NH Politics

Fear and Loathing in the White Mountains

Posted on March 9, 2021March 16, 2021 by gbaldwin

by Trysten McClain

It’s mid-morning on a warm spring Tuesday and I’m staring over my favorite hot dirty spiced chai at Cafe Monte Alto while reviewing emails and going over my weekly schedule, pondering to myself, ”How will today go?” I’m referring to House Committee hearings this afternoon. What will today provide for relief or distress? Are the Republicans going to keep playing God, ITL’ing housing relief bills, restricting abortion rights, access, and funds, or any other form of denying another basic human need or right today? Will the hearings include more racist and race-baiting language and scapegoating of whatever choice buzzword the Majority chooses for the appropriate hearing? These are not unfamiliar instances for BIPOC activists, elected officials, and any individual who is engaged in the conversation in our state, nor is it a new issue. Since Black Lives Matter found a substantial amount of support after the murder of George Floyd, everyone regardless of political affiliation has taken up arms to either construct a truthfully inclusive world for society, or fighting to retain the White supremacist, sexist, xenophobic, transphobic, and exploitive class-based control our country was founded on. Quite frankly, it is extremely heartbreaking. I found myself back in New Hampshire about a month after the pandemic began, and was living in my car and on couches of family, pondering if I’ll be safe in Rumney, NH away from the chaos of the New York Tri-State Region and the assumed downfall of humanity. I packed up all my belongings and drove back north all within one evening, and still to this day I remember the horror of driving through Manhattan while hearing countless sirens and seeing next to no pedestrians or traffic. As I found myself starting to gain my feet financially and be stably housed again, I watched the footage of George Floyd’s murder and witness the media explode over the course of three days while wondering about all the past microaggressions and overt instances of racism I experienced. Needless to say, I was PISSED with the world and America in general.

I could not tell you the number of miles I marched this summer if I tried, but I assure you it’s not a reach to say about one million steps were made. Together with so many other people over last summer, many of them who are reading this currently were in attendance at protests or events, organized slow changes locally in creating the conversation regarding human rights and respect for humanity. I could not tell you how many times I heard me or a friend be called racial slurs, told “to get jobs”, “go back home” (while many of us grew up in this area), or received physical threats. Our signs were torn up, and to my knowledge, I had the police called on me six different times over last summer for no reason. Three of those calls were on the July 4th event on Plymouth Town Common and following march and die-in, even despite the Plymouth police department’s support. One individual screamed at me and called the cops over me playing music. I was playing Marvin Gaye, and clearly, the call was racially driven by that stranger. If you told me I was going to be thrust from a quiet, financially unstable, and reclusive life into being at the front of the conversation on these issues, being approached by reporters and activists, and having a statewide presence that I try to still withdraw from, I’d assume you’re insane.

As of late, I still to this day do not feel welcomed or wanted in my hometown. The hard cold gazes of strangers and acquaintances, the lost interpersonal and family relationships, the asinine commentary, and lack of effort of the community at large to encourage a diverse, inclusive, respected, and youthful community makes me nauseous. But you know what really is the largest issue in the room currently? As discussed in Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, ‘the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice […]’. I watched many of those currently reading awkwardly look from afar at our demonstrations, and not a single word was spoken between us besides cordial hellos or the ask of our labor for your campaigns or personal interests. Maybe you shared an Angela Davis quote on Facebook, shared a black box on Instagram, watched the movie Roots, talked to your racist Uncle John or some other hollow form of solidarity instead of working to deconstruct the very foundations and environment you built for my generation and the BIPOC community. One particular jarring instance was a day a friend of mine was canvassing with our local former and current officials on Tenney Mountain Highway. Across the way, a Trumper was abusing him with racist and antagonistic comments. Nobody spoke up for him and the silence was violently loud. As a matter of fact, many of whom were in attendance condemned him for speaking back out of anger after the fact. Do you understand how exploitive that behavior is to our traumas and emotional wellbeing that you could not stand up when the opportunity was provided to your constituents? If you’re upset with these words, you need to take a hard introspective look in the mirror and have a long conversation with yourself and your higher power about your values.

I digress, creating division will not solve the issues we’re continuing to face as our voices are being continually suppressed by folks experiencing white fragility, overt racist citizens and state actors, and oppressive legislature such as HB 544. This article is a call-in, not a call-out. We need you to follow through on the promises, values, and obligations to your constituents made to protect and provide for us. We voted for you because we trust you and we want you to be the leadership we imagine. Piss poor excuses or feigning ignorance is not going to suffice any longer. New Hampshire is an aging state that is gentrifying more by the tic toc second of the clock, and we need to work together. Youth like myself need direction, mentoring, and support for our work. I cannot name a single local representative or senator whoever came to an event, offered direction or support, or had the conversation with local activists from the beginning of this movement. It doesn’t have to be this way. Excluding us from the work is an ugly shade of green on your part. But as quoted by Shirley Chisholm, “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”

Trysten McClain is a current resident of Plymouth, NH who spent most of his life in the greater Grafton region. He is on the Advisory Board for Plymouth Area Democrats, an area activist for LGBTQ+ rights, Black Lives Matter, and inclusion and many other socially progressive Democrat ideals. He is a young man entering into politics and planning a campaign for State Representative in 2022.

The Menace of Absurdity

Posted on November 1, 2020 by gbaldwin

by Janet Lucas, PAD Blog Editor
Campton, NH

This blog was supposed to be a book review, but a local event with national ties grabbed my attention. The review will happen later. Here’s a teaser: the book begins with a quotation from James Baldwin who wrote “Because even if I should speak, no one would believe me. And they would not believe me precisely because they know what I said was true”.

I’ve been pondering this quotation ever since our very local event. Someone posted a sign on the old Armont Inn property one half mile from our home. The sign appeared to be home-made and it carried a slogan that reminded me of a nonprofit organization familiar to health care providers and educators called Darkness to Light. This group empowers laypersons to recognize signs of child sexual abuse and how to prevent this horrendous crime. The web address is very different from that shown on the sign which read “Dark to Light Save the Children”. A little research revealed the sign not only co-opted two legitimate and well-known charities but also directs readers to the Q-Anon web site. My prior knowledge of Q-Anon was that it is a far-right fringe conspiracy group that rants and peddles info-shlock not worth the time and effort to read. So I ignored it. That was a huge mistake.

The Q-Anon basic conspiracy theory is that a world-wide group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles control financial markets, politicians and news media and that they engage in cannibalism upon kidnapped children. They further claim that Donald Trump is the only person who can save the world from this evil cabal. A claim which, in a very ingenuous fashion, Trump appeared to endorse during a press conference in mid-August 2020.

Ridiculous right? Who could possibly believe this absurdity? Millions apparently. A very similar theory circulated throughout Europe for hundreds of years. It stated with certainty that Jews kidnapped gentile children and used their blood in satanic rituals. The Nazi platform in 1920s and 1930s Germany (and in the United States) claimed that Germany lost the First World War not on the battlefield but because Jewish financiers prevented the purchase of armaments by the German government and then blocked its postwar financial recovery. German intellectuals regarded the Nazis as a laughably inept fringe group and no worse than a shamefully ignorant embarrassment. We know what happened next. They were unable to stop the Nazis from using the democratic process to take down the fragile postwar German government. In a similar fashion, the Republican Party has allowed itself to be taken over and turned into a cult of personality, giving birth to Trumpism. In the chaos of the COVID pandemic, millions of people have ingested the Q-Anon nonsense and find solace in their online comrades as the only people who truly understand what is happening and are ready for the biblical “storm” that will soon overtake and defeat the international cabal. It’s a slick combination of an online detective game, religious fundamentalism and phobia.

The old inn’s owner had the Q-Anon sign removed promptly when he was informed of its presence. The sign was likely posted by a neighbor or someone known to our community. What do we do about that? Try to convince them that they’ve been misled? Try to explain the facts to them? Try to tell them the truth? Only to hear them deny the truth “precisely because they know it to be true”? No, that is the dead end that James Baldwin grimly implied.

What must happen now is the defeat of Trumpism. Reality should be our refuge from discontent, chaos, confusion, paranoia and willful ignorance. People will not turn away from Q-Anon and other wild conspiracy theories until they no longer need them. We must defeat Trumpism and all of its manifestations from the sign down the road to the festering hatred in the Oval Office.

The Yugely, Bigly Bungler

Posted on July 21, 2020July 23, 2020 by gbaldwin

by Janet Lucas, PAD Blog Editor
Campton, NH

I’ve been told by my nearest and dearest that I should avoid any gloomy topics in this blog. Here goes…

Given how things are going for the President, perhaps he should be planning ahead a little….Fade to orange…..then to gold…..

It’s the Oval Office. The President is seated at the Resolute Desk. He looks at his watch and then he turns to look at the clock surrounded by Goya products on the credenza. He sighs, turns back and picks up the pen next to the only other object on the desk: a blank note pad.

Just then a woman enters through a door opposite the desk. She’s gray-haired, looks worried and carries a brief case.

The Prez: “Great timing! I’ve just had some thoughts about my Presidential Library. Have a seat. Let’s get started.”

Worried Woman: “Sir I’m here with an addendum for today’s PDB. There have been some new developments in Russia and in Korea.”

The Prez: “Great. OK. Have a seat. It will be Hugely Big, my Library. It will be unprecedented, no more like UNPRESIDENTIAL!! I’ll put it on…..You’re not writing this down. What’s your name?

Worried Woman: “I’m Undersecretary Susan…

The Prez interrupting, “Ok Susan be sure to take this down. I’ll build it on an island…

(Undersec’y: thinking “Fantasy Island?”)

The Prez: The public will reach it by private jet. It’ll be sooo relaxing—they’ll love it. My people will pick them up in golf carts at the airport.”

(Undersec’y: thinking “His people? Or the cast of ‘Lost’? She then imagines a conversation in one of the carts:

Guest: “What’s that Black Smoke coming out of the ground?”

Guide: “That’s Stephen Miller. He’s in his Immigrant Interdiction disguise”)

The Prez: “They’ll have a preview tour of all the attractions and then be taken to luxury accomodations”

(Undersec’y: thinking “No doubt each equipped with a Don’s John”)

The Prez: “And then on to the Library. I see several wings to the building….

(Undersec’y: thinking “I see one shelf with your Dick and Jane collection.”

The Prez: “We’ll have a wing for the great moments of my Presidentship. I’m sure there’ll be many. Of course, great collections, there are always displays of gifts given by foreign leaders and letters from my fans.”

(Undersec’y thinking: “Plenty of room for Vlad’s soccer ball, rolls of paper towels, and Cheetos under glass.)

The Prez: “Ooh and the ladies. There has to be a section for them about my presi-dental style and fashions.”

(Undersec’y thinking: “Baroque Bordello? Retrospective on the most frightening Christmas decorations in the history of the White House?”)

The Prez: “Ok Sally, that’s a start. I’m a busy man as you know. Have that back to me in one hour with copies for the cabinet.”

Undersec’y, relieved to be leaving: “Yes Mr. uh, President”

Hope this gave you a smile! Now get back to the work of what the great John Lewis described as “getting into good trouble”.

Heat Waves and Pandemics

Posted on July 7, 2020July 7, 2020 by gbaldwin

by Janet Lucas, PAD Blog Editor
Campton, NH

Torrid is not a word normally used to describe northern New Hampshire but as I wrote during the Juneteenth weekend heatwave, you may refer to this missive as the product of a half-baked brain. As we edge toward drought after a cold, rainy spring, consider the pendulum swing nearly complete. We had snow on Mother’s Day and a Frost Warning on June 1^st.

The Campton Forward Climate Committee is hard at work on a study to examine the impact of climate change on our community and find ways to mitigate the crisis locally. They are concerned, self-less citizens spending their time and their resources on behalf of others who may be in denial about global warming. There have always been folks who push back against innovation especially when it involves science and privilege: men who fought against women’s suffrage for example. And the elephant in the room is another: the cold, hard truth about America the Beautiful: It was founded upon the genocide of First Nations and built by slave labor. The white European beneficiaries of these horrible deeds continue to oppress People of Color, resulting in generations of ethnically-undervalued, economically and educationally-deprived citizens suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, substance abuse and their associated public health catastrophes. YES, GENERATIONS.

Inequality was a subliminal force in my home state of Ohio, the self-described “heart of it all”. Separated by a historically perilous river crossing from Mitch McConnell’s Kentucky, Ohio is known for race riots in Cincinnati in the mid-1800s, a Copperhead Congressman during the Civil War who ended up fleeing to the Confederacy, the “escape” of Confederate General John Morgan from the Ohio Penitentiary in downtown Columbus, and during my adolescence, the 1966 summer of violence in Hough, a Cleveland neighborhood. I attended an all-white elementary school. My parents then moved into town and my junior and senior high schools were integrated. Ohio’s last census lists a Black population of 12.1% nearly the same as the average for the entire U.S.

So as a retiree immigrant to New Hampshire, in love with its winter (my favorite season), beautiful scenery and proximity to our kids and grandkids, something became obvious early on: Why is New Hampshire so white (94%) and Vermont and Maine even more so (both 95%)? During a pandemic and a heat wave many folks are marching in support of Black Lives Matter. They march in a quest for justice, equality and recognition of historic American truths. The unequal impacts of the pandemic and climate change are new American truths that mirror the journey of People of Color in colonial America.

European colonists enslaved “hostile” Native Americans especially during King Phillip’s War in the 1660s. (Fisher, Linford 2017) Around that time, the first Black person in N. H. arrived, enslaved from Africa, in Portsmouth. The triangle trade enriched many New Englanders (cotton>guns>slaves>repeat or sugar, molasses, rum>tobacco and cotton, etc.). New Hampshire legally ended slavery in 1783 but may not have completely abolished it until 1853. (Zilversmit, Arthur 1967) Prince Whipple, a slave who fought with the colonists against the British, is buried in Portsmouth North Cemetery. The “African” cemetery for Black people is now paved over under Chestnut Street between State and Court Streets in downtown Portsmouth. There was a Black community near Kearsarge-Lake Sunapee in the 1840s, long since disappeared. In 1834, abolitionists founded an integrated coeducational school, the Noyes Academy near Canaan, NH. The Canaan Town Meeting declared the school a nuisance and not long after the school building was pulled off its foundation by a team of oxen provided to the white supremacist anti-abolitionists. e students were given one month to leave town. (New England Historical Society)

Although New England can claim both intellectual and moral leaders of the abolitionist movement, many who fought for the North in the Civil War did so to save the Union. They were indifferent to the slave-based agrarian society of the South and were openly racist. Powerful New Englanders complied with fugitive slave laws as an 1851 handbill warned: “Colored People of Boston, respectively be warned to avoid conversing with the Watchmen and the Police Officers since by the recent order of the Mayor and Aldermen, they are empowered to act as kidnappers and slave catchers.” (New England Society of Antiquities)

After the Civil War, some Blacks fled North to escape failed reconstruction only to join their “free” brethren in segregated communities and ultimately, to be buried in segregated cemeteries. From 1890-to 1930, the Black Population in the US increased by 60% and between 1915 and 1930 some 7 million Blacks left the South in the Great Migration north. (U.S. Census various sources) In that same time period, census information shows many New England counties became whiter. By the time the KKK held its first daylight march in the U.S. in Milo, Maine in 1923, they spent their vitriol on Jews, Catholics and French Canadians because there were so few Blacks left. (Loewen, James 2005) Some Americans of northern European descent self-identified as racially superior and from the 1890s through the 1940s and 1950s espoused a pseudo-science known as eugenics. Faculty at the University of Vermont advocated coerced sterilization of “inferiors” including the Abenaki People, French Canadians, and poor and disabled people. (Evancie, Angela 2016). The National Socialist German Workers (NAZI) party in the 1930s was especially interested in this work to the point of inviting some of its American proponents to lecture on the topic in Germany. They learned about American attitudes toward forced sterilization and euthanasia. (Loewen, James 2005). In reaction to the Great Migration, small towns and communities all over the north, especially in the Midwest and in New England drove out their Black populations with violence, intimidation, restrictive real estate covenants and red-lining into metropolitan ghettos. In states with few or no large cities, the Black population was completely driven out.

Now New Hampshire faces a choice: welcome diversity or become a ghost state. Our population is barely maintained by the immigration of older whites like myself and my wife. This is not the way to keep innovation, creativity and prosperity alive. The advent of the climate crisis (including ever more frequent pandemics) offers a unique opportunity to attract People of Color back to our state. It is clear that the warming climate adversely impacts Blacks more than whites. “Women exposed to high temperatures or air pollution are more likely to have premature, underweight or stillborn babies”. (Flavelle, Christopher in “Climate Change Tied to Pregnancy Risks, Affecting Black Mothers Most”, June 18, 2020). What better way to ensure that Black Lives Matter than to make sure Black Moms Matter?! Let’s emphasize the work being done in N.H. to address and mitigate climate change. We may be a state full of older white people but we can make sure N. H. remains vigorous and innovative in the face of challenge by advertising, inviting, and reaching out to young People of Color. Consider New Hampshire—we’re cool-er.

REFERENCES

Fisher, Linford, associate professor of history at Brown University quoted by Gillian Kelley-Brown in Futurity online magazine in an article entitled “Colonists shipped Native Americans as Slaves” 2/16/2017

Zilversmit, Arthur. The First Emancipations: The Abolition of Slavery in the North. University of Chicago Press, 1967

Evancie, Angela. “What is the Status of the Abenaki Native Americans in Vermont Today?” for Vermont Public Radio, Novermber 4, 2016.

Loewen James W. Sun Down Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. New York: The New York Press 2005.

Flavelle, Christopher “Climate Change Tied to Pregnancy Risks, Affecting Black Mothers Most” The New York Times, June 18,2020.

Various from the U. S. Census, the New England Society of Antiquities and the New England Historical Society.

She’s My Why

Posted on August 15, 2019 by gbaldwin

The other day, I was chatting with a fellow PAD Board member, as we often do, and we were talking about our reasons for why we are active in politics. You know, the skin we have in the game, and why we have dedicated so much of our lives and are so passionate in promoting Democratic values, as is our PAD mission. I got off the phone and had to really sit with myself for a moment, as I never actually thought about it in that great a detail. I mean, we all have our reasons, right? But what REALLY was my do-or-die reason? That thing that really motivates me every day, when so much of the news coming out about the current regime in Washington is so damn horrify and overwhelming.

I took some time to unpack this question, pull the thread in time, go down that rabbit hole to the single incident and the reason I felt I needed to really step up my game and get more involved. For me, it harkened back to the day my 19 year old daughter came out to her father and me, almost 4 years ago. The exact moment that it really sank in for me is forever seared in my memory, and over the next few days, I processed what that really meant for our family and for her, as a member for the LGBTQIA+ community, who has since become very public and outspoken advocate for rights.

I’m sad to say, my mind went to some very dark places. For the first time ever, I had to reconcile the fact that, in some places, heck even in our own backyard, she could be beaten up or even killed for loving who she loves, or will love. She can be denied a job, housing, entrance into the military, healthcare, and the ability to foster a child, or adopt a child, and there are places in this country where that’s all perfectly legal. The discrimination still being perpetrated in this country is so extensive, it boggles the mind.

And it seems to be getting worse, not better. THAT chills me to the bone. So this is why I fight. This is why I get up every day and think about 1 small thing I can do to advance Democratic values. This is why I say “yes” to opportunities to donate time to institutions doing this same work, sometimes to the detriment of my own family-life and financial resources. It’s not my only why, not by any stretch. But it’s the reason I could no longer sit back and lie to myself that voting in every election was “enough”. It’s not. Not even close. And in this next election, which undoubtedly will be the single most important in these modern times, we are literally fighting for our very lives and the life and future of Democracy in this country. Find your why. We need all hands on deck.

Straight Talk

Posted on March 23, 2018 by gbaldwin

By Rep. Marjorie Porter, D-Hillsborough

http://indepthnh.org/2018/03/05/look-to-lawmakers-as-income-inequality-in-nh-keeps-growing/

For me, one of the unexpected perks of serving as a state rep is being called to substitute for a colleague on a different committee. I get to see how other committees are run, and what issues they must deal with in the bills that come before them. If I’m lucky, I will get to hear testimony from experts on a topic new to me. I can listen to the arguments pro and con before committee votes are taken. I learn a lot that way, and get a better understanding of the complexities of governing. It’s like getting a free college education, which helps to make up for the ridiculously low salary.

Recently, I got to substitute on the Ways and Means Committee, a first time for me. In fact, I got to be there twice within just a few weeks, and it was indeed edifying.

Ways and Means deals with the state’s revenues and how we raise them—or reduce them as the case may be. Revenue estimates, taxes and fees, tax credits and tax reductions—but because so many of my colleagues have signed the Americans for Prosperity (AFP) anti-tax pledge, never EVER a tax increase. (Greg Moore, New Hampshire’s AFP director, spends a lot of time at the state house, and keeps a close eye on everyone.)

The committee chair was very welcoming, and so were the other committee members. They even tolerated my asking questions so I could better understand what I was hearing and voting on.

On the first day, the committee dealt with several bills that would increase, or decrease, the tax credits given under different circumstances. I was struck by how cautious folks from both parties were being about the potential unintended consequences that might result from decreasing revenues too much too soon.

That’s why I was so surprised about the outcome of HB 1686, relative to applications for and the use of education tax credits.

Some background is needed here. In 2012 the legislature established a tax credit for businesses that contribute money to a scholarship fund, administered by an independent scholarship-granting organization, and used to pay the tuition of children who attend private, religious, or home schools. Businesses receive a tax credit for 85% of what they donate. There is a $5 million cap on the total amount of annual contributions.

It seems businesses are not eager to take advantage of this tax credit, so contributions have been low. So far, less than $800,000 has gone into the fund, with 85% of the scholarships granted being used at religious schools.

I don’t think this was the result the law’s sponsors had hoped for. In January 2017, NHPR reported the legislature was looking for ways to expand the program. HB 1686 seems to be that way.

The bill allows individuals who pay the interest and dividends (I&D) tax to also contribute to the scholarship fund and receive the 85% tax credit. This is the first time ever a tax credit would be given for the I&D tax. It potentially opens the door to a very large increase in the fund—and a very large decrease in the state’s revenues. But surprisingly, there was strong support from the otherwise cautious Republican committee members.

Puzzled, I asked why, when we had turned down other tax credit bills because of the potential revenue loss, this one should be supported. The answer was quick to come. The cap had not been raised—it remained at $5 million—so there would be no impact on revenues. Others also had concerns, and raised questions that were unanswered. It was clear, at least to me, that more information was needed, but a vote was taken anyway.

By a 13-10 margin the committee recommended the bill ought to pass.

Over the course of the next several weeks, some of those lingering questions did get answers. The $5 million cap was not the figure used when the budget was crafted last year. Instead, they used an estimate of the actual contributions made. A sudden increase in donations would definitely be felt as a loss of revenue.

Surprisingly, cap itself is flexible, not fixed. If contributions to the fund reach 80% of the cap, the cap goes up. It can, and will, be raised if contributions come flooding in.

And flood in they just might. According to a report written by Carl Davis at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington, and reported in the Concord Monitor, these types of education tax credit programs are very popular tax shelters for high-income taxpayers. That’s because they can actually make money by combining the education tax credit with the federal deduction for charitable giving. A good accountant is sure to recommend the program to her wealthy clients—in fact, she wouldn’t be performing her duty if she didn’t. This tax credit will definitely be used.

Indeed, the Monitor reports, Georgia’s “…$58 million in ETC tax credits was snapped up within hours in 2016.”

After this information came to light, the committee met again. A reconsideration of the vote was asked for. Given what we now know, and given the potential for a quite large decrease in revenue over the next several years if this bill were to pass, shouldn’t we reconsider? It was disappointing that the answer was no.

The bill comes before the full House for a vote this week.

The Interest and Dividend tax brings close to $100 million a year into the state coffers. If fully utilized, this tax credit could reduce that by close to 40% over the next ten years.

But I guess it won’t much matter, if the Senate has its way. They are recommending doing away with the Interest and Dividends tax altogether.

This, after we cut business taxes twice in the past few years. Big, out-of-state businesses benefit most from these cuts too.

We hear a lot in NH about how we can’t afford things because we must live within our means. We can’t afford to fully fund the developmental disabilities waitlist because we must live within our means. We can’t afford school building aid because we must live within our means. We can’t afford to spend more money to combat the opioid crisis, pay the state’s share of Medicaid expansion, contribute to public employee retirement, boost workforce development, fund the university system, raise the amount of the education adequacy grant, fix our crumbling infrastructure, and help reduce property taxes, because we must live within our means.

We must live within our means, but we keep cutting those means to the help the biggest businesses and the wealthiest citizens. No wonder NH’s income inequality is the fastest growing in the country.

Marjorie Porter is serving her fourth term in the NH House, representing the citizens of Antrim, Hillsborough, and Windsor. She currently sits on the election Law Committee. She has two grown children of whom she is extremely proud. A retired teacher, Marjorie lives in Hillsborough with her husband and three cats.

Supply-Side Economics: Fool Me Once, Shame on You; Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me; Fool me Three Times? You Have Got to be Kidding.

Posted on December 8, 2017December 8, 2017 by gbaldwin

by Mark Fernald

Since the Reagan Administration, the Republican Party has been enraptured by what the first President Bush called “Voodoo economics:” the ‘theory’ that tax cuts pay for themselves by boosting economic growth and tax receipts.

Republicans have acted on this misguided theory over and over, with the same results: record-high deficits, soaring debt, and reduced economic growth in the long run.

The Reagan tax cuts caused huge deficits. In the short term, the economy grew, as the borrowed money sloshed around the economy. It was ‘morning in America.’ Or, as Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan put it, we borrowed a trillion dollars from the Chinese and threw a party.

When the party was over, we endured the severe recession of 1989-1991. Nearly every major bank in New Hampshire failed. The re-election campaign of the first President Bush failed along with the economy.

Our next Republican president, George W. Bush, copied the Reagan playbook: huge tax cuts for the rich, a temporary rise in the economy, followed by the Great Recession.

Recent Democratic administrations provide the counterpoint to “voodoo” supply-side economics.

In 1993, President Clinton signed a tax increase on the rich. Republicans claimed a tax increase would throw us into recession. Not a single Republican in Congress voted for the Clinton plan. What followed was the longest and strongest economic boom in American history, and the first balanced budget in a generation.

During the Obama administration, many of the George W. Bush tax cuts were allowed to expire, particularly the tax cuts for the wealthy. Under Obama, we experienced nearly eight years of steady growth, during which time the unemployment rate and the deficit were cut by more than half.

The last 37 years of economic history present us with two stark choices:

Republican tax cuts, huge deficits and a temporary boost to the economy, followed by a bust.

Democratic tax increases on the wealthy, followed by steady growth, falling deficits, and no bust.

Incredibly, Republicans appear to be poised to repeat the failed policies of the past. Their dream is a tax cut bill that gives its biggest gifts to large corporations and the wealthy, while increasing the deficit by “only” $1.5 trillion over the next ten years.

The point in reviewing economic history is not that all deficits are bad. Temporary tax cuts, and temporary deficits, are standard macroeconomic practice when the economy is weak. When tax cuts are permanent, so are the deficits, but the boost to the economy is temporary. Increased government borrowing to fund the deficits pushes interest rates up, making business investment more expensive. Short-term deficits can boost the economy out of recession, but long-term deficits harm the economy in the long run by crowding out private investment.

It is true that tax cuts could be paired with spending cuts. But consider this: excluding spending for Social Security and Medicare (which is increasing as the Baby Boomers retire), federal spending is a smaller part of our economy than at any other time over the last four decades.

Republican faith in tax cuts and ‘supply-side’ economics is so strong, it has killed off the traditional Republican fear of deficits.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Democrats claimed that deficits did not matter, passing one unbalanced budget after another. The stagflation of the 1970s followed.

Republicans won the debate about deficits in the 1970s. Deficits do matter. But here’s the irony. Democrats started talking about fiscal responsibility. When they gained control in Washington, they acted to reduce the deficit. Republicans kept railing against deficits, but when they gained control of Washington, in 1981 and again in 2001, fiscal responsibility went out the window and the deficit soared.

The current Republican plan began with a good idea: a revenue-neutral simplification of the tax code that reduces deductions and loopholes, and lowers tax rates. That good idea has been swamped by the mania for tax cuts, with no regard for the deficit. If the Republican plan passes, we will cut taxes for the big corporations and the wealthy by at least $1.5 trillion, and we will borrow every penny needed to pay for those cuts.

We have a lot that needs fixing, including the tax code. Unfortunately, we are stuck with this Congress until 2018. They don’t do balanced budgets. They don’t do hearings. They don’t listen to experts. They don’t do science. They do tax cuts for the wealthy, no matter what the cost.

Mark Fernald is a former State Senator and was the 2002 Democratic nominee for Governor. He can be reached at mark@markfernald.com.

What Would the Northern Pass Mean for Main Street? Rep. Steve Rand, Owner of Rand Hardware, Explains.

Posted on July 14, 2017July 14, 2017 by gbaldwin

To: Counsel for the Public and Consultant Tom Kavet

I am very concerned about the impact of the Northern Pass project, should it be buried, as planned, down Main Street Plymouth. I am the third generation owner of Rand’s Hardware, a 110-year-old business right on Main Street in the heart of the Town. We employ 18 people in our business and are the only hardware store in Plymouth. Our business includes Blue Seal feeds, a full service rental department, the area’s only plumbing supply wholesale or retail outlet, service for our Stihl lawn and garden equipment and more usual hardware store items, all housed in three buildings, a total of about 20,000 square feet.

Main Street is the main artery of access to our business both for vehicles and for pedestrians. Anything that affects Main Street has an immediate impact on our business. We have worked hard to survive all the competitive forces that have been thrown our way over the years, including, in recent years, Wal-Mart, big box home improvement stores, internet providers like Amazon and smaller regional competitors, like Aubuchon and Tractor Supply. So far, we have survived to continue our tradition of service to our strong customer base. Our ability to serve these customers depends upon their ability to access our business. We are strictly a bricks and mortar operation.

If a huge project to bury high voltage power lines were to impose itself on our Main Street, we could lose half of our business during the worst of it. I understand that the project could tie up Main Street for at least 6 weeks, possibly 11 weeks. For calculation purposes, if it turns out to be 8 weeks, and we lost 1/2 of our business during this busiest time of our commercial year (April to July), we could expect to lose on the order of $100,000 in gross profit. As I understand it, there is no compensation offered to us as part of the package.

I am sure of these magnitude of consequences because of a similar experience that our business had in the Nineties, when the Town of Plymouth tore up the sidewalks and pavement on Main Street to install new curbing, paving, sidewalks and street lighting. The project took place over several months and involved extensive excavation, rebuilding of all sorts of infrastructure both above and below ground, resulting in a huge impact on customer flow. My guess is that its financial impact was less than what Northern Pass will be, because the project was done in stages and did not affect every business for the full duration. Although Rand’s survived, many of our neighbor-businesses did not. Main Street ended up with several vacancies and the business “tide” was lowered for all. Despite the negative impact, the town center did end up as a more pleasant, better looking place that has shown itself to be more conducive to customer visits in the many years since. Unfortunately, I expect no such “end of the day” positives from the Eversource plan.

I ask, then, why a for-profit company, Eversource, with a foreign partner, Hydro Quebec, who is simply using NH as a conduit to transmit electricity to MA, CT and RI, with no payment to the State of NH, and none announced for the Town of Plymouth, with no invitation from me, should cost me $100,000 in lost gross profit, without any consultation or compensation?

In addition, I ask what my customers, who rely on day to day access to our store for products, like horse and poultry feeds, nuts and bolts, rental equipment that they use to conduct their businesses, and plumbing supplies to repair problems, will need to do to accommodate the profit motive of this big-business multi-national organization? How will they be compensated for their inconvenience? How far will they have to travel to find a replacement source? Once they have found a new source, will they ever return to my store as their continuing provider?

I am sure that the cost to my business will not occur only during the project period. Rand’s has spent over 100 years earning the shopping habits of its customers. For that habit to be interrupted over 2-4 months means that they may form new habits that could exclude Rand’s as their main or preferred vendor. Additional hundreds of thousands of lost sales dollars could occur over the years.

This is pure madness, and I reject the idea that any justice would be served by this arrangement. For me, this is more than a financial risk. It is a threat to my lifestyle and the preferred lifestyles of the people of Plymouth and surrounding towns. We should be allowed to enjoy dealing with our challenges and small victories without having to deal with somebody else’s need to make a profit.

As I read the research it is clear to me that there is no impending emergency or civilization-threatening need for the project as it is now proposed. The alternative site, the buried line down I-93, as provided by the newly-designated energy corridor of the State of NH, is the only plan that enjoys the support of the Town of Plymouth, as voted by us. To bring the line down Main Street and Route 3 might be a temporary advantage to Eversource, but a huge pain to the public and a life-threatening menace to businesses like mine.

Thank you for all your efforts on our behalf to see that the real costs of this project are known and incorporated into the decision process of the SEC. I am available at any time for testimony or further information. As you can see, I am willing to open my financials in order to see that the understanding of impacts is substantiated.

Yours Sincerely,

Steve Rand
NH State Representative, Grafton Dist 8

A. M. Rand Company (Rand’s Hardware)
71 Main Street, Plymouth NH 03264

Testimony Regarding Misogynistic Activity of Rep. Robert Fisher

Posted on June 16, 2017 by gbaldwin

Testimony Regarding Misogynistic Activity of Rep. Robert Fisher,

To the Honorable Members of the NH House Legislative Administration Committee

Delivered by Representative Ellen Read, Rockingham 17. May 12, 2017.

Introduction: Why Does This Testimony Still Matter a Month Later?

This testimony regarding the misogyny of a NH State Representative is still relevant for two big reasons. First, Fisher got off the hook by quitting, which he did only because he realized he was going to face a perjury charge. The House should have made it abundantly clear his worldview was not acceptable. And yes, he should still face that perjury charge, and the citizens of NH need to pressure the Attorney General to pursue it, as the AG has given us the run-around about it. We need your help.

Second, we in the House are still being told there is not culture of misogyny or sexism, even though it is in front of us every day. Women are constantly silenced. And outspoken women like Rep. Sherry Frost are crucified for speaking truth, while men can say and do unthinkable things with impunity. False equivalencies and double standards abound. And it is in the NH House because it is in our society. We MUST call it out. Speaking up doesn’t make us victims; it makes us trailblazers, like those who came before us.

Testimony Regarding Misogynistic Activity of Rep. Robert Fisher

Delivered by Representative Ellen Read, Rockingham 17. May 12, 2017.

First I want to talk about misogyny, because I think it is a word used often but not well understood by many. Misogyny is the broad discrimination, active hatred, and belief in the inherent inferiority of women.

With that in mind, I’d like to start out by having you participate in a rather abstract a thought experiment…

What is the difference between the discrimination, hatred, and denial of human rights of a select group of people based on their body parts, and the discrimination, hatred, and denial of human rights of a select group of people based on the COLOR of their body parts? In other words, what is the difference between racism and misogyny?

I submit that there is no difference, logically or ethically. It is a sad tendency of human nature and human history to try to pick out a group of people, often that are physically identifiable, and dominate them in order to feel superior and powerful.

So, I have another question for you to ask yourselves, what would we do, as the NH House of Representatives, if a fellow member said something like: “to give blacks autonomy is to take away the very thing that made race relations realistic—what I dislike is the general attitude that somehow we owe blacks something for work….”

Or how about: “Before emancipation, there was less freedom, and therefore it was not necessary to teach blacks consequence. Consequence was strictly a white’s game…Blacks enjoy the autonomy that civil rights has afforded them, but don’t expect the relics from back in the day to continue to benefit you without the sacrifices you were making… Civil Rights took the lid off Pandora’s Box, but blacks never internalized, learned, or passed down the concept of responsibility for their freedoms.”

Or what would we do if a member said, “Slavery isn’t an absolute bad, because the slaver I think probably likes it a lot. I think he’d say it’s quite good, really,” or, “blacks just wish they were good enough to be enslaved by whites?”

What would this body do?

What if we found out that this member was responsible for founding a branch of the Ku Klux Klan, with 200,000 members?

I ask you, what would be our ethical responsibility in that circumstance, to maintain the integrity of this body?

How are the actual comments of Robert Fisher any different, really? Other than the fact that he discriminates, hates, and believes to be inferior a group of people based on their body parts, rather than the color of those parts, he is the same as any Klan member.

So, here is the thing… I absolutely believe in this individual’s first amendment rights to say all this filth. I am of the Larry Flynt school of thinking about the first amendment. He said, “If the First Amendment will protect a scumbag like me, it will protect all of you.”

But this is not about what was SAID. This is about who this individual IS; what he BELIEVES.

If he had never said these things, but it came to light he merely silently believed them, our problem would be the same.

There are plenty of jobs that this individual would not only be woefully unequipped to hold, but would be dangerous in. For example, he could never be a rape counselor, or any kind of therapist. He also could not work in any school setting based on his beliefs about adult relationships with children. In fact, we all know that he would be immediately fired from almost any corporate job, and probably most jobs, if it came to light that this is what he believes.

And WHY is that? Because as a society, as a nation, we have come to agree on a few core principles. We have decided that as a society, we are NO LONGER a people who hate other races, or believe in having sexual relationships with children. And likewise, we no longer believe that women are inherently inferior, are not due their equal human rights, or must be dominated. We have agreed as a country that those things are all part of a shameful past, but this is not who we are NOW.

It is so understood and accepted that we do not believe these things, that unless you explicitly state that you are FOR them, there is the societal presumption that OF COURSE you are against them. OF COURSE you are not racist. OF COURSE you are not sexist. OF COURSE you know rape is horrible. This is our societal presumption and norm.

So, if this individual could not hold almost any job in our country because of his beliefs about women, then what bar is there to be an “Honorable” member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives?

I put to you that unless this individual explicitly RAN HIS CAMPAIGN on a women-hating and pro-rape platform, that he essentially LIED BY OMMISSION to the voters of his district, and so violated their sacred trust. After all, can you imagine him getting elected if he revealed his true position on women?

How can he faithfully represent a district when he does not even believe that over half of his constituents are entitled to basic freedoms or deserve not to be physically violated? There is no district in the country that he could represent when he so fundamentally disagrees with an inherent part of our culture.

Therefore, he is in blatant violation of his sworn oath of duty. It is now the ETHICAL MANDATE of this committee to maintain the integrity of this body and recommend that he be essentially fired, like he would anywhere else in the state or country… and it is up to the full body of the House or Representatives to do the actual firing.

Report from Concord – May 31, 2017

Posted on June 5, 2017June 5, 2017 by gbaldwin

By Rep. Marjorie Porter, Hillsborough

This term I am serving on the House Election Law committee, and oh, boy! Sparks sure do fly some days! Especially so as we dealt with SB 3, dubbed by some as “the voter suppression bill.” Students, especially, are concerned. We listened to seven hours of public testimony—most in opposition—and held several work sessions, before voting to recommend it ought to pass along party lines—Republicans for, Democrats against.

Election Law is seen as one of the most partisan committees now-a-days, but it wasn’t always so. According to one long-serving representative, there were fewer bills to deal with in the past. The goal of the committee then was to encourage voter participation by making the voting process as smooth and hassle-free as possible, while maintaining its integrity. Both parties shared the goal, and bills were recommended to pass or fail with bipartisan support. As one former committee chair told us, “I served ten years on Election Law, we prided ourselves in being non-partisan. Less than 5% of votes were party line. Very few.”

But something changed. And that change occurred right around 2006.

Students of NH history will recall 2006 as the election year Democrats won control of the House, Senate, Executive Council, and the Governorship for the first time since 1874. I imagine this came as quite a shock to the state’s Republican Party.

And in 2008, NH Democrats held their majority at the State House. Barack Obama was elected President, and we elected Democrats Jeanne Shaheen, Paul Hodes, and Carol Shea-Porter to Congress.

How could this even be possible in rock-solid Republican New Hampshire?

At first this shift was blamed on all those migrants from Taxachusetts, but a survey done by UNH at the time disproved that theory. The majority of our Massachusetts newcomers were Republican, and they settled mostly in the southern part of the state. It was the smaller towns upstate that seemed to be turning blue. (Indeed, that still seems to be holding true today. State representatives from most of the towns along our southern border—Hudson, Pelham, Derry, Londonderry, for example—are Republicans, and the GOP candidates for higher offices also do well there.)

So, if newcomers weren’t the reason the state turned blue, then it must be something else. In the eyes of many, there was no way Democrats could have won unless there was something shady going on. There must be voter fraud—massive voter fraud. And oh, of course, all those students voting.

It’s interesting to note Secretary of State Gardener has said he first heard mention of those phantom “busloads of voters from Massachusetts” in 2006.

It’s important to note here that study after study has shown there is no evidence that in-person voter fraud is going on in NH—the most recent coming out of Dartmouth a few months ago. And even in these days of cell-phone cameras, there is not one photograph of a bus from Massachusetts unloading fraudulent voters at New Hampshire polling places. No reports to the Secretary of State or the Attorney General either. And if Democrats are being shipped in to vote, why do all our southern border towns remain so solidly Republican?

None the less, the myths persist. Even the President believes them.

Politics being what it is, the Red Tide of 2010 brought the NH House and Senate back under Republican control, and Bill O’Brien became Speaker. Himself a former Democrat from Massachusetts, he was determined to do something about this perceived voter fraud. In 2011 he was caught on tape telling a Tea Party group he wanted to get rid of same day registration, and prevent students from voting here, because they were young and foolish and voted liberal.

Pretty much from then on, there has been a partisan divide on Election Law. Bill after bill is filed in an attempt to solve a problem that does not in fact exist.

To be honest, it is hard for either side to understand the others’ position. Although my Republican colleagues admit voter fraud is not rampant, they still believe it is happening, and laws need to be tightened to prevent even the perceived threat from occurring. They say even a few illegal votes threatens the integrity of our elections. We Democrats, alert to court rulings striking down voter ID laws in Texas and North Carolina as discriminatory, fear voter suppression, especially for our most vulnerable citizens—the poor, the homeless, and the elderly. We say even a few people disenfranchised by our laws threatens the integrity of our democracy.

SB 3 is a long and complicated bill, but my objections to it are basically two.

First, the form new voters must complete to register at the polls is long, and wordy, and often times difficult to understand. It took my husband eight minutes to complete. Although he is a former high school civics teacher, there were terms he did not understand, and with which he needed help. It seems like a literacy test. Using this form on Election Day will create longer lines, and make more work for our already over-worked poll workers. It may well discourage people from voting.

And second, if those registering to vote do not have with them the required pieces of paper proving they live where they say they live, they will be required to produce them within a certain time period. If they fail to meet the deadline, government officials, either town or state, may show up at their door. They may be prosecuted and face a $5000 fine. All this, even if they did vote legally, and live where they said they live. Having government agents knock on your door and ask to see your papers seems like a bad scene from an old black and white WWII movie. Not the America I know.

In all those long hours of testimony, there was not one municipal voting official who testified in favor, although many did in opposition. They understand the new requirements are not needed.