Op Ed

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.

Looking Ahead – What’s Really at Stake in 2020

Posted on January 15, 2019January 15, 2019 by gbaldwin

by Gunnar Baldwin
Plymouth, NH

Now that the 2020 elections are on the horizon, one question is paramount: How can we keep the 2016 from happening again? It should be crystal clear that we are in for a difficult fight because of the powerful interests and almost limitless funding arrayed against us. These influential players will try to paint the election as a choice between a bright economic future with more jobs versus socialism and economic decline.

This election, however, will not be about boosting job growth through tax breaks for the very rich or about the free market versus socialism. After all, the scale of the subsidies and tax breaks for big oil and agribusiness giants looks downright socialist in comparison with welfare assistance for the poor. With respect to the economy, what is really at stake boils down to a number of fundamental issues:

Whether we have the right message and resolve to stop the greatest feeding frenzy in history, as corporations and wealthy individuals race to maximize the benefits of deregulation while the window of opportunity lasts. These powerful players know that in the long run, the reasons we have regulations (e.g., safe foods, truth in advertising, or the disclosure of predatory consumer lending provisions) and the reality of climate change will become painfully obvious to a critical mass of voters.
Whether the wealthiest individuals and corporations will get to carve up and consume the world’s remaining natural resources (our children’s and grandchildren’s heritage), realizing enormous short-term profits for a few at the expense of long-term prosperity for many. The urgent rush to convert public assets (such as protected public lands) to private wealth looks much like the asset grabs that occurred in Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union, but cloaked in a thin veneer of legitimacy.

One hypothetical question may force Republicans to reveal their bottom line: If the technology existed today to extract, harvest, or catch all of the world’s remaining oil, coal, ore, timber, and fish in a single year—to benefit a single generation—would that be an acceptable goal? If the answer is yes, then their darkest intentions have been exposed. If the answer is no, what measures would they suggest for avoiding that outcome and how are those measures different from the very constraints they are hell-bent on trying to repeal?

Whether we want to transition our economy toward sustainable, next-generation industries and services that support the livelihoods of many for years to come or whether Trump’s interventions will force continued reliance on dirty fuels and technologies at the expense of sustainable ones, in order to ensure the continued profits of incumbent industries (hardly the free market at work).

Finally, if we really want to have a chance at changing the views of right-leaning independent voters, we must first address the assumptions that underlie their political views—or give them a few to adopt. If we cannot agree on why we have a government or why we pay taxes, it will be difficult to win them over with respect to specific policy choices.

As I have stated previously, one argument for government and taxes is the following:

As American citizens, most of us are all born into a collective debt that we owe to those less fortunate because the benefits of living in the great country we enjoy are directly tied to—and arose in a million little ways—from the hardship and exploitation of others.

America’s strong economy and favorable business environment, which allows a hard-working entrepreneur to realize profits and create new jobs, got its head start and an early competitive edge through slavery and the enormous profits that free labor allowed. Slavery may have been abolished in the strictest sense at the end of the Civil War, but other legal ways of exploiting people with lesser bargaining power ensued in our industrial age. The vast disparities in economic advantage that these factors produced endure today in our current society.

Just as a restaurant must pay a generalized royalty in order to play songs from a vast pool of music whose rights are owned by many artists and recording studios—who cannot be individually compensated directly by that restaurant for practical reasons—we must pay a tax to help correct our share of the costs that our standard of living has inflicted on others. Our individual share of this debt is no less real because we cannot quantify it.

Similarly, we are all part of a shared risk pool. We do not know in advance which fellow citizens will be diagnosed with cancer or have their homes destroyed by a hurricane, so we pay taxes to cover our pro-rata share of government services designed to minimize the impacts of these risks and compensate those affected by these catastrophes.

Anyone who lives paycheck to paycheck, has been bankrupted by medical bills despite having insurance, or must continue to pay a mortgage for a home that was washed away may rightly ask how they are benefitting from the American dream and past suffering by others. My answer to this question is that most people who have been locked out of the America’s prosperity nevertheless aspire to it, and in so doing yearn to benefit from a standard of living that was made possible because of the unfair advantages used against those less fortunate over the course of our history.

The arguments above do not mean that our country is bad, only that we know we can do better in pursuing our country’s ideals. But how do we even begin to convey an important message that is long-winded because of its complexity? Is there a way to distill this message into a few sound bites? This is a task that must be addressed and debated in order to reach those voters who are most receptive to rational argument (there are a few).

Finally, we should heed the warnings by Democratic candidates that did not succeed in the recent elections. Making sweeping promises like “healthcare for all” does not play well with voters who are weary of hearing politicians promising changes that can never be delivered. Stating that a policy will “reduce your medical costs” may do better. We must learn from every past mistake if we want to succeed this time around.

Like Many Americans, I was Emotionally Devastated

Posted on August 10, 2018 by gbaldwin

by Gunnar Baldwin
Plymouth, NH

Like most Americans, I was emotionally devastated at the spectacle of thousands of innocent, crying and screaming children being separated from their parents as they crossed our border and were distributed to kennel-like holding pens—by our own government. I could only conjure up images of family separations at the hands of the NAZIs or slave auctions earlier in our own history. My grief quickly turned to rage as I grasped the complicity of fellow citizens who blindly follow the current occupant of the Oval Office and are willing to look the other way, making cheap excuses, spouting cherry-picked scriptures, or sticking their heads in sand. I cannot believe that so many Americans have utterly caved into this administration’s agenda. It seemed like Kristallnacht was not far behind.

Fortunately, my gut feeling is that the child separation atrocity was a low ebb—a bridge too far for even many Trump supporters. I hope I am right. If so, there is likely a segment of citizens who voted for Trump in the last election and are amenable to a rational dialogue about the direction our country should take, but only if we can present the right message. It is hard to have a discussion about complex issues of inequity and the ethical role of government when we are allowed only a sound bite.

One of the most profound challenges for Democrats is making inroads against the ideologies of those who advocate for a small government. If asked, many Republicans will explain that they are not against compassion, but will explain that helping those in need is a role for churches, NGOs, and the Rotary Club—but not the government. Here is why that is wrong: Throughout the history of our country, our government has played a central role in facilitating the current state of affairs—from laying the structural foundation for poverty and vastly wealth disparities to the tilted playing field that secures unfair advantages for deep-pocketed industries and the very rich. In a myriad of ways, our government has been the instrumentality of inequity, from sanctioning slavery, to supporting predatory health care prices, to implementing policies that provide unfair advantages to a privileged few—picking winners and losers in the process. Government had a central role in creating these problems and now must play a central role in fixing them.

Connecting the dots between past injustices and current affairs is inherently a multi-step process that defies sound bites and may seem diffused and attenuated. However, it is no less real. Many of us benefit from the standard of living we enjoy in America today, but we cannot opt out of our past (or our cancer risk pool). Just as we cannot opt out of the debt we owe our forebears in uniform who have defended our country from our enemies, we cannot opt out of the built-in debt we collectively owe to those who are today’s victims of yesterday’s slavery, corporate robber-barons, or ethnic discrimination.

In many ways, those who wish to come to America today from south of our border are no different than those who immigrated from Europe in past centuries to pursue a better life and escape crises, both political and economic. Yet there is an important difference: America has played an enormous role in creating the very conditions (e.g., poverty, gangs) that make so many people try to flee here from Central America and other areas in Latin America. During much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the US has interfered repeatedly in the governments and economies of the countries in our backyard to secure economic advantage and support dictators friendly to US corporations. They are not simply unlucky or poorly educated. We poisoned their well water and now we refuse to share ours.

Ignorance on the part of much of the population is not intentional, but it presents a hurdle for political persuasion. For example, US schools have done a poor job in providing a thorough and balanced view of our history. (The same can be said of schools in Russia, China, Myanmar, and Turkey). It will often be necessary that we share a little additional background to frame our conversation with voters, whether the topic is education, voting rights, healthcare, or immigration. Clearly, this is a challenge. Many of the voters that are cheering efforts to disenfranchise minority voters, turn immigrants into scapegoats, and disseminate absurd conspiracy theories are very comfortable in their bubbles. We need to be creative in developing messages that can burst through a few of them.

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.