Common Sense, Maine, and the Future

In March 1775, 250 years ago, a bright American named Tom Paine pushed liberty. Friends with the  mastermind Ben Franklin, Paine penned a 47-page book – Common Sense. It caught on like wildfire! BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front): We need more like Paine and Franklin today! now!

We could talk about America, how President Trump – like Paine and Franklin – is pushing liberty and common sense, secure borders, law enforcement, accountable government, individual rights, safety, and lower taxes. We could show how his actions track our Founders’ perfectly.

But – since so many states remain in the grip of overreaching, unaccountable “Progressive” leaders, belligerent, uncaring, out-of-touch, anti-constitutional, let’s go…there.

Start with Maine, a state I love, call home, and where I grew up – literally splitting wood to heat our one-story home, three woodstoves, no baseboard heat. I was proud of working hard and the chance.

On that day, not long ago, Mainers were safe, not wealthy but proud of who we were. We worked hard in school, got good marks, used them – taught by World War II vets and caring teachers – to make good in the world. Kids were shoed out of our house on weekends, just had to be back by supper.

We ran around in the Maine woods, explored, shot cans and clays, ice fished winter weekends – ate everything we caught. We started earning real money with parttime jobs, all summer at about 12 for 40 bucks a week, thought we were regular kings, rich and glad for that work, and we slept well.

We did not worry about drug traffickers, violent criminals, kidnappers, whether we would later get a job, or whether we would later be able to rent or buy a home. We did not worry about what people thought of our clothes, many made by Mom, She also taught elementary school in a nearby town.

Nobody told us we had to worry about the gender God had given us, had to be sure we were a boy or a girl. No one confused us with age-inappropriate books, unneeded worries, or invited us at school to question our loving God, never mind to get our bodies irreversibly hurt, or not tell parents anything.

We did not suffer those things. We were taught other values, moral compass, history, real skills, allowed to be kids, get scuffed up, earn our scars, shoot .22s and shotguns, get lost and find our way home, change tires on bikes and cars. We knew what mattered was family, faith, and learning.

We were taught to be curious, proud of the truth, respectful of veterans, our flag, and the nation’s past. Life was not complicated. We were taught self-reliance, and taught it – we learned it.

 Common sense – what might these days be called “conservative common sense,” was how we lived, not much crime, no drugs, low taxes for parents, and everyone had a home or could rent.

Ninety percent of Maine was like that. We worked hard, played hard, were grateful, went to church, played baseball, fished, knew the woods like city people know streets, and felt lucky and safe.

Now fast forward. Just look at Maine today: Drug trafficking groups all over the state, countless towns ravaged by name-recognized Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) groups, kilo loads of crack-cocaine, purest heroin EVER seen, and enough fentanyl to kill us all. Between 40 and 70 young people die monthly from overdoses, and last year – 10,000 overdoses.

Stop and tell me – normal, acceptable, moral, “common sense,” new normal, or dead wrong? Bluntly: That is criminal, serial killers in our state must stop. It defies everything Maine stands for. These “progressive” Democrats have taken us into genuine darkness, and we have to get out. 

Pivot to affordability. Seniors cannot afford to stay in their homes with today’s property taxes, overall tax burden, chucklingly near the top in the nation. What planet are these “Progressives” on?

Then, young adults, a majority cannot buy – or even rent – a home on Maine’s current median income, hard as they work. Democrats spend so much money on unnecessary, stupid, reckless things that our kids cannot make it, and have to leave Maine.

It is immoral, unacceptable. Then look at education, where Maine was tops in the 1990s, for real. Our public schools taught what kids needed to know, teachers had freedom, not babysitters. Now? Democrat mandates strangle teachers, have ruined our public education system, 49 of 50.

So, back to Tom Paine. What did he write in Common Sense? “Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil.” What else? “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right.” 

But also “time makes more converts than reason.” He nailed it! No wonder the Founders liked him. Maine – and those suffering insufferable “progressive” “leadership” – need to clean house, flip their legislature, and elect a  damn-the-torpedoes and get-us-back-to-normal Governor! We need to “Cut Crime. Cut Taxes. Cut the Nonsense.” Fresh air, more Tom Paine, Ben Franklin, and conservative common sense. It is time.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).