Integrity is Your Destiny

We live in a world that “up values” graft, nonsense, and noise, “down values”  what matters, like integrity. In Maine and elsewhere, public corruption – from misrepresentations and conflicts of interest to non-competed contracts is growing. Without integrity in office, we have nothing.

As Plato wrote, “Integrity is your destiny, it is the light that guides our way.” The opposite, of course, is that lack of integrity, dishonesty and deception, untruth, waste and abuse,  puts us in darkness.

Unfortunately, when leaders fail us – and they do in Democrat-controlled Maine – the cascading effect of their public corruption puts the rest in darkness, if not literally with unaffordable energy bills and property taxes paying for mandates, then figuratively.

This month, we learned, no surprise to most, that Democrat subsidies for solar and wind power, pumping up unsustainable markets, are costing Mainers their livelihoods, if not their lives. Residential costs jumped 36 percent, the highest in the nation.

This is the product of Democrat social engineering, “net energy billing,” overemphasis on virtue-signaling, and non-fossil sources that are untenable, unaffordable, unreliable, intermittent, and made elsewhere.

Unfairly, dollars taken from average, non-solar Mainers subsidize the handful of solar. Put differently, those who cannot afford a $20,000 solar roof, or do not have endless land for black panels, pay the freight for those with money who want them.

Even before you start “following the money” to unlikely places, seeing who profits, this ugly tax is regressive, meaning it hurts those least able to pay. Democrats do not care, so long as they profit – and many are.

But public corruption is a far bigger issue, casts a longer shadow in Maine. In Maine, we have Democrats bleeding the MaineCare or Medicaid reimbursement process for millions, overbilling, never paying it back, never facing punishment, many so-called “migrant non-profits” making millions – and registering voters.

Public corruption comes in many flavors, like summer ice cream and Democrat genders, including a leading Maine Democrat Senator who apparently gamed the system, pulling half a million in “forgivable loans” for her 3-person brewery.

We saw a shocking 4,500 non-competed contracts, too – no consequences, even if many, according to the state auditor, went to Democrat friends and family.

So, you ask: Where are all the grand juries, all the indictments, prosecutions for those who took literally $2.1 billion from hardworking Mainers? What relief exists for those Mainers who – to borrow from Jimmy Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” – “do most of the living and dying around here?”

Answer: In this grossly abusive, utterly unaccountable, one-party state, nowhere. Why? Because the scent of corruption goes right to the top, legitimate questions dogging Maine’s Democrat Governor, including alleged family ties to Chinese drug houses and past cocaine use, while her Attorney General preoccupies himself with suing California oil companies and soundproofing his office…

Can it get worse? Yes, because as more layers are peeled back, more Democrat actors are exposed, and the exposure now reaches those internally asking for investigations and…being stiff-armed. This is the height of public corruption.

The sad reality is, in a state like Maine, geographically rural, small in population, poor in relative terms, and worried about retribution – average taxpayers feel overwhelmed and powerless. That is outrageous, since they ARE Maine.

Bottom line: Justice and the FBI should take a closer look at Maine, perhaps the DEA and DHS. All is not well. The next governor needs to take the public corruption web down, shake whistleblowers loose, start investigations, and prosecute. That is how you restore public trust, integrity to government. Good news: The day is coming.

Maine has suffered long enough, as have several other blue states. It is time to do at the state level what Trump has courageously done at the federal level: restore integrity and force accountability. Once we have a government we can trust again, things change.

Until then, we suffer. Why? Because, as Plato wrote,  “Integrity is your destiny…” and total lack of it in our government for now is also.  Integrity opens the door to property; corruption assures poverty.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!