The Maine Republican Party--R.I.P.

The last vestige of the Republican Party I had relations with has died. The once proud party, which fostered abolitionists and committed its sons to the Union cause, has voted a party platform designed by libertarians and the fundamentalists. The Maine Republican Party had since its beginning espoused Yankee values and a strong defense of civil liberties. During the McCarthy period, it was its distinguished Senator Margaret Chase Smith, who led the charge to censure Joe McCarthy and created the Declaration of Conscience, which defended the right of dissent in this country. In recent years, the party has been marked by commonsense politicians, who worked with Democrats for the common good. William Cohen comes to mind when he became the Secretary of Defense. Most recently, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins expressed a willingness to work with the Obama Administration. Both Maine Republican and Democratic parties have produced politicians who may have been boring but worked to achieve results. George Mitchell comes to mind on the Democratic side as someone who painstakingly negotiated the agreements in Northern Ireland.

Even the local militia movement had its own peculiar flair. Liberal writers at Yaddo were appalled when they found that novelist Charolyn Chute, author of The Beans of Maine, was the treasurer for the Maine Militia. Her most recent novel is one of the best novels about working-class poor in America.

Yet, the Knox County Republican Party, representing a rural mid-coastal region in Maine, submitted a counter party platform that was adopted by the State party in last night's vote. Unfortunately for me, this eliminates my favorite state from candidates for a personal retreat. This is a state I've traveled to and vacationed in since 1968. Over the years I've looked at hundreds of homes to buy there. So it's a personal blow that Maine has sunk this low. When questioned by the AP about the platform, Party Chair Charlie Webster insisted that all of the elements in the platform are things Republicans support.

I'll reproduce some of the principles of the Maine Republican Party:
1. The Constitutions, both State and Federal, are the framework to which any and all legislation must adhere.
2. State sovereignty must be regained and retained on all issues specifically relegated to the States by the constitution. This is the Tenthers position we have seen in Texas, Oklahoma and even in Minnesota.
3. National sovereignty shall be preserved and retained as dominant over any attempted unconstitutional unsurpations of such by international treaty. This is the New World Order conspiracy crowd talking.
4. It is the responsibility and duty of "We The People", to educate ourselves and others; to demand honest elections free of corruption, and to hold our elected officials to the highest standards of honesty, integrity and loyalty to the Constitution. This was adopted because this group believes Obama didn't win the election freely, despite taking Maine with over 60% of the vote.

These are the following initiatives, they believe these principles warrant:
--Direct the State of Maine to join with other states in asserting our 10th Amendment sovereignty which protects us from unconstitutional federal government intrusions. This is what the South whom Maine proudly went to war against believed in the Civil War.
--Insist on strict adherence to our 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
--Pass a "Read the Bill' act, to insure clarity, and eliminate the corruption associated with side issues, earmarks, porks or riders. This was one of the issues that brought Bob Bennett down because as an appropriator he brought home the bacon.
--Oppose "Localism and Diversity", the Fairness Doctrine or whatever else such attempted restrictions are labeled. Any restriction on speech is by definition NOT free speech. This is to protect right-wing radio.
--Reject the Employee free-choice Elimination act, as an unconsciousable affront to the right to a secret vote. This is to stop the creation of trade unions.
--Restore the intetgrity to the electoral process:
a. Prohibit any public funding for advocacy groups such as ACORN, no matter what it or its affiliate organizations rename themeselves; conduct thorough investigation of their activities and voter fraud and prosecute violations.
b. Eliminate motor voter and other voter fraud mechanisms; institute secure voter registration and identification systems.
c. reject any efffort to give foreign citizens the right to vote in the U.S. in any situation or capacity.
--Oppose any and all treaties with the United Nations or any other organization or country which surrenders U.S. sovereignty. Specially:
a. Reject the UN Treaty on Rights of Child.
b. Reject the Law of the Sea treaty.
c. Reject any agreement which seeks to confiscate our firearms.
--No amnesty, no benefits, no citizenship--ever--for anyone in the country illegally. Arrest and detain, for a specified period of time, anyone here illegally, and then deport, period.
--Term limits for Congressional people, no pension, participates in the same health plan as everyone else (actually part of Obama's Plan) and can not vote themselves a pay raise.
--Reassert the principle that "Freedom of Religion" does not mean "freedom from religion".
--Promote family values : marriage is an institution between a man and a woman; we recognize the sanctity of life; and parents are responsible for making all decisions for their children whether disciplinary, educational and medical.
--To promote the Common Defense, make the public declaration of war (Jihad) made aggainst the US on 23 February 1998 (don't know the reference) and fight war against the United States by radical islam to win (no sense.)
--Seal the border and protect US citizens alaong the border and everywhere,as is the prime directive of the Federal Government. This is the new mantra that the only responsibility of the Federal Government to is to protect and defend its citizens.
--Return to the principles of Austrian Economics and redirect the economy back to one of incentives to save and invest. (We and Austrians never practiced the Austrian School.)
--Cut spending, balance the budget, and institute a plan fro paying down debt. Proclaim that generational debt shifting is immoral and unconscionable and will not be tolerated.
--Pass and implement FED Bill 1207) introduced by Ron Paul, to audit the Federal Reserve as the first step in ending the Fed.
--Return (never happened) to transparent and honest reporting of economic statistics free of gimmicks and distortions.
--Restore the provisions of welfare reform removed from the stimulus bill.
--Defeat Cap and Trade, investigate collusion between government and industry in the global warming myth,, and prosecute any illegal collusion. The "Cooch" is doing that here.
--Freeze current Stimulus Funds, prohibit any further stimulus bills, and apply unspent funds toward the debt they created. Actually, by the end of his term Obama will have paid this off.
--Promote Energy Independence aggressively by removing obstacle created by the government to allow private development of our resources: natural gas, oil, coal and nuclear power. This is what was done with BP and the Gulf leak.
--Institute Zero based budgeting on all programs. Can't be done.
--Espouse and follow the principle: It is immoral to steal property rghtfully earned by one person, and give to another who has no claim or right to its benefits.
--Clarify that healthcare is not a right, it is a service. Only market based solutions will solve the problem.
--In Maine, they want to adopt tort reform so as to cut health insurance costs.
--Eliminate the Department of Education and restore schools to local control as specified in the Constitution (missed that somewhere).
--Repeal and prohibit any participation in efforts to create a one world government.

Sadly they concluded with the same Jefferson quote as Obama's speech yesterday: "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

That basically sums up the full program of not only Maine's Republican Party but the national one. In sophisticated terms it's reproduced in the House Republican Budget proposals to make America a Giant Aircraft Carrier. Domestically, anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-poor, and pro-private sector for everything. And anti-progressive tax rates.

Read the above carefully and ask yourself where lies the concern for the common good and the pubic interest or even the national interest. This is a nativist, isolationist,anti-science,anti-education platform which successfully melds the libertarian and the theological strains in the Tea Party. This is what modern America is up against.

Elena Kagan was criticized by the GOP for her agreement with Thurgood Marshall that the constitution was a "flawed document" because it allowed slavery. That's today 2010. This is the party of Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator" who once enjoyed the enthusiastic support of the people of Maine.