Maine DOE, Flickr
So listen, America.
We, the people of Maine, have some wisdom to share with you. I’m sure some of you are unaware that we even exist– we basically live in Canada even though we’re technically one of the 50 states. We live quiet lives up here, and most of us tend to like it that way. We are home to brilliant fall foliage, the famous Maine lobster, moose crashes (got plenty of those), and a coastline that is among the most beautiful you will ever see.
We’re simple people who don’t boast of knowing much that the rest of the country doesn’t know, but we do have some unique knowledge and wisdom to pass onto the rest of you:
We already know what it’s like to have a President Trump, because we have a Governor LePage.
One of the smartest things we can do in life (well, up here we’d say “wicked smahht”), is to learn from the mistakes of others. And Holey Moley, we’ve made a wicked big mistake. Twice.
After years of our quiet existence, we elected one of the only leaders who can be legitimately compared to Donald Trump. This unlikely Governor took control of our state after a failed attempt to step beyond the two-party system. While the attempt was valiant and noble, throwing votes to 3rd parties and independents ended up in LePage getting elected the first time with just 37.6% of the vote in what was a 5-way race, and won him re-election with just 48.2% of the vote the second time around.
And let us tell you, it’s been a wicked headache for us ever since.
Like would be the case with a President Trump, our Governor has been so busy tending to his chronic case of diarrhea of the mouth that he has been completely unable to govern the state. Not only has his governorship been functionally a disaster for our state, it’s made us a national embarrassment time and time again.
While we’d all like to just get back to being known for our lobster, the rest of the country would do well to learn from our mistake. Let me just briefly fill you in on some of the things we’ve been dealing with.
Like Donald Trump, Governor LePage is a white supremacist who is constantly dividing us along racial lines. The examples of his racist behavior are so numerous that it would be difficult to detail all of them in a single post, so here’s a few highlights of what America can look forward to if our experience is any predictor:
Governor LePage recently claimed that Maine’s drug problem is the fault of “black and brown” people who come into our state to sell drugs and “impregnate white girls.” When he held a news conference to convince people his comments were not racist, he actually said that black and brown people are “the enemy.” He went on to claim that he had a binder full of the photos of all the drug dealers arrested in Maine and that 90% were black or brown– yet, when the binder was turned over due to a Freedom of Information request, the truth the binder told was that the majority of drug-dealing arrests were actually white people.
What else? Let’s see…
Oh, there was the time he refused to participate in an MLK celebration, and when he was called out on it
he told the NAACP to kiss his butt. There was the time he was speaking with high school children and told one of the kids that he wanted to
kill the child’s father. Or the time when he said he wants President Obama to go to hell. Or the time he said we need to bring back the guillotine and have public executions… Or the time he warned that asylum seekers in Maine were bringing in the dangerous ziki-fly, even though no such thing exists. Or, who could forget the time he called up a state lawmaker and left him a threatening voicemail riddled with homophobic epithets, warning the lawmaker that “I am after you”?
And I’ll tell you what, America, these are just the first few examples that pop into my head as I write this. The reality of what we’ve been dealing with in Maine has been such a predictable and consuming part of the daily news cycle, that it’s
earned our governor the title of “America’s Craziest Governor.”
Sure, you may think voting for someone who “says what they’re thinking” is cute and refreshing, but you’ll only think that if you’ve been living outside of Maine for the last few years. For us, it’s not cute or refreshing at all, but is a daily reminder that it’s all fun and interesting to watch a person like this on the television, but is far less amusing when they hold executive power.
Governor Paul LePage has been so busy creating controversies, leaving nasty voicemails, and threatening to kill people, that he lost all ability to govern long ago. He’s barely able to work with his own party, let alone work with Democrats. The functional reality is that we don’t have a governor at all– we just have a Trump-like controversy maker occupying the position, keeping Maine in the news for all the wrong reasons while refusing to step aside so that the business of government can continue.
Beyond the reality that Governor LePage is unable to govern, I can’t think of a single person in Maine who thinks someone with Paul Lepage’s temperament should have access to weapons of mass destruction, or have one of the world’s largest militaries at his disposal. If you’ve lived in Maine these past few years, you’ll know that such an idea defies all common sense. It doesn’t even matter who the opposition in the election is– anyone would be a safer choice than someone who lacks self control as both LePage and Trump do. And when I say “anyone” I actually mean, anyone.
If you want to know what the next 4-8 years would be like with a President Trump, just google “Paul LePage” and read a few things that come up. People with uncontrolled temperaments might be amusing to watch, but they are completely incapable of effectively leading– we tested the theory, and know how it all works out.
Trust us, America. This is a really, really, really bad idea that has no immediate solution… it could be a loooooooonnnnnggg 4-8 years.
I can appreciate that people might get tired of the status quo and long for change, but please, America, learn a lesson from the people of Maine. We’ve already tried the whole President Trump thing, and it’s an absolute disaster.
The governor later says he wishes he and Rep. Drew Gattine could have a duel and 'I would point (my gun) right between his eyes.'
BY SCOTT THISTLE STAFF WRITER
Gov. Paul LePage left a state lawmaker from Westbrook an expletive-laden phone message Thursday in which he accused the legislator of calling him a racist, encouraged him to make the message public and said, “I’m after you.”
LePage sent the message Thursday morning after a television reporter appeared to suggest that Democratic Rep. Drew Gattine was among several people who had called the governor a racist, which Gattine later denied. The exchange followed remarks the governor made in North Berwick on Wednesday night about the racial makeup of suspects arrested on drug trafficking charges in Maine.
“Mr. Gattine, this is Gov. Paul Richard LePage,” a recording of the governor’s phone message says. “I would like to talk to you about your comments about my being a racist, you (expletive). I want to talk to you. I want you to prove that I’m a racist. I’ve spent my life helping black people and you little son-of-a-bitch, socialist (expletive). You … I need you to, just friggin. I want you to record this and make it public because I am after you. Thank you.”
Gov. LePage’s message to Rep. Drew Gattine. Warning: This audio contains obscenities.
Audio Player
Rep. Gattine: “We need to stay focused on the drug problem we are facing here in Maine and cannot allow this story to be about the governor’s inappropriate and vulgar behaviors.”
LePage later invited a Portland Press Herald reporter and a two-person television crew from WMTW to the Blaine House, where during a 30-minute interview the governor described his anger with Gattine and others, told them he had left the phone message and said he wished he and the lawmaker could engage in an armed duel to settle the matter.
“When a snot-nosed little guy from Westbrook calls me a racist, now I’d like him to come up here because, tell you right now, I wish it were 1825,” LePage said. “And we would have a duel, that’s how angry I am, and I would not put my gun in the air, I guarantee you, I would not be (Alexander) Hamilton. I would point it right between his eyes, because he is a snot-nosed little runt and he has not done a damn thing since he’s been in this Legislature to help move the state forward.”
Gattine is the House chair of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee, which has opposed some of LePage’s welfare, drug enforcement and other reforms. He said the governor’s phone message was uncalled for.
“Obviously that message is upsetting, inappropriate and uncalled for,” Gattine said Thursday night. “It’s hard to believe it’s from the governor of the state of Maine, but again, we need to stay focused on the drug problem we are facing here in Maine and cannot allow this story to be about the governor’s inappropriate and vulgar behaviors.”
REPORTER’S QUESTION ENRAGES GOVERNOR
LePage left the message after a television reporter asked the governor what he would say to people who are calling him a racist. LePage asked who had called him that and the reporter said he had talked to Gattine, but didn’t say Gattine had called the governor a racist.
LePage then reacted, told the reporters “you make me so sick,” and stormed off.
He later called the same reporters to the Blaine House for an interview, told them he had called Gattine and said he hoped the lawmaker would make the governor’s phone message public. The Press Herald made a Freedom of Access Act request for the phone message, and Gattine provided a copy to the Press Herald around 8:50 p.m.
Gattine has been a longstanding critic of many of LePage’s proposals to reform the state’s welfare system and has blocked efforts by Mary Mayhew, commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services, to change eligibility requirements for a variety of programs that help individuals and families with developmental disabilities. Gattine is running for re-election in House District 34, which includes the city of Westbrook. He is unopposed.
Gattine said Thursday that he never called LePage a racist.
“What I said to the television reporter today is that the kind of racially charged comments the governor made are not at all helpful in solving what the real problem is,” Gattine said. “And that is, we have a crisis in the state of Maine of people overdosing on heroin and prescription drugs and we are not doing enough with respect to treatment and prevention.”
GATTINE: MORE EMPHASIS ON TREATMENT
Gattine said he essentially agrees with LePage that drug traffickers must be stopped from coming into the state.
“The law enforcement piece is incredibly important,” Gattine said. “And I don’t really care what the color is of the people that are importing drugs into this state. I think law enforcement needs to be in a position where it can do its job, but in an area where we are really failing is not funding treatment and prevention as much as we should be.”
Gattine noted that a record number of people, 272, died of drug overdoses in Maine last year and the state is on pace to break that record this year.
“And this administration continues to pursue policies that make treatment less available … and I think that’s a huge part of the problem,” Gattine said.
Over the years, Gattine and LePage have butted heads on several issues.
Gattine was among the Democratic lawmakers who earlier this year sparred with LePage over how to manage patients sent by the courts to the state’s Riverview Psychiatric Center. LePage threatened to stop accepting federal money unless the Legislature could figure out how to manage patients. Gattine replied, saying, “It shouldn’t be this hard. If the department (of Health and Human Services) is serious about this, they should be able to answer these questions.”
A HISTORY OF DISAGREEMENTS
After the federal government accused Maine in 2015 of processing food stamp applications slower than any other state, Gattine said the federal warning – the government said Maine’s “chronically poor performance” doesn’t meet federal standards – ripped the state, claiming it was part of a pattern in which the LePage administration repeatedly failed to adhere to federal guidelines. Gattine said people were not getting the services they need.
In a March 2015 guest column published by the Press Herald, Gattine slammed the LePage administration for proposed cuts to seniors’ health care. Gattine said the cuts would force elderly Mainers to choose between paying medical bills and buying groceries.
“It’s infuriating that people who contributed so much to Maine have to show up in Augusta to beg their government not to cut the health care benefits that they have worked on for their entire lives,” he said in the column.
LePage also has criticized Gattine and other lawmakers for opposing a measure that would have made possession of small amounts of heroin a felony. LePage has said the threat of a felony-level crime is necessary to force people to get into drug treatment programs.
“The primary lever for getting people into treatment shouldn’t be to get them into the criminal justice system,” Gattine said. “To me, if we let the problem get that far it’s just another sign of our failure.”
