GOP split inevitable
It’s disingenuous to accuse the GOP of responsibility for the dysfunctional reality show that is our government. The prevailing wisdom suggests that the Republican Party controls the House, Senate and White House, but I would argue that this is an incorrect assumption.
In the House, there exists a secretive cabal known as the Freedom Caucus — which is far from any ideological model of the traditional GOP.
Add to them the likes of Sens. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Tom Cotton, Chuck Grassley and Mike Lee, and you quickly see that the so-called Republican majority is actually much more like a parliamentary coalition.
It is sheer hubris to connect Cruz and Sen. Jeff Flake or Cotton and Sen. John McCain with anything more than the letter after their names.
I predicted the impending dissolution of the Republican Party about 18 months ago, mostly due to their opportunistic and short-sighted choice to support racist and nationalistic policies as a means of winning the executive branch, but what I overlooked was just how many of their members were not being politically expedient.
As long as the GOP is ideologically splintered, there is no hope of rational debate and compromise.
The 2018 election cycle will be a major shift, and by 2021 (if the current schism prevails?) I predict a new third political party comprised of the most rabid members of the GOP, making any future Republican congressional majority a mathematical impossibility.
Nathaniel Parkinson
Monmouth
Collins stands up for caregivers
As one of many caregivers in Maine, I am writing to thank Sen. Susan Collins for sponsoring the RAISE Family Caregivers Act.
Since 2010, I have been a caregiver for my partner, Warren, who suffered a stroke at age 62. Suddenly becoming a caregiver was a life-changing event that had a huge emotional and financial impact, as I had to stop working. As I had had no children and my parents hadn’t needed care, I hadn’t a clue how to care for someone.
For the first four months, Warren was in acute rehab and then a skilled nursing facility, when it became apparent that Warren would not be able to come home on his own two legs. I had to figure out how to modify the house to accommodate Warren’s disabilities, including ramps, a new bathroom and master bedroom to accommodate his wheelchair. And that was just the initial challenge.
The thought of living at a facility scares Warren. We have no family in the area, so if anything should happen to me, we need a plan in place to ensure independent living for him. Respite care agencies, by necessity, have legal and policy constraints in services they provide, such as medication management and financial services, which are of course needed when a caregiver takes a break.
I applaud the efforts of our elected officials to help promote independent living as a viable option for the people we care for. It is far less expensive for the state and a much more compassionate option. I appreciate Collins’ sponsorship of this important legislation.
Pamela Champagne
Bangor
Viral hysteria
Why don’t we quarantine men, women and kids confirmed to have the flu virus? Kaci Hickox was confirmed to not have the Ebola virus and many of our citizens still demanded that she be quarantined.
The flu virus will kill thousands more people than Ebola ever did or will. Why no hysteria this time around? Have Mainers discovered science in the last three years? Doubtful.
Richard Langley
Fort Fairfield
Trump’s racist remarks
After the president’s recent remarks on Haiti, El Salvador and Africa, we should all be ashamed to call ourselves Americans. It is time for all of us, especially members of Congress, to stand up and say to the rest of the world: “This man does not represent us. Over and over he has proven himself to be a vile, obscene human being, and we made a big mistake when we elected him. Please accept our apologies. We will do better next time.”
Decent Americans must insist that Congress act to undo some of the damage to our standing in the world our president has caused. It is wholly inadequate for members of Congress to say that the president’s remarks were “inappropriate” (Sen. Susan Collins’s word) or “unhelpful” (House Speaker Paul Ryan’s word) and that we can now just forget the whole thing and move on with the agenda. And they need to add some words to their vocabulary that adequately describe the president’s indecency.
Congress should immediately pass a resolution censuring the president in the strongest possible terms; another resolution apologizing, on behalf of the people of America, to the people of Haiti, El Salvador and all of the individual African countries; and a bill welcoming all DACA and Temporary Protected Status beneficiaries and granting them permanent status. Without decisive, meaningful action by our elected representatives, the world will be right to conclude that we are a racist, arrogant people who hold in contempt others with whom we share the planet.
Michael Bacon
Westbrook
End domestic violence
Earlier this month, there was a domestic violence murder-suicide in Temple. Let me just clarify that I call it domestic violence because it was an act of violence between intimate partners in their home.
I worked in the domestic violence field for more than 20 years, and I am familiar with the aftermath of these tragedies. These murders are, unfortunately, an opportunity to raise awareness of the epidemic of domestic violence in this country. Yet, I have heard no public outcry nor seen any candlelight vigils or other events working toward ending or at least intervening in these avoidable crimes.
What we know from the Minnesota and Quincy models of domestic violence intervention is that if you raise awareness, educate both children and the public, implement accountability, and provide support, the number of domestic violence crimes in the area decreases, including the incidence (or prevalence, as is the case in New England) of domestic violence murders.
If we stay silent, nothing changes. If people don’t understand the problem, it will never be addressed. I’m wondering where the leaders are, and how we as a community can stand together to end violence in the home if we are not made aware of the nature of these devastating crimes.
Ann Marie Simone
Farmington