RACE-BASED IDENTITY POLITICS ARE WRECKING MAINE AND AMERICA

Maine First Media Exclusive Op-Ed

By: Rep. Larry Lockman

Is Maine’s population too old and too white?

“Of course!” is the answer from progressives on both sides of the aisle at the swamp in Augusta. And they’re not the least bit bashful about bashing white people as obstacles to making Maine a better place to live and work.

Former Speaker of the House and now candidate for Governor, Mark Eves (D-South Berwick) recently addressed a public forum in Lewiston hosted by the far-left Maine Peoples Alliance. The MPA favors giving drivers’ licenses, welfare benefits, and voting rights to noncitizens, including illegal aliens, so Eves wasted no time pandering to the open-borders crowd. He declared that Maine’s status as the whitest state in the nation is “bad news,” and that we will be in trouble if we don’t attract more non-whites to settle here.

Eves’ anti-white comments came on the heels of state Sen. Roger Katz (R-Augusta) calling Maine’s whiteness “nothing to be proud of.” That’s right; we’re supposed to be ashamed, but Katz won’t tell us what he considers the proper racial balance between whites and non-whites that would make him proud of Maine. He has sponsored legislation allocating state tax dollars to attract foreign-born non-whites with higher fertility rates than native Mainers. Katz claims this is a “social justice” issue.

The campaign to transform Maine’s demographic profile is rooted in the toxic “identity politics” ideology that is the heart and soul of the progressive movement. Leftist ideologues believe the world consists of two groups: the oppressed and the oppressors. White folks are the oppressors, and people of color are the oppressed. And as the least racially diverse state in the nation, Maine is by definition a bastion of “white privilege.”

The progressives’ remedy for Maine’s shameful whiteness is more immigration from poverty-stricken Third World nations, coupled with government programs to assist the influx of newcomers.

We are supposed to pay no attention to what has become of the nations of western Europe that chose unbridled immigration as the solution to falling birth rates and a workforce shortage. And don’t even think about subjecting these “new Mainers” to any kind of critical scrutiny, unless you’re prepared to be smeared as a racist and xenophobe. So here goes…

Hamdia Ahmed is a 20-year-old junior at the University of Southern Maine who found her voice “advocating for Portland’s Muslim and immigrant community,” according to a fawning puff piece published in the Portland Press Herald. Born in Somalia, she came to this country as a refugee 12 years ago. She is now a full-fledged social-justice warrior who uses her Twitter account to spew contempt on white people and her adopted homeland:

“Your ancestors stole this land from Native Americans, and then enslaved a whole race.”

“I don’t trust white people. The system is literally always on their side no matter what they do to people of color.”

And on the eve of the 4th of July, she re-tweeted this gem: “F**k the 4th. F**k the flag. F**k the national anthem.”

Another Somali immigrant, 17-year old Najma Abdullahi, is a senior at Waynflete in Portland (annual tuition: $30,000). Back in February, she complained at a public forum on the USM campus that white men are “the most dangerous demographic in the US.” She added that she continues to deal with “white terrorism” in her life.

Bear in mind that these students have been portrayed by our Islamo-pandering liberal media as among the best and the brightest of the immigrant community. But if these two are so quick to play the victim card, and so filled with loathing toward their adopted homeland, one can only imagine what the underbelly of the immigration beast looks like.

Here are my conclusions:

Democrat politicians want open borders for the votes. They believe they can count on most of these new arrivals to adopt the victimhood and grievance mentality that defines the Democrat party.

Many Republican politicians want to increase immigration from the Third World for the cheap labor it provides, to keep the campaign cash flowing from the country-club donor class at the US Chamber.

Now more than ever, we need a non-partisan, even anti-partisan immigration policy that puts Maine people first. As long as we have a single elderly or disabled Mainer on a wait list for needed services, or a single veteran not getting the best care we can provide, or a single unemployed native Mainer unable to find a job, we can’t afford to import and subsidize any more “new Mainers.”

Lawrence Lockman, R-Amherst, is serving his third term in the Maine Legislature, representing House District 137 in rural eastern Maine. He is co-founder and President of New England Opportunity Project, and may be reached at [email protected]