Jon Reisman

July 4th marked America’s 246th birthday (or 403rd if you subscribe to the woke racist historical relativism of Nicole Hannah-Jones and the Hokum on the Hudson New York Times). Until quite recently I thought it unwise to wager that we’d make it to 250, what with Brandon, Kamala, AOC, inflation, the open southern border, the corporate media, woke capitalism, trans authoritarianism, DEI fascism, CRT, green Kool-Aid, the National Education Association, Joy Reid, and the View, but a cavalcade of recent Supreme Court decisions suggests that the wager odds are improving to at least 50-50. Credit for our improving chances of survival and sustaining freedom as a constitutional republic goes to a diverse list:
• Justice Clarence Thomas. 31 years after he was savaged by lying feminist leftists (Anita Hill darkly foreshadowed Christine Blasey Ford) and then Judiciary Committee Chairman/Fraud Biden/Brandon, Thomas has emerged as the intellectual leader of the Court and the premiere protector of freedom and principled jurisprudence in the country.
• President George Herbert Walker Bush, who nominated Thomas and stood by him despite Democrat attacks.
• President George W. Bush, who nominated Justice Samuel Alito, after withdrawing the nomination of White House Counsel Harriet Miers, based partially on the advice and advocacy of
• Charles Krauthammer.
• Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid, whose destruction of the judicial filibuster enabled
• President Donald Trump’s nomination and the confirmation of
• Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
• Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who chose not to retire when President Obama could have replaced her with a reliable leftist.
• Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell who refused to hold a hearing for faux moderate/revealed partisan leftist Merrick Garland when Justice Scalia died.
• Senator Susan Collins for supporting Kavanaugh and hearing what she wanted to hear.

Reflecting on July 4th brings some special memories to me:
• In 1975 while working as a camp counselor/Canoe Trip Leader/Junior Maine Guide Instructor at Camp Takajo in Naples, Maine, Camp Director Morty Goldman called me to his office on July 1st and directed me to study a fireworks manual and travel to Augusta to pass a permitting test so that I could put on the Camp fireworks show over Long Lake in a few days. I was just short of 19 and largely short of common sense. I dutifully complied and put on the show, but have had little affinity for fireworks since.
• In 1976, the Camp Drama Show was “1776” starring one of my JMG candidates Jeff Myers as John Adams. I still have an earworm of “But Mr. Adams, you’re obnoxious and disliked…”
• In 1991 or 1992 a July meal at Helens with my wife included a siting of then Governor McKernan and Senator Snowe.
• In 1998 as a candidate for Congress I marched in the July 4th Bangor and Eastport parades, courtesy of an airlift from Senator Snowe which included Senator Collins and Gubernatorial candidate James Longley. I made sure to point out aquaculture pens targeted by the environmental left as we descended into Eastport.
• In July 2018 I was recovering from mid- June cancer surgery and resolved that I would return to column writing if my health returned. Freedom Studies began in September 2019.
• In July 2022 I understand how frustrated and angry the left is over their loss of the Court as a means of realizing their Marxist Dreams without the messy and risky necessity of having to openly vote for and be accountable for it. The rioting, sedition and vitriol stands in rather sharp contrast to 50 years of conservative political action and organizing in response to Roe v. Wade and leftist judicial activism. A rebirth of Federalism and a recognition of enumerated as opposed to judicially invented federal powers augurs well for Democracy in a diverse Republic.

Effective September 1 2022, Jon Reisman is retiring from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years.  Mr. Reisman’s views are his own and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here, or to him directly via email at [email protected].