One-Party State Governments

Maine is emblematic of a phenomenon occurring nationwide. States controlled by one-party Democrat governments, intent on pushing radical agendas, and are simply ignoring the majority. They think they have license. That is why populism, distrust of government, and anger are growing.

Hundreds of bills introduced, many passed during that one State’s recent sessions, contradict the majority’s values as well as testimony and polling of Maine citizens. Democrats do not care.

The state’s one-party legislature, governor, and attorney general act, as in other one-party states, like the majority is irrelevant. Once in power, they ignore the people, focus on big donors, political action committees controlled by party leadership, and special interests.

Dozens of hours spent reviewing bills, Maine’s one-party government pushed and passed (in the past two years), changing words to trick the public – minimizing illegal aliens, felony detentions, drug trafficking, woke grammar, claiming higher taxes are lower, only prove one thing: No accountability.

Coast to coast, Democrat governors and legislatures, like the president, are viewed as out of touch. Eighty-five percent of Americans think they “do not care about them.”

On one hand, that is shocking – that those in power are abusing power once they get it, believing they can do so without consequences. On the other, the bell is tolling for those now in power – who seem to think they are beyond reach, can stretch their authority, impose mandates, overspend.

What did the deep dive into Maine’s legislation show – countless examples of legislation pushed and passed as if the people mean nothing, power all that matters, a lockstep national agenda.

Maine people? They are viewed by their low Democrat lawmakers as stupid, inattentive to the bills, easily manipulated with Democrats who use innocuous titles, and then do egregious things.

Proposed in the last two sessions – by Maine’s Democrat House Speaker no less – was legislation to allow illegals to vote in all Maine elections. Absurd.

When that failed, the Democrat legislature – like 17 other states – pushed another radical idea, a work-around to get illegals into voting position, 75,000 invited to be “New Americans” in Maine. Representatives for the effort met with Biden, making the agenda only more clear.

Outrageous, not least because average Mainers strain under high inflation driven by misconceived energy policies, senseless overspending, mandates and subsidies, things no one wants?

What else? The list would take days to recite, but it is also – like much of the government’s overspending, mismanagement, and insider deals – hidden bureaucratic language.

Consider one example, among hundreds. Maine, like all states, produces a “legislative digest,” to which citizens can go, one assumes, for understanding of what their legislature did.

When you go there, what do you get? Bill titles and summaries, typical of other states. What do you learn? Almost nothing. You get titles, definitions, committees, lots of money shifting, and summaries that tell say next to nothing, self-serving, useless, more “woke” spending.

Worse, you get deception. Maine’s one-party government in recent years has become notorious for low integrity in national analyses, back to 2015. Like the national mind about public office, those in Maine are viewed as serving themselves first, no grasp on life’s strains, sense of history or service.

How bad? A summit could be held on how Maine’s Democrat legislature – content to abuse its monopoly power – has disserved the state, from students (worst public schools in America), parents (disenfranchised), and teachers (stripped of social security, low morale, pay) to small businesses, lobstermen (overregulated, down two-thirds), seniors who see their life savings vanishing to the young, with no affordable housing, unable to make ends meet.

One of the Democrat tricks is bureaucratic gobbledygook. While 80 percent of so-called asylum seekers – illegals looking for an illegal way in – disappear or get ruled unentitled, Maine Democrats invite them up and spend millions defending their claims, using Maine citizens’ money.

How many dubious asylum claims does Maine defend? In 2021, if you dig deep, you will find that under the Maine Civil Legal Services Fund Commission, with seven spending categories traceable to Democrat one-party government, not a pretty picture – more indefensible by the year.

In 2021, already 1,535 cases brought by illegals were in effect paid for by taxpayers, people just scratching out a living. By 2023, Democrats were defending 4,547 illegals, and that before the Democrats’ passed their “New Americans Office.” Fair? Hardly.

Where does all this lead? Two places, whether in Maine or Michigan. It leads to public action, throwing unaccountable and arrogant incumbents out, new accountability and limits on government, or … we lose the chance for that, lose accountability to entrenched abuses.

Representative democracy is hard work. If “We the People” give up on it, give in to abuses, get tricked, bought, or do not care, abuse becomes pervasive. Bottom line: Abuse by one-party Democrat states is a matter of record, a call to action – restore integrity or loss control. 

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.