In recent days, we’ve seen Donald Trump’s supporters hail the president’s plans to put his face on a U.S. coin, build himself a huge arch beside Arlington Cemetery and knock down part of the White House to erect a fancy ballroom.

Nor did they take issue with his social media post depicting himself as a crown-wearing pilot using a jet to dump excrement on Americans protesting his policies.

Democrats have looked on in disbelief.

Many of those same Democrats, however, are demonstrating exactly the same sort of blind loyalty when it comes to Maine’s U.S. Senate hopeful Graham Platner.

We now know Platner has a Nazi tattoo, at least once called himself a communist, dismissed rural Americans as racist and stupid, made light of sexual assault in the military and wrote that all police officers were “bastards.” 

At this point, Republican ad makers must be salivating.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who helped debut Platner in Portland earlier this year, recently offered what amounted to a what-can-you-do shrug. Platner’s fans are telling us that he’s “not that guy” anymore. He is, they insist, someone who has worked through the trauma of his life and become a solid working class champion.

The trouble is, there’s nothing special about Platner.

I’m willing to believe he’s a decent guy today. But I can’t lose sight of the fact that he’s never won an election, never earned a college degree, never achieved any distinction except as an enthusiastic organizer for socialist and other left-wing causes (many of which, yes, I admire).

Platner’s biggest achievement in life thus far is that he has persuaded a large number of Democrats that he ought to be their Senate candidate in Maine.

I’m flummoxed at the notion that his ability to sway activists is extraordinary enough for them to overlook a growing number of shocking revelations.

Platner said this week that if Democrats wanted to defeat Collins, the “same old tired playbook will not work.”

 A sitting second-term governor, Janet Mills, is taking aim at the state’s senior senator … is the “playbook” really that tattered?

Sanders said recently that “it would be a really sad state of affairs to have to spend millions of dollars on a divisive primary” in Maine.

He’s right about that. Sanders, though, is — as usual — missing the bigger political reality.

With Platner as their candidate, Democrats won’t just lose big to Collins. They’ll hand Trump’s team the opportunity to smear other candidates with the charge that Democrats are cop haters who despise rural voters.

Platner risks spoiling races around the country for candidates who really do possess the experience, education and eloquence to help stop the MAGA agenda. He should stick to oyster farming and let Mills focus on what she’s good at: winning elections.