Jon Reisman
Mid-October brought a variety of advocacy efforts from both the left and the right. What dueling press releases, candidate spin, and selective media manipulation reveal is that eight years of Mills/Pingree Democrat policy malpractice is on the ballot, and the Democrats don’t like the even remote possibility that they might be held accountable for it. Seeking to retain power and avoid blame and accountability has produced record levels of Democrat/leftist/socialist deceit, hypocrisy and sanctimony. I have to admit, it does fit them well.
On the left, the Natural Resources Council of Maine and a bevy of associated climate alarmist and anti-capitalism actors (also known as democratic socialists) released a 50-plus page polemic, “New Report Charts a Day One Agenda for Maine’s Next Governor to Rein In Energy Costs and Hold Utilities Accountable.” (https://www.nrcm.org/news/maine-electricity-costs-recommendations-for-next-governor/)
The report blames the rise of electricity prices on capitalists, Republicans, and greedy, untrustworthy investor-owned utilities (CMP and Versant). No mention is made of the culpability of the Democratic Party (whose former chair has been the head public utilities regulator for the entire Mills/Pingree administration) or Democratic climate/energy policies which have more than doubled our electric rates without averting any climate change whatsoever.
The NRCM et al. advocate for more of the same, continuing and doubling down on the disastrous energy and climate policies which have given us unaffordable and unreliable power, damaged rural Maine and promoted leftist virtue signaling over freedom and prosperity.
Reading the NRCM’s socialist diatribe and energy policy alibi, I noted the irony of climate alarmists and Hannah Pingree declining to define “equity,” despite pursuing it as a major policy goal, while insisting that State regulators needed to precisely define a lower return on “equity” for investor-owned utilities. I guess “equity” really is in the eye of the beholder. It means very different things to the left and right. Only hateful conservatives would insist that policy goals need to be defined and measured. Mea culpa.
As the Democrats defended their climate and energy policy malpractice, the Maine Policy Institute opened a new policy malpractice front with the release of “Inside the Classroom: Understanding Maine’s Education Challenges”, a 22-minute documentary highlighting Mills/Pingree/Democrat Education policy malpractice, which has seen Maine’s K-12 public schools go from among the best in the nation to among the worst across a broad spectrum of literacy, numeracy and critical thinking metrics (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdDmnyxlUiI). If Maine actually had an honest and unwoke definition of equity (socially engineered “equal” outcomes based on race, gender, and oppressor/oppressed status), the decline of Maine’s schools and the Democrats' determination to deny/ignore the decline and do absolutely nothing about it would be a disturbingly transparent illustration of inequity.
The decline in Maine’s schools should be a top issue in the gubernatorial race. If we don’t fix our schools, dealing with Democratic policy malpractice in energy, climate, and health care will be irrelevant. I know why Hannah and Rick don’t want to talk about Education — they are responsible for the damaging policy malpractice and the decision to downplay/ignore it. Bobby Charles has added education policy malpractice to his list of Mills/Pingee transgressions, but the media is not likely to pick up on it, especially in late October and against their obvious electoral preferences/bias.
To top it off, last week the Democratic candidate for House District 11 chose to attack me personally for my education policy views. You know you’re over the target when they start shooting at you.
Jon Reisman is an economist and policy analyst who retired from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years. He resides on Cathance Lake in Cooper, where he is a Statler and Waldorf intern. Mr. Reisman’s views are his own, and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here or to him directly via email at jreisman@maine.edu.
