On CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) was asked whether all the controversies surrounding US Senate candidate Graham Platner mean he doesn’t “pass the character test.” Murphy offered a subtly radical answer: “Character involves standing up to people who are bankrupting and corrupting this country.” It was an echo of Rep. Ro Khanna, who credited Platner with “having the character to stand up against the war in Iran, against genocide, and against an unfair & lopsided economy.”

What’s radical here is that Murphy and Khanna are suggesting the possibility of a new political reality, one that I think the affluent class of New York and DC media and political elites literally cannot process: A reality in which many voters are so economically pulverized and politically disillusioned that they now define “character” in a politician solely as whether or not they are single-mindedly focused on destroying oligarchy and ending corruption.

To be clear: I don’t know exactly how many voters think this way. I don’t know if such anti-system voters have reached enough of a critical mass to sway elections (though clearly, many voters were willing to overlook Donald Trump’s personal flaws to vote for someone they believed would blow up the system). As I said in my new story for the Lever on the US Senate race in Maine, I have no idea whether the current (or future?) controversies surrounding Platner will sink his candidacy. And I think that — other than the private stuff about his marriage, which is his private business — much of the journalistic scrutiny of his past “character” is appropriate for someone running for public office (which is why I participated in conducting some of that scrutiny!).