I’m not opposed to bold concepts and fresh thinking. Without creative types stretching their imaginations in new directions, we wouldn’t have fine craft beers, dozens of channels of satellite radio and venison cheeseburgers cooked over a wood fire. These advancements in civilization have made life more pleasant.
But not all innovation produces such positive results. Technological breakthroughs have also given us pop-up advertising and robo-calls. Advanced placement chemistry classes resulted in bath salts and meth labs. Artistic experimentation is to blame for “Hot Tub Time Machine 2” and Iggy Azalea.
The lesson here is that we must be vigilant in our assessments of minty-fresh approaches. This is particularly true in politics.
On June 13 (was there something in the water that week?), the Bangor Daily News ran an article suggesting Maine should consider instituting online voting. “If people could vote from the comfort of their couch,” author Erin Rhoda wrote, “it stands to reason that voting rates would increase.”
Rhoda cites the example of a town in Ontario that put such a system in place in 2003. Since then, turnout has jumped 300 percent.
Mostly due to Chinese hackers.
Online voting allows for all manner of mischief, including manipulating the results, revealing how individuals cast their ballots and crashing the system when the outcome doesn’t appear to be going the right way. Given what we’ve learned about how porous the government’s cyber-security is (Susan Collins’ identity got stolen, but was quickly returned to her when the thieves discovered that no one believes anything a U.S. senator says) and how easy it is to scam e-voting programs (the fan-selected members of this year’s Major League Baseball All-Star Team are mostly women’s soccer players), it’s only sensible to be skeptical about allowing computers to take over this task.
On June 18 (you know, the water did taste funny around that time), Portland Press Herald columnist Alan Caron proposed amending the state constitution to allow recall elections of governors. Caron, a centrist independent, made clear his plan wasn’t aimed at Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s current round of irrationality. “This is an issue that transcends partisan interests and personalities,” he wrote. “It’s a vital safeguard that will help ensure that future governors don’t exceed their authority.”
Never mind that Maine already has such a safeguard in its constitution. It’s called impeachment. Also, we have periodic elections that allow us to express our opinions as to how our governors are doing. Even though LePage can’t run again due to term limits, you can weigh in on his temper tantrums in next year’s legislative races.
Given these protections, a recall amendment wouldn’t accomplish anything except to give the losers in the last campaign a do-over. That greatly diminishes the importance of regular elections, since their results would never really be final.
Then, there’s the over-the-top reaction to the possibility the Legislature might pass a bill allowing law-abiding Mainers to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. In a June 11 blog posting (I knew it – that was the week the Chinese must have dumped hallucinogenic drugs into the water supply), liberal commentator Ethan Strimling called for a People’s Veto campaign to overturn that measure at referendum.
According to Strimling, the legislation (which, at this writing, still hadn’t won final approval) would make it “legal for criminals and people with no safety training to carry loaded handguns into crowded malls, movie theaters and booze-filled bars.”
Current Maine law doesn’t allow criminals to possess guns, let alone carry them around in public. Nothing in this bill changes that. And it’s already illegal to bring concealed weapons into bars, even with a permit. Getting rid of the permit requirement doesn’t alter that.
Before we go through all the bother of a People’s Veto campaign, maybe we should see if this change causes an uptick in the crime rate. Based on the experience of other state’s that did away with permits, there’s a reasonable chance we’ll never notice the difference. If we’re suddenly hit with an outbreak of previously law-abiding citizens shooting up malls, movie theaters and bars, I’ll be happy to assist in reinstituting the old restrictions.
Finally, there’s the Legislature’s insistence on banning the sale of powdered alcohol. LePage vetoed that bill, but as with most of his ineffectual vetoes, it was overridden. Powdered alcohol is just like regular liquor except it contains no water.
Wait. Why would they want us to drink the pre-watered stuff, unless they know there’s something in it?
Absurd ideas may be emailed to me at aldiamon@herniahill.net, and I’ll forward them to your legislators.
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