NH, Clinging to the Past

On May 3, 2003, the rock face known as The Old Man of the Mountain succumbed to time, erosion, and gravity - and fell off Cannon Mountain. (Or maybe he jumped, because he was so ashamed of the Benson administration.) His image is still on our license plates, and he's still the symbol of NH - even though he no longer exists.

It's appropriate. This is a state where we cling to so many things that either don't exist or don't work any more. The New Hampshire Advantage. Live Free or Die. The First in the Nation Primary. No State Income Tax. Funding our State Parks With User Fees. The 400 Seat House of Representatives. The way we cling to the past ensures we won't move into the present, never mind the future.

Why is NH AG Gordon MacDonald Working With James O'Keefe?

This is James O'Keefe dressed up in his nana's fur coat for his very first "sting," when he was pretending to be a pimp - and fooling no one. 

I don't know why James O'Keefe, the fraudulent fraud "investigator" has a hard on for NH, but he does. He's been trying to prove that there's widespread voter fraud in NH for years now, and has succeeded in stepping on his dick every time. 

In 2012, Jimmy and his Fraudulent Squad tried to prove that folks were rigging elections by voting as dead people. They came pretty close to casting those votes themselves, which meant Jimmy had to stay away from NH for a while, because then AG  Michael Delaney was investigating him. One of the names of the dead they tried to use to  make their case with was a veteran who had died a mere 10 days before. The man's family were not happy with Jimmy and his Fraudulent Squad. 

He has a lot of support here. The wingnut libertea groups in NH love Jimmy, even though he's always revealed to be peddling doctored videos and other tarted up nonsense - they think he's an "investigative journalist." Jimmy always has his grifter hand out, and they are likely donors. NH libertea groups want to prevent as many people as they can from voting, so Jimmy's their hero, flying in, making noise, and in time the noise turns out to be a nothingburger. 

I first read of O'Keefe's latest NH scheme in this September 8 Patch story :

The New Hampshire Attorney General's Office is making structural reforms concerning voter fraud cases after the discovery that investigators appear to have been sitting on voter fraud evidence for more than eight months.

Attorney General Gordon MacDonald made the announcement during an interview with James O'Keefe III of Project Veritas Sept. 4 after the organization questioned staffers from the Election Law Unit in August about the lack of action against a double voting suspect from 2016 — even though investigators had evidence about the case for nearly a year.

It seems our very partisan NH AG is taking orders from the Fraudulent Squad at Project Veritas. (The whole story reads as if it was dictated by James O'Keefe.) They found evidence of a man who voted twice, in what is presented as a sinister and deceptive plot where the man dressed up as a woman to defraud the system. 

Then read this story at Jezebel.com

This ain't no victory. Project Veritas made a big "sting" off a guy who has obvious mental health problems, and  is barely getting by financially, and is likely to lose his job because of them. 

Vincent Marzello is worried he’ll lose his fast-food job. After Veritas showed up at his workplace, the owners asked if they could do a background check; with his arrest and subsequent publicity on television and the front page of the local paper, his boss has implied that if customers start coming in to gawk at the guy who voted twice, Marzello could be out of a job. After his arrest, he said he had 85 cents in his checking account—not even enough to pay the $40 dollars usually required to leave jail.

What a triumph - for the bigoted, transphobic Fraudulent Squad - and the NH AG's office. How proud they must be to have rooted out this criminal element! This is a shameful story of harassing a confused man who needs professional help.  The AG should have told O'Keefe to fuck right off with this. 

Gordon MacDonald is the NH Attorney General. Despite his lack of judicial experience, Governor Chris Sununu wanted to put MacDonald on the NH Supreme Court as the Chief Justice. In a very contentious fight, the Executive Council voted no. The governor has been clear that if he is re-elected, he'll be re-nominating the anti-choice/pro-voter suppression MacDonald. 

We know that MacDonald is essentially working for Veritas at this point. Who else is Veritas tight with? It turns out that O'Keefe is buddies with the Proud Boys - the violent, right wing racist group that the president so kindly mentioned at the debate. 

This piece in The New Republic connects all the Veritas dots to the Proud Boys. In 2017, O'Keefe was honored as Proud Boy of the month in their magazine. He's buddies with Proud boy founder Gavin McInnes and white supremacist Stefan Molyneaux, who has been a featured speaker at some Free State Project events here in NH. 

These are some Proud Boys. I might have gone with a name that didn't suggest a toddler meeting his toilet training goals - but what do I know? 

James O'Keefe, friend of white supremacists,  is who our NH AG is taking marching orders from, at a time when hate groups are establishing themselves in NH, including the Proud Boys. 

It's more imperative than ever that Chris Sununu is voted out. Gordon MacDonald should not be on the NH Supreme Court -  he shouldn't be the NH AG. 

Shibonunu

                 

 


NH Governor Chris Sununu held one of his bi-weekly COVID-19 press conferences on Monday, August 18. You can watch the entire video here, or just look at the highlights I'll be referencing. 

From about 13:33 - 17:07, the governor answers questions from reporters about voting. He's asked if he'll be voting absentee or going to the polls. At about 14:10, you'll hear him tell voters they can take their absentee ballots and "walk them over to a safe drop box." Sununu has just told folks to break the law. Absentee ballots can't be left in drop off boxes, and they're not likely to be counted if they are. David Brooks at the Concord Monitor gives the straight dope on drop off boxes. 

Sununu is also asked if he thinks the issues with USPS will affect absentee voting, at about14:25.  He tells reporters that he's not worried, that he has spoken to Regina Bugbee , the District Manager of USPS Northern New England District. For some reason, he refers to Ms. Bugbee as, "a lovely woman." Patronizing? Patriarchal? You decide. He did not, however, make any references to lovely men at any point during the press conference. 

After the post office, he was asked about issuing a mandate that masks should be worn at the polls. He isn't going to. He is asked about towns mandating masks, and says that's fine, "it's on them." 

At 28:48, the topic of nursing home outbreaks is brought up, and the governor deferred to DHHS Commissioner Lori Shibonette. The Commissioner was very unhappy with an NHPR story by Casey McDermott on a long term outbreak at a nursing home that is still not under control. NHPR Josh Rogers was at the press conference, and was the target of Shibinette's wrath. She accused them of leaving out information because of a pre-determined narrative. The commissioner tried to make the case that even though the Greenbriar nursing home in Nashua has been cited numerous times for deficiencies over the years, that had nothing to do with the Covid outbreak, because many other nursing homes had outbreaks. Some were facilities that had no reports of deficiencies. That is true. 

BUT, what no one mentioned is that those nursing homes with no deficiencies cleared up their outbreaks quickly. The Covid outbreak at Greenbriar has been raging since May. More than 150 staff and residents have been infected, and 28 residents died. 

Shibinette was defensive. She was also strangely blasé about deficient nursing homes. One might expect the Commissioner of DHHS to voice concern over the long term history of deficiencies in those homes, and reassure us that the state was going to turn this situation around. She didn't do that. 

 There were questions about the lack of a mask mandate at large events, like Bike Week. The governor is sure that people will be responsible. He spoke of how much better New Hampshire's unemployment numbers than those of Massachusetts. NH has a population of 1.3 million and MA has a population of 7 million. (One of these things is not like the other.)

The last question  came at 47:30. The media personality is Michael Graham, from Massachusetts, who writes commentary for the Boston Herald. Graham is also the voice of an online publication called NH Journal. In a state where right wingers regularly make disparaging comments about people from MA and urge anyone they disagree with to "move back to Massachusetts," the irony of the media personality from Massachusetts writing the NH Journal is worth mentioning. 

Graham tries to spin the issue of USPS mailboxes disappearing and sorting machines being shut down (and even sold off) as a conspiracy theory by the Democrats. Governor Sununu refused to take the well-timed, baited, softball, and so was able to end the press conference on an upbeat note. 

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Sununu has benefitted from flattering, even fawning media coverage. Six months later, hard questions are being asked, and he and his minions don't like this very much. The next press conference is Friday, August 21, at 3 PM. If you vote, you should watch these! 


* Be sure to read Casey McDermott's story about 
nursing homes.  This is good reporting. 

Updates on New Hampshire's Culture of Freedom

On Friday, August 9, NH Governor Chris Sununu vetoed 3 gun safety bills. From his veto statement:

New Hampshire is one of the safest states in the nation, and we have a long and proud tradition of responsible firearm stewardship. Our laws are well-crafted and fit our culture of responsible gun ownership and individual freedom. 

Later that evening,  in Derry, a 79 year old man shot and killed his wife.

Didn't  this guy know about the culture? 

In the wee hours of Monday, August 12, Dover police are investigating gunfire in a street confrontation.

Just a little individual freedom fire. Nothing to see here. 

The wee hours of Monday morning were busy. In Northwood, a man claims he shot at someone trying to break into his car. Shot 3 times and missed. The police searched the area, but didn't find anyone. 

Thursday, August 15, a responsible firearm steward barricaded himself in a house in Claremont for 9 hours. Hundreds of  shots fired, but no one was injured. 

Sunday, September 15, a good guy with a gun - a safety officer no less - wounded himself and another safety officer, at a shooting range in Keene.

On Sept. 20, a responsible gun owner barricaded himself in his house in Nashua for a few hours, before being shot by a cop and taken into custody.

A proponent of individual freedom shot off his gun in a men's room in a bar in Portsmouth on Sept. 20. 

On Sunday, Sept. 22, a traditional firearm steward from Rochester, NH, drove to Massachusetts, where he shot and killed a guy at a bar.  (Hey, at least he did it out of state). Turns out he wasn't actually a law abiding gun owner, but of course, no one knew that till he pulled the trigger. 

A double shooting in Concord, NH on the night of 
September 25. A woman was found laying on the ground in a parking lot, after being shot in the head. A man was dead, slumped against the car. She died at the hospital. There is no official confirmation, yet, but  I think we all know how this story unfolds. The responsible gun owner shot her first, then killed himself. 

Update: That's exactly what happened. Concord Monitor

On October 1, a pastor from a Pentecostal church (in Pelham) was shot and killed at his home in Londonderry.


October 18, a person was reported to have been found dead in a Jaffrey apartment in this very carefully reported story. There were two people, one dead inside, one outside in a car, and possible gunshot wounds. Since then, the story has been updated. Apparently the person who died was a high school student, as was the person outside in the car. The police believe that it was death by suicide. 


October 12, two people were shot at the same Pentecostal church in Pelham that was home to the pastor murdered two weeks ago. It's being reported that a man and a woman were shot at a wedding, by a man with a handgun. 

The story has been updated. The bishop performing the wedding ceremony was shot, as was the bride. It is difficult to imagine that this is unrelated to the death of the minister on October 1. 

On October 27, a responsible firearm steward in Nashua killed his wife, and then himself. NECN
All these guns that are supposed to be making us safer don't seem to be doing much for women. 


A guy in Chesterfield who shot up his neighborhood last year is refusing a competency exam, saying that they're trying to torture a confession out of him. Union Leader. I wonder why we don't charge guys like this with terrorism. 

On Saturday, November 9, a responsible NH gun owner displayed his idea of individual freedom by threatening a driver on I-95 in MA  with his gun.

Why Aren't All These Guns Making Us Safer?

It was a deadly weekend. On Saturday, a gunman in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, shot and killed 22 people, and wounded 26 more. Early Sunday morning, a gunman killed 9 people in a nightlife district in Dayton, Ohio. 

The weekend before, a gunman shot and killed 4 people and wounded 13 others at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, CA. 

I thought all these guns were supposed to be making us safer?

Meanwhile, here in NH, three gun safety bills languish in limbo, waiting for the attention of our governor. On Monday, August 5, there was a rally  at the Legislative Office Building in Concord, where members of gun safety groups and other concerned citizens called upon the governor to sign the bills. The room was packed with people. 

Not everyone in the room was heartbroken about the slaughter of their fellow humans. Some attendees were so dickhurt by the idea that some people were talking about gun safety, that they showed up with their guns. The guy with the long gun in the photo is Brennan Robinson, a member of the Free State Project, who very obviously came in with the intention of turning the media's attention to him. 

He succeeded admirably. Both WMUR and NHPR gave him the last word in their stories. 

This is emblematic of the NH media, which operates with GOP as their default setting. I expect  it from WMUR - hell, I've seen it in the past, from the same reporter.

I cannot wrap my head around the shoddiness of this reporting. Not a single reporter who covered this event thought to ask, "Hey, pal - these folks are all here because of gun violence - do you think it's really a good idea to bring GUNS into a room crowded with people - especially since you fit the visual profile of a domestic terrorist?" 

These are men who get up in the morning in the safest state in the country, and put on their strapons before they dare leave their houses. And we are all supposed to bow and scrape before their freedumb, because their right to play GI Joe is more important than our right to live. 

I don't expect Governor Sununu to sign those gun bills. His first act in office was to sign a bill that repealed the concealed carry license process. Gundamentalists are his base. 

I don't have any confidence that there will ever be a legislative solution to the wholesale slaughter, either at the state or national level. 

What I do know is this - people are going to stop going out. They won't go to fairs, festivals, concerts, or movies. They won't go shopping in brick and mortar stores. They won't go to bars and restaurants. And brother, when it starts to hit the bottom lines of business - then we'll see some change. Capitalism may be what changes our gun laws. 

To help along the process, I suggest that before you go to a store, a venue, a bar or restaurant that you call ahead and ask if they allow guns inside. NH is an open carry state - BUT - there's a provision built into the law:

"Businesses have the to right to ban firearms from their property, Merrigan said, and can ask customers who are carrying firearms, openly or concealed, to leave.

Customers who don’t leave a business when requested can be charged with criminal trespassing."

So call and ask, and decide for yourself whether you want to go there or not. If you see a person with a gun in a business - call the police. There is no way for you to know if he is one of the mythical "good guys with guns" or a domestic terrorist. Complaint to the management. Leave your shopping cart and walk out of the store. 

Enough is enough. And dammit, NH media - do a better job. 

Change Comes to New Hampshire

NH has survived another election, despite the confusion around the NH Supreme Court decision concerning SB3, which was helpfully intensified by the Secretary of State.  In spite of the incorrect absentee ballots that were sent out, and without even the usual complaining about busloads of out of state voters. I’ve read grousing about how people from Commiechusetts are coming here to destroy NH, but the reality is, that most people who migrate to NH move to Rockingham County, the reddest county in the state. They aren’t coming to Carroll County. There aren’t good paying jobs, and there isn’t any affordable housing. The migrants to Carroll County are primarily in their 50’s and 60’s, coming to live in their second homes and protect their pensions in tax free splendor.

In 2016, the Republicans won control of every part of the NH state government. What did they do with that control? The governor’s first priority was passing a concealed carry bill – because, apparently, guns are more important than anything. After taking a pay increase negotiated by the State Employees Union, he tried to pass right-to-work legislation. The Republicans passed more business tax cuts. They tried to pass a voucher bill that would have dramatically increased property taxes. The governor referred (more than once) to a bill that would have provided family leave for workers as “a vacation.” Caring for a sick family member isn’t exactly a trip to the Bahamas. The Trumpublicans are nothing if not tone deaf. 

On the other hand, the Governor earned a reputation with the media for being “affable,” and “avuncular.” Anywhere a camera was held up and the lens focused, he was there. His party often touted his bold leadership, and I think we can all agree that Sununu did some fine work on the placement of price labels on deli cheese at Market Basket.


In May, he boasted that the state had “more money than we know what to do with.” What did he do with it? Nada. Nil. Nothing. He claims he wants to invest in infrastructure. Meanwhile, we still have hundreds of red listed bridges. We have rest areas on I-95 that are in less than stellar condition. Our parks are years behind in maintenance. We have a serious housing problem, and a very serious school funding problem. We need to build a secure psychiatric hospital that isn’t part of the NH prison system. If Sununu is having trouble coming up with ideas, he should call me.

At least we know that NH will not become a right-to-work-for-less state during the next biennium. NH will not pass a voucher bill. There’s already a bill to make the very questionable voucher program an amendment to the NH Constitution loitering in the queue of upcoming legislation for 2019. 

The legislature will be voting to choose a Secretary of State for the next 2 years. The House will be voting on a new Speaker. The Republicans will be voting for a new minority leader. All of the committee chairs will be different with a Democratic majority. The first year of the biennium is always the year that a budget is crafted. 

I urge all legislators, old and new, to spend some time on the Secretary of State’s website before they vote. I’m an adept researcher, but I had to spend a couple of hours trying to come up with the magic phrases that unlocked candidate financial forms. The magic phrase was different each time, and more difficult if one were trying to access a “Friends of Rep. Jim Jeremy” committee finance report. I was trying to access candidate forms for several different candidates, including Senator Bradley. Wheelabrator, an international solid waste incineration company mysteriously appeared in the biomass bill, which guaranteed them taxpayer subsidies. Bradley was a sponsor of the bill, and a vocal public supporter. It turns out that Wheelabrator generously donated $4,500 to Bradley’s 2018 re-election campaign. I should have been able to access that information easily, but the Secretary of State’s website is not user friendly. In an NHPR discussion with Secretary of State candidates, Gardner commented that the information is there, it’s just hard to find. That just isn’t acceptable. 

Northern Carroll County experienced a blue wave. The entire northern House delegation is now comprised of Democrats. In southern Carroll County, voters inexplicably chose to re-elect the same candidates who voted to dramatically increase their property taxes by attempting to initiate a school voucher program.


We should all take a page from Rep. Karen Umberger who lost her bid for re-election, and graciously wished the winners well. Rep. Umberger and I have disagreed on many issues over the years, but she has been unfailingly polite and willing to listen, which is what we should expect from citizen legislators.

Published as an op-ed in the Conway Daily Sun newspaper, November 16, 2018

Fauxbertarians

                                    cartoon by Kirk Anderson

On September 11, 2001, contrary to popular belief, the terrorists really did win. Since that day, the US has been obsessed with internal security, as if harassing US citizens would protect the nation from another terrorist attack.

We learned nothing from 9/11. No national humility crept in; we were too busy waving flags, beating our chests, and bellowing USA! USA! USA!

Since then, however, we’ve cracked down upon the enemy, and apparently the enemy is us. The Patriot Act was pushed through even though hardly anyone had read it. It gave law enforcement the authority to search homes and businesses without the owner’s consent or knowledge. It gave the FBI the authority to search telephone, email, and financial records, without a court order.

A few years later, the REAL ID Act was passed. To get it passed, it was attached to a military spending bill. In 2005, few would dare vote against a military spending bill. REAL ID was sold as a way to “set standards” for the issuance of identification – such as driver’s licenses. It made sense for a nation fearful of another foreign terrorist attack to create standards for driver’s licenses as a means of prevention. It wasn’t quite as brilliant as having air passengers remove their shoes, but close.

Privacy advocates were howling in outrage at the thought of a “national ID card.” It proved so unpopular that the date for compliance was put off several times. In 2007, it was announced that compliance by states would be put off till 2009. In 2008 the deadline was extended to 2011. NH was one of the states that fought hard against REAL ID. That opposition was in character with the “live free or die” philosophy we’re supposed to be famous for embracing. It was in character with our reputation as a libertarian leaning state.

Somewhere along the way we stopped fighting REAL ID and meekly submitted. Sixteen years of indoctrination – a combination of fear based agitprop and training to submit to authority, changed our tune from Just Say No to We Have to do this for National Security. REAL ID means that the state maintains a database of information on people, including Social Security numbers and photos. This database can be accessed by federal authorities, and will be all fun and games until the identity theft begins, and it will.

Let’s do a quick summary: The US experienced a big terrorist attack. We became afraid. Rather than evaluate US behavior in the world, we chose to suspect ourselves. We were programmed to submit to measures that invaded our privacy in the name of safety and security. We were trained (by means of constant drumbeat) to fear terrorists, especially at the airport. Apparently terrorists were just waiting to pounce on suitcases full of dirty underwear, and use them for nefarious purposes. FYI, you’re far more likely to be killed by a white, male, domestic terrorist. We ignore that reality – it’s not a money maker, and it doesn’t appeal to authoritarians.

Last week I was driving north on I-93, when I passed a pop up Border Patrol Inspection near Lincoln.  Cars heading south were being stopped and quizzed about their citizenship by Border Patrol agents, who may also have had drug-sniffing dogs. Not much shocks me anymore – but that did. After all, the border crossing is in Pittsburg, which is 2 hours away. It turns out that the Border Patrol can operate immigration checkpoints within 100 miles of an international or coastal border, which is pretty much anywhere in New England.

New Hampshire’s second largest industry is tourism. Nothing says welcome to NH like, “show us your papers.” NH is loath to pay for highway rest stops (or maintain the few still in existence) so instead - we’re going to give them an adventure! The possibility of being detained by US Customs and Border Protection will enliven a dull highway journey, especially for those of a duskier hue, which is what this is really all about.

This pop-up checkpoint had been an annual event in NH. Vermont’s Congressional delegation fought hard against them, and so they’d mostly stopped in Vermont. On I-95 in Maine they appear, generally in the Houlton area.  About five years ago, the NH checkpoint had stopped. According to an NHPR story, US Customs and Border Protection has been newly empowered by the Trump administration to resume this checkpoint and more of them can be expected.

There hasn’t been a peep out of the liberty and freedumb crowd about this. Not a word from the allegedly liberty loving Free Staters. The folks who do the wailin’ about gummint encroachment on our lives are strangely silent when it comes to “show us your papers” stops. Their interest in gummint interference extends to deregulation and tax cuts. Actual violations of privacy and civil liberties don’t interest them in the slightest. 

Live Free or Die has become Roll Over and Submit.

Published as an op-ed in the September 1, 2017 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper 

Grade A Bunkum

By the time you read this, NH may have a budget for fiscal years 2018 and 2019. It’s also possible that we may not.

The budget process begins with the Governor, who presents his budget to the House and Senate. It contains his priorities, the things he would like to see funded in the next biennium. The House Finance Committee then uses the Governor’s budget as a blueprint for the budget they design. There are hearings where every government agency lists their needs, and public hearings where residents can express their budget priorities. Eventually they finish it and it comes out of committee, and goes to the full House for a vote. After passing it goes to the Senate Finance Committee, where they tinker with it. The House flies blindly, without revenue projections, but the projections are in by the time it gets to the Senate. When they finish tinkering, the bill comes out of committee and goes before the full Senate. If it passes, it goes back to the House, where it is sent to a Committee of Conference, where members of the House and Senate work out their differences, agree to concur, the budget is voted on by both bodies, and then prances off to the Governor’s desk.

This year, the budget process has been a disaster from the very beginning. For the first time in recorded history, the House failed to pass a budget. The creation of a budget became the responsibility of the Senate. The Senate Finance Committee had the same hearings with various government agencies, interested parties, and a public hearing for voters. Once they finished, the committee voted it ought to pass, and then it went to the full Senate for a vote. The Republican Party has control of the Senate, so the votes fell along party lines. The budget went back to the House for concurrence but there was no concurrence to be had, so a Committee of Conference was put together so that both bodies could work out an agreement. They have. The only Democrat on the Committee of Conference was removed when she refused to sign off on the CoC report. The House and the Senate will each have voted on this budget by the time you read this column.

Opinion pieces by the majority party are springing up like mushrooms (and you know what mushrooms grow in) in newspapers around the state. There is much chest thumping about “living within our means, “business tax cuts,” and “job creating.” The writers assume you won’t put two and two together. If the last round of business tax cuts were such a tearing success, why are we running the state as if it were impoverished? They claim the tax cuts will allow businesses to hire more and keep young people here. That’s pure grade A bunkum they’re selling.  

The state fails to invest in higher education, infrastructure, and affordable housing. Even if young people wanted to stay in a state so unwilling to invest in itself, there isn’t any place for them to live. This week there are four and a half pages of help wanted ads in the Conway Sun and 6 apartments for rent. It’s the same all over the state. Rather than wake up and smell the future, thanks to The Pledge we continue to elect people who perpetuate the foolishness that it’s still 1975.The business tax cuts just mean that the burden will continue to be shifted to the homeowner in the form of property tax.

Attaching keno to the full day kindergarten funding is being touted as a “compromise” instead of the poison pill that it really is. The education of our children should not be attached to uncertain gambling revenues, and, again, if those business tax cuts are working so well why is this necessary? A cynical person might wonder if this weren’t the plan all along. Our Trump supporting governor made himself sound human on the campaign trail by touting support for full day kindergarten. If the kenogarten bill fails, he can blame Democrats AND not have to cough up state money for education, something Republicans in this state are profoundly opposed to. It’s a win-win for him.

The Republican Party is fighting an internal war, between the regular old right wing and the far extremist right wing of the party.  The self-styled Freedom Caucus thinks the regular right wing is spending too much money, and doesn’t hurt enough people. The Democrats don’t think the budget spent enough money. The regular right wing probably could have negotiated with the Democrats, to pass a budget, but they didn’t want to, because this isn’t about what’s best for the state. This is about ideological purity, and party loyalty. To negotiate with the Democrats would be seen as weak. They’d be called RINOs. They’d be primaried in their next elections for not being hard core enough. The Republican Party has abdicated its responsibility to NH voters, and chosen ideology over New Hampshire.  

Published as an op-ed in the June 23 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper 

Empire in Decline

This isn’t what I set out to write. It isn’t what I originally wrote.

But - the world as we know it has just changed a great deal, and I feel a duty to write about that. 

This election is about anger. The anger is real. I believe it is misplaced, but that really doesn’t matter now. The angry people have spoken, and the rest of the nation and the rest of the world will be living with the consequences for a long time to come.

Some social media snapshots from friends around the world:

From the UK: “World leaders are in shock. Apparently, Marine LePen is the only politician outside the US who has congratulated Trump, which is unprecedented.”

From Australia: “Come on, it's pretty funny that the USA has elected a clown, an actual one with makeup and wig, to govern. If you don't laugh you will go mad.”

From the UK: “Welcome to the Brexit Club, America.”

From Panama: “On several levels, it's the end of an era for the USA. Geopolitics and economics are generally forces for continuity, but in case you haven't noticed, the United States is not the power it was. Other countries' leaders and people who shift money to and fro around the world surely notice.”

From Australia:

“So it's looking like Donald Trump will be the president of the USA. What does that say about a political system that endorses a candidate like this lunatic? It is ok to be a bully? It's perfectly fine to be a misogynist? To be racist? To be a billionaire and not pay any tax? It's no problem at all to be a liar? It's ok to deceive people with conspiracy theories and manipulate opinions with empty statements that cannot be substantiated? To my American friends who I know did not vote for Trump. I'm so very sorry.”

Sorry, world. The US has just officially become a rogue nation.

The recriminations have begun. The Clinton supporters are blaming the third party voters. The third party voters are (in some cases) blaming the DNC for misreading the political climate. The Democratic Party has moved so far to the right since 2000, that they’re no longer the friend of the working stiff, in a year when it was terribly important to be that friend.

Republicans are not friends of the working class, either – they just have better PR. People with stagnant incomes hear “tax cuts” and they think that will mean more money for them. They do not understand that those cuts will be for the wealthy. People heard Trump talk about bringing manufacturing jobs back to this country. That was a cruel message to people who badly need good paying jobs. Manufacturing is never coming back. Trump’s own products are manufactured overseas. We’re a nation and a world on the verge of big economic changes, and we’ve chosen an ill-informed carnival barker to lead us into the future.

As a nation, we’ve never gotten past racism. We tried a few times, but it’s not over. As a nation, we have never confronted our misogyny. We just elected a guy who has said awful things about women, and admitted to assaulting them. A man who says we need to build a wall to keep out Mexicans. He mocked a reporter with disabilities. He was cheered on by angry people who applauded him for “telling it like it is.”

That’s what we do here. When the economy is lousy for us, when we are fearful for our future, we blame THOSE PEOPLE. Whoever they are. The politics of hate, anger, and fear have won the day. What do we tell our girl children about what just happened here?

The media deserves a great deal of blame for this – but not the kind that we began to see at the end of Trump’s campaign. Men showing up at Trump events with t-shirts suggesting that lynching reporters was a good idea isn’t funny. Somewhere along the way the second amendment has become the only one that matters to a large segment of the population.

Nowhere is that truer than NH, where the politics of guns and pledges have won the day. NH has just chosen another Sununu to govern our state. Jumping on the Trump train worked for him. We can now look forward to 2 years of businessman Chris Sununu telling us why it’s a mistake to invest in our own state. He’ll be aided and abetted by the great visionaries of our legislature, whose idea of the future is firmly planted in 1952. 

Guns aren’t going to fix our roads and bridges – and neither is our new state government. Instead, the demonizing of the poor is likely to be ramped up, along with MOAR GUNZ, less access to health care, business tax cuts, MOAR GUNZ, right to work, eliminating bodily autonomy for women, and plenty of other stupid that has yet to reveal itself.

As I write this, the US Senate race between Kelly Ayotte and Maggie Hassan is still undecided. Congresswoman Ann Kuster kept her seat, despite a last minute surge of support for challenger Jim Lawrence. Carol Shea-Porter was reelected in the first district, despite the best efforts of the independent candidate. He might have swayed the election to Guinta, had it not been for the rats. That was just a bridge too far (and too bizarre) for many people. New Hampshire did manage to fend off some of the damage that was done in the rest of the country.

There are some bright spots in the darkness. In Las Cruces, NM, a young woman I met at a conference in 2012 was just elected to her state legislature. Angelica Rubio describes her campaign as being “built on a foundation of community and inclusion, speaking to values that unite us all.”

We need more of this.

Published as an op-ed in the November 11 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper.