican who said that "if you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person, you’ve got a problem. He’s the nicest person I’ve ever met in politics. As good a man as God ever created.”
The reason? "Not because I have forgotten what came after," Hunter Biden wrote on Twitter. But "because in that memory, there is hope. Hope for a country where brothers can fight like hell over policy and still share a meal, and a laugh, and the loss of the people they love. I will choose to remember the time before Trump. Because I believe in an America after Trump."
There is a third view that recognizes that there are consequences to giving grace to those would never give it in return, and that believes that Democrats should not be in the business of promoting "the centrist-pleasing narrative that Graham was in any way respectable."
That's how Stephen Robinson put it Monday.
"Graham didn’t surrender his principles when he fully embraced Trump," he wrote in The Play Typer Guy, his newsletter. "He just saw firsthand that Trump would help deliver what he always wanted. Overlooking Trump’s bigotry and ego-driven stupidity is bad enough but Republicans like Graham (and John Cornyn and Bill Cassidy, whose political careers are now deceased) did so because they prioritize the MAGA agenda even over their own dignity. If I were one of Graham’s Democratic Senate colleagues, I might take that personally."
In the short interview below, Stephen and I discuss Lindsey Graham's legacy and personality type (Josh Marshall said "he always needed a daddy") and rumors of Graham being a closeted gay man. But mostly Stephen and I discuss his view that Democrats should stop acting like friendship is possible with people ready to betray them. "What people remember most about Judas is that he betrayed Christ," he wrote Monday. "Their prior friendship — whatever Judas might have once believed — isn’t exonerating. ... Perhaps Graham’s Democratic 'friends' are willing to give him the Jesus Christ Superstar treatment, but he doesn’t deserve it."
Some Democratic senators chose to say nice things about Lindsey Graham. You suggest there's more to it than saying nice things. Why?
When the Donald Trump regime tried to deport Mahmoud Khalil, Chuck Schumer only grudgingly defended his constituent’s rights, and even then, he prefaced his statement with an assertion of his clear contempt for everything Khalil believed.
Notice how Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro talks about pro-Gaza protesters. Same thing with Kirsten Gillibrand palling around with Ted Cruz about basketball when he has made some grotesquely transphobic comments.
I think saying nice things about Graham doesn’t help maintain a left-leaning coalition, as it reveals who many Democrats feel more comfortable with and who they respect more.
I knew Lindsey Graham well back in the day when he was an honorable person, the sidekick to John McCain, who tried to forge compromises on climate change and immigration, and championed campaign finance reform. The opposite of what he became. His career arc was tragic.
— Norm Ornstein (@normornstein.bsky.social) July 12, 2026 at 11:03 AM
I knew Lindsey Graham well back in the day when he was an honorable person, the sidekick to John McCain, who tried to forge compromises on climate change and immigration, and championed campaign finance reform. The opposite of what he became. His career arc was tragic.
— Norm Ornstein (@normornstein.bsky.social) July 12, 2026 at 11:03 AM
I believe Republicans are not hypocrites. They believe in the standards for you, but not for them. It seems to me that Graham's life was a demonstration of that. Anti-Trump before Trump. Pro-Trump after Trump. No problem. Thoughts?
I think Graham was always consistent. He believed that Trump would cost the GOP power and when that wasn’t the case, he cozied up to true power.
I recall something John McCain said to a reporter when he was voting in support of Trump’s nominees. It was effectively, “why would I vote against something I believe, because I don’t like Trump?” Jeff Flake expressed a similar sentiment during the Kavanaugh hearings.
I think Josh Marshall was right. The best way to understand Graham is that he needed a daddy. Whoever that was, McCain or Trump, he accommodated him morally. There might not have been a true Lindsay Graham, though progressives believe there is.
The true Graham simply wanted power. I think that is consistent with a certain personality type. A friend once was disappointed that someone she was close to seemingly turned into a different person when they met a guy. But she realized that her friend just identified with the dominant personality in her life — first it was my friend, then it was the crappy husband.
What do you think of the posthumous speculation, fueled most recently by actor and author Jesse James Rose, that Graham was closeted? Does it matter?
Graham would need Musk-level money to keep people quiet about his sexuality, especially if his actions were criminal (sex workers). I struggle with how it would’ve never come out. He did have maga opponents who wanted his seat.
I thought Hunter Biden's post was good, but you didn't. His point was that remembering the good, while not forgetting the bad, means there's room for hope. Too generous?
His post is actually what inspired my Judas comment. Democrats have suggested that Graham was something more than an opponent to everything they believed. Before January 6, you could argue that Democrats and the GOP were on the side of democracy, but Graham failed even that test.
