The U.S.
presidential campaign has become a journey into the surreal. It colors other
stories vying for attention on the political landscape.
One such
involves a relatively minor character on the political scene, an ally of the GOP
candidate, in the state of Maine. I've always been proud of Maine politics:
remarkably clean, tainted only occasionally by corruption scandals, blessed by
usually competent and sometimes even outstanding political figures.
For
instance, Margaret Chase Smith (R-Maine), the first woman to serve in both
houses of the U.S. Congress. She served in Washington from 1940 to 1973. She
was still in the early days of her first Senate term (1949-1973) when she challenged the
hysteria then rampant in the United States that thrived on fear of Communism. Sen. Joe McCarthy was whipping up a witch hunt based on innuendo and intimidation; Sen. Smith had the courage to stand against him.
Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) |
"[I] don't want to see the Republican
Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny -- Fear,
Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear," she said, and went on to express her doubt
that her party could win on such a basis, "simply because I don't believe
the American people will uphold any political party that puts political
exploitation above national interest."
The Senator
represents Maine's political reality... or so thought I.
But in present day
Maine, a Republican governor named Paul LePage heads our state government.
"Fear, ignorance, bigotry and smear" are Gov. LePage's hallmarks. True,
he has never won the governorship with a majority of all voters; his victories
have come in races where the vote was split, letting him take office with less
than half the votes cast. But his total vote increased by 75,000 plus votes for
his second term, despite an often apparent intolerance of others' opinions, beliefs, or cultures.
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The Donald and Gov. Paul Lepage (R-ME) |
Mr. LePage
characterizes President Obama as a dictator but describes the GOP presidential
candidate as "a very powerful personality" and "a very
authoritative persona." He continues, “When [the GOP candidate] is in a
room, people notice. He does not have to go behind closed doors with community
activists to get things done and hurt American people." (If this seems
disjointed and incomprehensible, you've read it correctly; the statement is a
head-scratcher.) Originally, Mr. LePage had used the word "authoritarian"
to describe the GOP candidate, but corrected himself in a later press
conference--even as he complained that the press should have known what he
meant instead of quoting his actual words.
Those words
were: “Sometimes, I wonder that our Constitution is not only
broken, but we need a Donald Trump to show some authoritarian power in our
country and bring back the rule of law because we’ve had eight years of a
president, he’s an autocrat ..., and every single day we’re slipping into
anarchy.”
The
dissonance is that, so far as I know, the U.S. Constitution is fine and the
rule of law still prevails in the real world. Though it's true there is also,
in the real world, a dysfunctional federal Congress and a Supreme Court that's short
one justice because of that dysfunction. Nevertheless, thus far, the rule of
law still governs.
I
am worried, though, about the strength of the barrier between my reality and
that of Governor LePage and the Donald... .
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This is the first of three posts sort of related to the presidential campaign in the U.S.
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