Here’s a tragedy in three acts. Start with an idea: “People will believe a big lie sooner than a little one if you repeat it frequently enough…” wrote Walter C. Langer. Maine and the nation are experiencing that now, under one-party rule. Here is an example.
Maine’s Democrat governor, last August, signed an executive order creating what she called an “Office of New Americans,” within the government. Odd thing, that.
The stated goal, paid with tax dollars from Maine’s “Old Americans,” many with no office, even with no home, was: “Making Maine a home of opportunity for all, by welcoming and supporting immigrants to strengthen Maine’s workforce, enhance the vibrancy of Maine’s communities…” Hmmm, odd wording.
Maine has always been “a home of opportunity for all,” if you come into the state legally, obey our laws, work hard, have something to offer, and do the right thing.
That bit about “immigrants” was odd too, since we are all from “immigrant” families if you back far enough – law-abiding, hardworking folks. And what of the difference between legal and illegal immigration., The Democrat governor, a former State Attorney General, might have mentioned that. She did not.
As for “vibrancy,” since we welcome legal immigrants, we are pretty “vibrant,” those of us citizens who generate all the taxes these generous Democrats spend.
Thinking back, Mainers shook their heads, “Oh well, another oddball idea from this oddball legislature,” just more government to pay for that we don’t need.
Only, the “Office of New Americans” was more than that. It was a lie. Hard word. Yes, a lie. It is an “office” dedicated, we now learn, to inviting 75,000 illegal aliens to populate the state, lawbreakers without language or skills – lured by free things.
How could the Democrat Party put Mainers in this place, already facing the highest property taxes, unaffordable housing, inflation, and with nothing to spare?
The question percolated, conjecture mounted, and things went quiet. Behind the curtain, Maine’s one-party legislature and governor had a plan.
Unbeknownst even to Republican legislators in Maine’s House and Senate, getting less respect than Nancy Pelosi accorded Republicans, an abomination was hatched.
In the eleventh hour of Maine’s legislative session, ending in April, Democrat leadership showed why they must be decisively removed this November without ceremony, all of them ousted – even by Democrat voters: They have no integrity.
In a state known for Yankee honesty, where national leaders from different parties, Margaret Chase Smith (R) and Ed Muskie (D), Bill Cohen (R) and George Mitchell (D) spoke honestly with each other, Maine’s state-level Democrats have bleached integrity from their process, “life the way it should never be,” not “the way life should be.”
Their plan, hatched between the governor, house, and senate, was to jam funding for this office into a supplemental budget, boost it by 30 percent, and create an unstoppable path to legalizing thousands of illegal voters, to perpetuate power.
Come off it. Really? How and why? How could that really happen in Maine? Don’t Maine’s Democrat, Independent, and Republican voters have rights?
Answer: One-party government is, by definition, unconstrained. It can do whatever it wants, including committing gross violations of public trust without consequence – except if people remove them at the ballot box, which is the “why.” Those in power, at the top, love it, ideology, and control. They aim to keep it.
This is happening in Maine, and around the country. Good people assume the best, especially of legislators. They do not realize their trust is trashed, that such ugly, unethical, dishonest things are happening, wholly against their core values.
So, in January, we got Act 2: An announcement by Maine’s low-integrity Democrat leadership that Maine faces a labor shortage in health care and education, and – clumsy sleight-of-hand – this “Office of New Americans” is a solution. They are inviting illegal aliens with no education, language, or skills, many tied to organized crime and fentanyl trafficking, to come to fix things.
Really? Do they think Mainers are that gullible? Well, if dishonesty is your thing … But Maine’s unemployment rate is 3.3 percent, below the national. Illegals are not nurses, doctors, or teachers, not likely to solve the health care or education crises. And they are not “New Americans,” they are illegals, lawbreakers after free stuff – the rest of us pay for.
Act 3: On a dark night in April, Maine’s Democrat legislature and governor betrayed every citizen of the state, with no committee action, no disclosure, and no honest conversation: They slipped money for this leftist idea into their budget, and just did it.
Why would they do that? One guess. Maine does not require voters to present an ID that proves they are a citizen to vote, just proof of where they live, like free housing – given to illegals.
What do you think that means? Whether you are a Democrat, Independent, or Republican citizen, does integrity matter? Your vote? Do you think it is right that your Democrat-controlled legislature secretly just taxed you to buy illegal votes, diminishing yours? Are those your values, what you teach your kids, want in government? Not me, I want integrity. These low-integrity Democrats have got to go – here and across the nation. Full stop.
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.
