Know Your Enemy

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Matt and Sam are joined by their great friend Dorothy Fortenberry to discuss the debacle of Graham Platner: the Maine Democratic Senate nominee who was forced to drop out amid allegations of rape. We compare notes about our evolving estimations of Platner, his appeal, and his scandals; uncover the gendered fantasies involved in his rise and fall; and game out what lessons can be learned from this experience — for the left and for the Democratic Party.

Dorothy is an essayist, playwright, and TV writer/producer, including four seasons on “The Handmaid’s Tale.” In previous appearances, she's discussed #Resistance moms, art and climate change, and Trump's women-hating cabinet. A new show she worked on, “Nocturne,” is coming out on Apple TV in October.

This episode was edited and produced by Colin Wambsgans (Jesse is on vacation).

Further reading:

Jessica Piper & Adam Wren, "Woman who dated Graham Platner says he sexually assaulted her," Politico, July 6, 2026.

Katie Gluck & Lisa Lerer, "Several Women Who Dated Graham Platner Recall 'Unsettling' Behavior," NYTimes, June 4, 2026.

Lisa Lerer, Katie Gluck, & Michael Kruse, "‘A Slow-Rolling Disaster’: Inside the Implosion of the Platner Campaign," NYTimes, Jul 8, 2026.

Will Steakin & Chris Sommerfeldt, "‘Professional malpractice’: The Platner fallout engulfs the operatives who made him," Politico, July 7, 2026.

Dorothy Fortenberry, "Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore," Commonweal, Nov 5, 2020.

— "One of Those Serious Women," Commonweal, Apr 29, 2019.

Moira Donegan, "Why was the pundit class so quick do defend Graham Platner," The Guardian, Jul 10, 2026.

Rebecca Traister, "What Women Saw in Graham Platner," New York Magazine, July 9, 2026.

Lindsey Graham's death last week at 71 was as remarkable for the senator's relative "youth" as its possible political and electoral consequences, so much so that it actually prompted conspiracy theories about the precise nature of his passing. Meanwhile, 84-year old Mitch McConnell's status as among the living remains shrouded in mystery, and former president 83-year old former president Joe Biden announced that his memoir would be published in November via his cadaver-esque presence in a promotional video. In short, everywhere we look the signs of our decline into a sclerotic gerontocracy are present, and perhaps no one has approached this problem as comprehensively as Samuel Moyn in his new book, Gerontocracy in America: How the Old Are Hoarding Power and Wealth—and What to Do About It. In this episode we talk with Sam about the historical precedents for our gerontocracy; the nature, extent, and causes of it; why his book is not an attack on the elderly; and possibilities for creatively rewriting our society's intergenerational contract; and more.

Sources:

Samuel Moyn, Gerontocracy in America: How the Old Are Hoarding Power and Wealth—and What to Do About It (2026)

Thomas Jefferson, Letter to James Madison, Sept 6, 1789

James Madison, Federalist 49, Feb 5, 1788

James Ceaser, "The Constitution: Sweet as Honey," First Things, Sept 20, 2009

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835)

...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.

This conversation is something of a follow-up to our last episode on Garry Wills's Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America. We begin by "providing receipts" for the views of prominent midcentury conservative intellectuals (Willmoore Kendall, Russell Kirk, and Mel Bradford, to name a few) about the Declaration, equality, and Lincoln, then take a step back to discuss what their quarrel with Lincoln, Harry Jaffa, Garry Wills, and other partisans of equality might reveal about the nature of the American founding and the shape of our country's history. After all that—and more—we consider NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's July 3 speech celebrating America's 250th anniversary and the promise and perils of leftwing patriotism.

Listen again: "Lincoln at Gettysburg," Know Your Enemy, July 6, 2026

Sources:

Zohran Mamdani, "Remarks as Prepared: Mayor Mamdani Delivers Address Marking America’s 250th Birthday," July 3, 2026

Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America (1992)

Abraham Lincoln, "Letter to Joshua Speed," Aug 24, 1855

— Speech at Chicago, Illinois, July 10, 1858

— Message to Congress, July 4, 1861

Alexander H. Stephens, "Corner Stone Speech," March 21, 1861

James Madison, "Federalist no. 39," Jan 16, 1788

Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Roger Weightman, June 24, 1826

Willmoore Kendall & George W. Carey, The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition (1970)

George W. Carey, In Defense of the Constitution (1997)

Russell Kirk, The Roots of American Order (1974)

— John Randolph of Roanoke: A Study in American Politics (1951)

Harry V. Jaffa, A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War (2000)

George W. Bush, Second Inaugural Address, Jan 20, 2005

We're ringing in the 250th anniversary of the United States with an episode on Garry Wills's superb, Pulitzer Prize-winning 1992 book, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade the America. It's central argument is that Abraham Lincoln succeeded in revolutionizing how Americans thought of the founding of their country, especially the Declaration of Independence, with the Gettysburg Address—a revolution not just in "thought" but in "style," one that placed the Declaration's assertion of equality at the very center of our political tradition. The book is one that only Garry Wills could have written, with his PhD in Classics allowing him to compare Lincoln's "funeral oration" to that of Pericles, with his long meditation on the American presidency and leadership preparing him to grasp the enormity of the task Lincoln set himself, and with his time at National Review in his youth helping him understand why the American right never forgave Lincoln for succeeding. We discuss all this and more in our conversation about one of our favorite writer's very best books.

Tickets for Sam's events: Tuesday with Tad Devine / Thursday with Dan Denvir. 

Previous KYE episodes on Garry Wills:

Nixon Agonistes

The Kennedy Imprisonment (w/ Jeet Heer)

Bomb Power (w/ Madeleine Baker)

Sources:

Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America (1992)

— Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State (2010)

— "Martin Luther King Is Still on the Case!" Esquire, Aug 1, 1968

— "The Blind Teach Us to See," Boston Globe, Aug 20, 1970

Abraham Lincoln, "Letter to Joshua Speed," Aug 24, 1855

Harry V. Jaffa, Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1959)

Russell Kirk, The Roots of American Order (1974)

Willmoore Kendall and George W. Carey, The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition (1970)

...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.

In this episode we break down the results from last week's Democratic primaries in New York City, which saw candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America prevail in key congressional races (as well as downballot in local and state races). We break down what happened, review the deranged responses from both the right and centrist Democrats, the place of Israel/Palestine in these contests (and the ludicrous if expected charges of anti-semitism that followed), and consider what it might mean for the left in the age of Trump—however much longer that lasts—and more.

Sources:

Peruse all the results from the NYC Democratic primary at the New York Times.

Noah Rothman, "The DSA Is a Hate Group, and What It Hates Is America," National Review, June 24, 2026

— "The Hostile Takeover of the Democratic Party That Everyone but the Democrats Saw Coming," National Review, June 25, 2026

Brianna Lyman, "Socialist Primary Wins Prove Mass Migration Remakes America," The Federalist, June 25, 2026

Jonah Goldberg, "Crazy Begets Crazy in New York City," The Dispatch, June 24, 2026

Michael Luciano, "'I'm Done, I'm Not in That F*cking Political Party':James Carville Freaks Out After Progressives Win Big in Democratic Primaries," Mediaite, June 24, 2026

Elizabeth Kim, "'You're next': The Black and Latino New Yorkers Feeling Burned by Mamdani's Primary Sweep," Gothamist, June 24, 2026

Michael Lange, “DSA vs. WFP,” The Narrative Wars, May 18, 2026