Richardson makes the connection between Maine governor, Janet Mills, and the Senator from Maine, Margaret Chase Smith, who stood up to Joe McCarthy. New England women are not prone to taking much shit, a tradition that stretches back to Anne Hutchinson. Mills refuses to abandon civil rights protections for transgender students in the face of Trump's bullying. She famously said to his face, "See you in court."
Trump's track record in court isn't good, and Mills is an attorney whereas Trump is a reality TV star turned wannabe dictator. The real significance is that Mills called Trump on his bullshit to his face. Of course, Trump has threatened and started to anti-constitutionally withhold federal monies from Maine. That question - whether a president can withhold money - should probably be fast-tracked to Supreme Court. If the Assembly of Religious Experts decides that his Highness Donald Trump can target states that have disagreements with him, then the experiment in federalism is over and we should just go ahead and break up the country. It would be that serious.
Trump, as we well know by now, is a bully. Bullies cannot survive defeats. Dominance is their primary currency, and when they lose that, they lose their hold over people. Maine - in fact I would hope the rest of New England would follow suit - needs to take the lead in determining whether we have a federal republic or a monarchy.
No comments:
Post a Comment