Kudos to those GOP senators signing the op-ed piece: “Government by Disrespect.”

They’re missing a nastier issue, however: The attack on Maine seniors, families and working people, while increasing handouts to the rich, that’s being replicated in all GOP-run states.

Why are different states being attacked with the same strategy? Why do the various bills often have the same wording? Because distant corporate interests have scripted, funded and staffed long-range plans to rule our statehouses. “Suspects,” such as Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Works, American Legislative Exchange Council and the Koch brothers, are working through the GOP-tea party to privatize and deregulate state economies for investors, erode basic rights and corrupt democracy.

Rep. Kimberly Rosen, R-Bucksport, said one anti-labor proposal is being driven by out-of-state interests.

Another odd similarity: In all these GOP-run states, truth and facts don’t matter. One big lie is that Americans are with them. The tea party is big on this one.

The Opinion Research/CNN poll showed its favorability dropping by 21 points. It’s now down to 47 percent disapprove, 32 percent approve. Recent rallies are tiny. Witness the huge upset in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election.

The crime here is theft: Transfer of the people’s resources and commons to the very rich. But that, after all, is only money.

A more monstrous moral evil is taking root: The destruction of our key values of dignity, cooperation, democracy, justice and the common good. These are the shared beliefs that bind us as a community, and they’re getting in the way of corporate rule.

“Kiss my butt” and “Go to hell” mask this deeper malignancy at work.

Jim Murphy

Starks

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