On Democratic Party fissures

Viewing it from the distance through a haze of indifference, the casual observer will detect no deep fissures or jagged fragmentation in Maine’s Democratic Party. The gubernatorial candidates flying out of the starting gates all agree that the government must grow; that all parts of society outside government need regulatory supervision; that free stuff is good stuff; and that rich people must pay for the free stuff in order to keep it free.

At the beginning a debate among the candidates raged around one question: who hates Paul LePage the most? Janet Mills, having repeatedly used her bull … pulpit as Attorney General to attack the governor’s personality, programs and policies has a clear advantage. LePage gave her a potent boost in this competition by attacking her in a radio address.

A leaflet which circulated at the Democratic Convention attacking Mills may diminish her LePagephobia advantage. It shows a photo of an unsmiling Janet gesturing emphatically with a damning caption. “Janet Mills” the authors tell us, “Has A Proven Record of Only Protecting White Children and Families.” According to the 2017 American Community Survey Maine is the whitest state in America. The census bureau reckons that 93.88 percent percent of our population is colorless. So who should we expect our AG to protect? Slip in that “only” and you slip in the suggestion that People of Color (POCs) are being neglected. Who is protecting Maine’s Afro-Americans, Aborigines, Hispanics, Asians, Eurasians, Afghans, Micronesians, Polynesians, Terrorists-in-Transit, Tibetans and other victimized POCs? Not its incumbent attorney general it seems.

The leaflet dips deeper into Janet’s racism with a line revealing that she “Denied Justice to Chance David Baker who was unjustifiably killed by police.” If you missed it the April 23 “family-friendly demonstration” in Augusta you may not be aware that the Loon Left holds Attorney General Mills “accountable for state sanctioned violence against Black, Brown and Indigenous people in Maine … ” This makes sense if you accept the Black Lives Matter dogma that the KKK has replaced its white sheets with blue uniforms. Young Mr. Baker was a POC. The officer was a PWC (Person Without Color, pronounced “Pwic”). Janet declined to prosecute him for genocide. Quod Erat Demonstrandum. Check here for details.

Her racist malice toward our state’s aborigines is revealed in these two lines from the leaflet.

“Supported ongoing attacks on tribal water rights in both the state of Maine and Washington, D.C.” “Sided against Wabanaki women and children, denying them protection in tribal courts.”

I’m not going to explain what this is all about. First, because I don’t know. Second, because it doesn’t matter. What matters is that she’s a PWC and not entitled to oppose the claims and desires of aborigines, even if female. Let’s be clear. The leaflet doesn’t charge explicit racism, it merely implies “racial insensitivity,” a familiar contemporary codeword for racism.

This answers the leaflet’s rhetorical question: “Janet Mills is a conservative in blue clothing?” Liberals generally agree that racism is an identifying characteristic of the conservative. Clinching their case the authors go on to accuse Janet of opposing a raise in the minimum wage, pushing for harsher sentencing along with mandatory minimum sentencing and for receiving a A+ rating from the NRA.

The leaflet’s punch line: DON’T VOTE JANET MILLS FOR MAINE.

This rubbish didn’t have much impact on the convention. None of the newspaper reports I’ve seen were aware of it and Janet hadn’t seen it until I gave her a copy. She noted that it violates the law requiring disclosure of its origins, but did not say what, if anything, she plans to do about it. The Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices will identify it as a violation, but its powers of investigation are limited. It would be awkward for the A.G.’s office to defend its own head in an electoral conflict.

The legal issue not very important in any case. The fissure in the party’s ranks is more interesting. It’s not yet clear how deep it is or how it may grow. The Democratic Party caucus went strongly for the Vermont socialist while Janet Mills supported Hillary. Mark Eves, Diane Russell, and Betsy Sweet are her left-most opponents. Eves, who has been attacking her for her NRA connection, is thought to be her most potent rival. This is not persuasive evidence that his campaign produced the document. It might have come from the Maine People’s Alliance or any other loony-left outfit.

A number of Democratic primaries this May went well for the Loons. In Nebraska Kara Eastman, a liberal social worker, beat former congressman Brad Ashford in a district that national Democrats had targeted for November. In Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, John Morganelli – a district attorney who has been locally prominent for decades – lost the primary to attorney Susan Wild, who ran at him from the left. In the Philadelphia suburbs, a 33-year-old Navy veteran endorsed by Emily’s List lost to a “proud progressive” who ran ads attacking her for being a registered Republican until 2016.

The Loons may not block a Mills nomination in Maine, but they are certain to weaken party unity.