Commentary from Sagadahoc Democrats

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Justice Undone

According to a familiar theory of jurisprudence, “Justice must not only be done; it must be seen to be done.” The implication here is that judges have an obligation not only to be fair in their rulings, but to conduct themselves so as to earn the public’s trust in their fairness. By this standard, Justice Clarence Thomas’ involvement in the recent Supreme Court case regarding the release of email messages related to the January 6 insurrection reveals a stunning dereliction of duty on his part. 

Many of the most damning of these emails, after all, were written by his wife, radical right-wing activist and D.C. gadfly Virginia Thomas, who was herself a participant in the infamous rally that preceded the attempted coup. Her husband’s refusal to recuse himself in the face of these facts raised immediate alarms about his impartiality. His vote to block congressional access to the emails removed all doubt about the matter, giving evidence of his own corrupt partisanship.  

Unfortunately, this comes as no surprise. Many observers of the current scandal will recall Thomas’ 1991 Senate confirmation hearings, in which Anita Hill, a former co-worker in the Department of Education, described conduct on his part that would spark a national conversation on sexual harassment. His response was to refer to the televised proceedings as a “high-tech lynching,” casting himself as a victim of racism, and invoking partisan conspiracy theories in his defense. Despite the unseemly optics of his performance, he won confirmation and has nursed bitter resentments ever since, earning a reputation as the Supreme Court’s most reliably sullen member. 

Meanwhile, shortly after becoming the lone voice in support of blocking the insurrection emails, Justice Thomas disappeared from public view. According to initial reports, he was hospitalized with flu-like symptoms, but subsequent accounts have cast doubt on what, if anything, was ailing him. It is also worth noting that his disappearance came at a politically expedient moment, enabling him to remain incommunicado for several weeks, a hiatus that ended only with the revelation of his wife’s emails.

Since then, the January 6 committee has announced its intention to call Virginia Thomas to testify about her role as a January 6 conspirator, which testimony will likely bear on her husband’s role in seeking to defeat the pursuit of justice in a matter of close personal interest. Under the circumstances, compelling Justice Thomas to recuse himself from all upcoming January 6 cases represents the least of available remedies to the damage he has done—and continues to pose—to the high court’s credibility. While a lack of sufficient regulation of the court makes his impeachment a difficult prospect, he deserves nothing less.

At this point, it seems, the public’s only solace lies in another old saying: “The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine.” After more than thirty years spent in the gristmill of partisan politics, Justice Thomas’ fractious tenure may at last be coming to an end.
 

Dave Inglehart

Bath

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Reproductive Health in Maine

In March, Dr. Julia Kahrl was inducted into the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame, a well-deserved honor. For more than six decades, Dr. Kahrl has supported women’s reproductive health in the United States and in Asia, Africa, and South America. Several years ago, Dr. Kahrl founded GRR, Grandmothers for Reproductive Rights, a “kitchen table” movement that has expanded nationwide. Dr. Kahrl recognized that the assaults on Roe vs Wade were rapidly gaining traction and believed that women who’d grown up in the era before abortion was legalized would have powerful stories to share with younger generations.

Last September, the Supreme Court voted to allow the radical Texas law regarding abortions to stand. Janet Mills described this as “a dog whistle to extremists that they can and should push forward their anti-choice agenda in statehouses across the country.” Since January, 519 abortion restrictions have been introduced in forty-one states, and in the last year, an “unprecedented” number of anti-choice bills were put forward by Maine Republican legislators. This, despite the fact that, according to a recent Pew survey, 64% of Mainers support a woman’s right to make reproductive decisions appropriate for herself and for her family’s wellbeing.

In response, a number of states have created legislation that would solidify protection under state law. Janet Mills is clear in her stance. “As long as I am governor, I will stand to protect the rights of women and I will fight every and any threat to undermine, roll back, or outright eliminate access to reproductive health care services.” Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden are equally clear, voting for Senator King’s co-sponsored Women’s Health Protection Act, which passed in the House and failed in the Senate.

Maine’s anti-choice Republican candidates, however, recognize the unpopularity of their position and are responding to direct questions in vague terms. While governor, Paul LePage frequently attended anti-abortion rallies but now side-steps the question, stating only that he would do whatever he could as governor to “further promote adoption.” Though Bruce Poliquin is not publicizing his anti-choice position, while in Congress he voted in 2015 to ban abortion; he also voted for the American Health Care Act, which would have defunded Planned Parenthood, which currently provides routine health care for more than 10,000 Mainers. 

Though in the minority, the anti-abortion forces in Maine are strong and well-organized, and especially effective with social media. As we witness what’s happening in Texas, Idaho, and Mississippi, we must recognize that it could happen here in Maine. Let’s widen the discussion, moreover, to remind voters of the implications of the loss of reproductive choice. Dr. Kahrl was honored by the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame not only for her work with reproductive rights but also for her support for local and international conservation efforts. She’d be the first to say that reproductive choice is inextricably linked with education, poverty, and climate change. Women’s reproductive health is not a women’s issue, it affects everyone. As always, we must beat the drum: every vote counts, now, more than ever.
 

Donna Inglehart

Bath 

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Bruce Poliquin: A Pattern of Evasion

This November Maine voters will once again find Bruce Poliquin on the ballot for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, a seat he held from 2015 to 2019, now held by Democrat Jared Golden. A quick refresher on Poliquin’s legislative career reveals why we must prevent him from retaking this seat.

Environment: The National Environmental Scorecard gave Poliquin a lifetime score of 16% on the basis of his no votes for initiatives on climate change, wildlife, and clean water, all critical issues for our ecological future. 

Healthcare: In May, 2017, Poliquin voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act (and later denied having done so on a television broadcast on WMTW).

Tourism: Poliquin opposed the creation of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument despite the initiative’s significant local support and potential economic impact. Following its passage in 2021, the new national park attracted 41,000 visitors, who spent $2.7 million in nearby communities.

Documented concerns:

• August 25, 2017: The Maine People’s Alliance shared a recording of Poliquin saying: “It would be stupid for me to engage the national media to give them and everybody else the ammunition they need, and we would lose this seat… but I get it.”

• August 2018: Slate’s Jim Newell reported that Republican leaders claimed they were close to getting votes to pass the Affordable Care Act. When asked if he had made a decision on the matter, Poliquin said nothing and suddenly headed for the restroom. When he emerged several minutes later, he was wearing earbuds and scurried away.
• October 12, 2018: The Kennebec Journal reported that Poliquin sent a letter to constituents implying that the shuttered Madison Paper mill was to be reopened. The taxpayer-funded letter, dated Sept. 20, 2018, cited an International Trade Commission ruling in 2015 allowing for continued duties on Canadian paper imports as key to “saving more than 200 jobs at Madison Paper and keeping the facility operating and producing their quality product.” In fact, the Somerset County mill closed in May 2016, laying off some 215 people, increasing property taxes in Madison and adding to the loss of paper industry jobs in Maine. The letter, signed by Poliquin, came weeks before he stood for re-election and made no mention of the mill closure or the job losses. “The constituent mailing was in fact sent in error,” said Brenda Conley, a spokesperson for Poliquin.  

In addition to what these highlights convey about Mr. Poliquin’s policy decisions, they suggest a pattern of evasion we have seen far too often from members of his party, and which clearly do not warrant his reelection. 

 
Candace Guerette

Topsham

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A Great Shame

I was outraged, no, horrified, to watch many Republican senators during the confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson. They bullied her, badgered her, and verbally beat her up. This is no way to treat a Supreme Court nominee, or address a federal judge with her history and qualifications, it’s no way to treat a woman, and ultimately no way to treat a fellow human being. One senator repeatedly asked her questions she had already answered, then yelled rudely over her without permitting her to answer. He, and many other Republican senators, seemed to use the hearings only to overwhelm the airways with their own sick agenda and demonstrate that they were against her simply because the Democrats were for her. Common decency, respect, fairness–all were forgotten. So many Republicans, with some exceptions, possibly including Susan Collins, were behaving like thugs, without even the self-respect to be embarrassed by their own behavior.

Linda Skernick

Bath

Topical articles from members of our community.

Freedom Revisited

It has now been well over a year since Republicans lost control of the presidency and both houses of Congress, yet rather than accept reality and work to improve their voter-appeal (articulating a coherent party platform would be a good start) they have contrived to mount an insurrection and undertake on a campaign of lies calling into question the integrity of an election they clearly lost by a wide margin. Equally offensive has been their effort to distract from an early failure to take the corona virus seriously by characterizing all efforts to defeat the pandemic as violations of God-given American freedoms. 

What these freedoms consist of is anyone’s guess. The Constitution, after all, makes no mention of a freedom to spread deadly disease. Then too, what ever happened to the notion that freedom isn’t free? –that it is paid for by true patriots such as the Ukrainians now giving their all for their country. For Republicans, meanwhile, patriotism seems to have no greater champions than a bunch of self-appointed militia wannabes intent on obstructing traffic from the comfort of their well-appointed trucks. 

Much has been said about the threat such Republican “protests” pose to our democratic traditions, but in truth they are attacks on the notion of government itself. According to English philosophers John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, government is based on an idea known as the “social contract,” a metaphorical agreement whereby at some point on our path to adulthood we all consent to join organized society. Hobbes in particular argued that this consent inevitably entails giving up certain freedoms in order to gain the blessings of human civilization—sacrificial freedoms like the ones today’s anti-vax truckers insist on asserting with such mindless conviction. 

Arguably the greatest blessing of American democracy is its grounding in the liberal ideology of thinkers like Locke and Hobbes, whose views were widely adopted by our Founding Fathers and have lighted our way ever since. It remains to be seen whether the principles they espoused will continue to prevail against those here at home and in Putin’s Russia who would sacrifice truth and the Common Good for subversive ends. 

Dave Inglehart

Bath

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Securing the Vote

Americans are told repeatedly that we can do something to help change things for the better, if we vote. But does each and every one of our votes still count?

Maine’s Independent Senator Angus King is spearheading a bill, designed to update the antiquated Electoral Count Act. He is joined by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).The bill, called the Electoral Count Modernization Act, would support free and fair elections in which all of our votes do indeed still count. Senator King maintains that new laws are needed to inhibit attempts to disenfranchise voters, and that those laws would help secure our election procedures from bad actors like last year’s January 6 insurrectionists, or those who try to overturn elections by shouting “fraud” when there is none.

A discussion draft of the Electoral Count Modernization Act was released in February. In the words of Senator King, “The bill would address many of the concerns vocalized by experts across the political spectrum with the current Electoral Count Act, including the role of the Vice President, how states certify electors, and the threshold needed to challenge election results.”

He goes on to say, “This is an incredibly important effort – but updating the Electoral Count Act should not be mistaken for a substitute for confronting the wider crises facing our democracy. I continue to support legislation to protect voting rights prior to Election Day, and strongly believe that we must clarify ambiguities in the electoral process after Election Day to truly ensure the will of the voters will prevail. Together, my colleagues and I… look forward to contributing to a strong, bipartisan effort aimed at resolving this issue and strengthening our democracy.”

There are many threats facing our democracy here and around the world. The war forced upon Ukrainians by Russia’s ex-KGB leader presents the most pressing example, creating both a political and humanitarian crisis. And the fact that there are those in this country who have openly expressed approval of Mr. Putin for his “strong leadership” provides ongoing evidence that we are not immune from such threats. We must protect and defend democracy to preserve our system of government and hand it over to our children. Ensuring the right and access to free and fair elections for each and every American is the surest way to accomplish this.

Linda Skernick

Bath

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Ranked-choice Voting in Maine

I have heard too many voters express relief that Maine will use Ranked Choice Voting in this year’s election for Governor. Unfortunately, this is not true. On May 23, 2017 Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court issued a unanimous opinion advising that Maine ranked-choice voting law conflicted with Maine’s Constitution so that it could not be used in General Elections for Governor, the Maine State Senate, or the Maine House of Representatives—these are offices for which plurality voting is specified in our Constitution. 

Maine has a tradition of electing governors with pluralities well below the level of a majority: Angus King won his first term as Governor in 1994 with 35% of the vote, John Baldacci won in 2006 with 38.1%, and Paul LePage won in 2010 with 37.6% (he won in 2014 with 48.2%). Since 1990 only two of our Governors were elected by a majority of voters: Angus King in 1998 by 58.6%, and Janet Mills in 2018 by 50.9%.

At this point the following have announced they are running for Governor:

Democratic Party: Janet Mills and John Glowa

Republican Party: Paul LePage

Maine Green Independent Party: Michael Barden

Libertarian Party: no announced candidates yet and

Michael Heath, and Tom Saviello are unaffiliated individuals who have announced they are running independent campaigns.

Candidates are currently gathering signatures from voters. Party Candidates must collect at least 2,000 validated signatures from members of their respective Parties by March 15, 2022. Non-Party Candidates must submit at least 4,000 validated signatures by June 1, 2022 and must remain unenrolled from March 1st until the general election in order to remain qualified as an unenrolled candidate.

At this point it appears highly likely there will be at least three candidates on the November Ballot for Governor, and it is possible there will be four candidates. The winner is likely to be decided by a plurality of the voters.

Remembering Governor Paul LePage, what advice do I give voters? First carefully consider whether it is advisable to sign Candidate’s Petitions. If a candidate doesn’t get enough signatures, they cannot be on the ballot. While one should vote for one’s preference in any Primary election, I believe the most important consideration in November’s General Election will be: do you want to see Paul LePage back in Blaine House in January of 2023? If not, you need to do everything you can to ensure that one of his opponents has the plurality. Paul’s supporters are already in full swing to win the race!

Bruce Hauptli

Bath