To
get people to work together as a team for the good of
all, the last thing one would want to do is insult them,
tell them they are corrupt, and insult the organization
to which they belong.
But,
that�s how Maine Governor Paul LePage believes he can
reduce his state�s budgetary woes, improve services that
the state provides, and endear himself to the voters when
they next go to the polls.
The
Tea Party-supported Republican governor entered the governorship
and broke onto the national scene when, in one of his
first acts as governor, he ordered the mural based on
Maine�s labor history removed from the state�s Labor Department
because it showed the history of workers� struggles in
too good a light. In other words, the fight of working
people for their rightful place in their society was not
something he wanted his business associates forced to
contemplate, if they ever visited that department.
That
should have been a warning to Mainers about what his intent
was, and is, in changing the state into his image of government.
That image apparently is like that of most other Teabaggers
and Republicans across the country: reduce the size of
government, lower taxes, and beat the unions within an
inch of their lives. And, there�s another item on LePage�s
agenda that shouldn�t be left out: don�t cater to �special
interests,� and those �interests� can be anything he says
they are.
If
he thinks that workers who deliver services to the people
of Maine are
�corrupted by the bureaucracy,� one wonders what he thinks
has corrupted representatives of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People. In a session with
reporters, when the NAACP came up, he referred to them
as a special interest, and said, in his impolitic manner,
that they can �kiss my butt.� In 2011, he said he would
not attend the state�s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday
observance because he was not in the habit of catering
to special interests.
However,
a few days later, he did show up at an observance of the
holiday and stayed for the full program, but that event
was sponsored by civic groups, not by the NAACP. He did
not say what had changed his mind and he was not specifically
asked about it at the time. These two things could be
put together and that would be a strange start to his
tenure as governor, but there is much more to his strange
behavior as the leader of a state that is far from the
top of the list of affluent states.
Insulting
the workers, the citizens of his state, is not the way
to develop a good relationship with them for the betterment
of everyone. It could be that he sees them more as his
subjects, rather than as Mainers who work for all the
people of the state.
It
could be that his hostility toward workers (and he is
quick to point out that some workers give it 100 percent)
and, especially, their unions could be more deeply rooted
than just an unbalanced budget and flaming desire to reduce
the size of government. In this, he appears to be simply
spouting the line of the Tea Party and Right Wing Republicans
who have taken over the GOP, all across the country. Their
intent is to reduce government to irrelevancy, which is
to say they wish to leave the field clear for Corporate
America to run the country.
Part
of the clearance is to rid the country of unions, which
is the single entity that empowers workers to join together
and act in a democratic way to benefit their members and,
in fact, all workers. Observers of the world scene have
said for generations that the first thing authoritarian
rulers do when they gain power is to break the unions.
Americans, unionized or not, have gained great benefits
from the unions, but it is strange that Americans, in
general, cannot see that what has been happening in the
country for a long time is an attack on workers on the
pretext of breaking the �too powerful unions� in America.
LePage
joins other Republican governors in other parts of the
country in trying to destroy unions, such as Scott Walker
in Wisconsin and Mitch Daniels in
Indiana. Walker
even was so bold as to try rescinding collective bargaining
rights for public workers. He apparently did this to ingratiate
himself with those he idolizes, such as the two Koch brothers
of Koch Industries, who bankroll Right Wing enterprises,
such as weakening or destroying unions and establishing
the modern day equivalent of a poll tax with their phony
�voter ID� rules that constitute a solution seeking a
problem. But, in the end, they are in direct opposition
to the democratic process, which in the U.S.
means they work to keep the poor and minorities out of
the voting booths and do not give them any rights to have
a voice in the workplace (that would be negotiating pay,
benefits and retirement at the bargaining table).
Considering
that LePage is the holder of an MBA degree and a former
top manager at a regional chain of stores in Maine,
it might be understandable that he is vehemently against
unions and the power they might give working men and women.
But it might also stem to a great extent from his rags-to-riches
story, his reported physical abuse by his mill worker
father, and his leaving home to live on his own before
his teen years. Some of that might have had an effect
on his feelings about workers and unions or, for that
matter, anyone who questions his authority. He has said,
according to one state worker union representative, that
state workers should �get on board or get out of the way.�
This is not a sure-fire way to get people to pull together.
It
is, however, a sure-fire way to have workers hunker down
to avoid notice by the wounded-bear-in-charge, and that
doesn�t make for a smooth running operation of any kind.
He�s like the poor man�s version of the wrecking ball,
Tea Party-supported governors and others in several states.
Because it�s Maine, he may not get the national press (the Capitol has not been occupied
by thousands), as happened last year in Wisconsin, but he has done as many outrageous things as the best of
them.
In
his refusal to meet with NAACP leaders, he has said that
he will not meet with special interests, but he does not
clarify what he means by calling them that. Is it a special
interest to want to talk with the governor about civil
rights matters, or constitutional matters? He has said
he will meet with them, only if they want to talk about
what is beneficial to all Mainers. He refers to a young
Jamaican man as his adopted son, and said that anyone
who has a problem with the way he handles the state�s
NAACP or similar organizations, can come to his house
and talk to his son.
But,
Bill Nemitz, a columnist for MaineToday.com, pointed
out in a column in early 2011 that Devon Raymond, a Jamaican
who came to Maine
at the age of 17 in 2002, is not actually LePage�s adopted
son, but has been supported by LePage and family. It is
unclear to what degree that support has been provided
and whether the young man, now 26, is still on a student
visa, which would mean he intends to return to Jamaica at the end
of his studies, whenever that is or was. In any event,
LePage apparently feels that Raymond is his ticket to
impunity for his statements of public disrespect for people
of color and organizations that advocate for them.
In
his very public statements of disrespect for them, he
ignores the long and sordid history of failure of the
country and the states to provide full civil rights and
constitutional protections to all. In that, he is not
alone among Republicans, the party for which LePage could
be the modern poster boy. He exhibits their characteristics
and embraces their policies, which tend to cause suffering
among the poor, minorities, and the working class.
Overall,
though, LePage has shown himself to be an equal opportunity
offender, sticking closely to the �principles� that the
Tea Party and now, the Republican Party in general, hold
dear: reduce government, cut budgets for any and all programs
that benefit the people, destroy unions (especially those
of public workers), provide tax cuts and assistance to
those at the top of the income heap, and initiate authoritarian
rule. He feels secure in telling welfare recipients to
�get off the couch and get a job,� apparently without
understanding that there are three or four applicants
for every job opening.
Just
last week, he signed a budget which cuts $2 million from
Head Start funding, eliminates MaineCare (Medicaid) for
19- and 20 year-olds, removes 1,500 from elderly drugs
programs, and provided $34 million in tax breaks. It�s
no wonder that the Maine
electorate has expressed �voter remorse� in a recent poll.
According to Public Policy Polling (of North
Carolina), if there had been a repeat vote in March 2012,
43% of Maine voters would have chosen Eliot Cutler (the independent candidate),
35% LePage, and 19% Democrat Libby Mitchell. LePage had
a negative job approval rating, with just 41% of voters
approving of his job performance and 52% disapproving.
The
danger that LePage and other Tea Party Republicans pose
to the nation is that they are actually beginning to realize
their goal of reducing government to a shell (so that
people cease believing in its legitimacy), reducing the
power of the people, and leaving governing at every level
to Corporate America. In this, they are true believers.
And, watch out, because they believe they are right!
BlackCommentator.com
Columnist, John Funiciello, is a labor organizer and former
union organizer. His union work started when he became
a local president of The Newspaper Guild in the early
1970s. He was a reporter for 14 years for newspapers in
New York State. In
addition to labor work, he is organizing family farmers
as they struggle to stay on the land under enormous pressure
from factory food producers and land developers. Click
here
to contact Mr. Funiciello.
