OP-ED: Talking censorship and budget-slashing
It’s painful, with all the farce and fright coming out of the Trump administration, to focus attention on two examples of utter political ineptitude by Democrats.
The first example comes from Maine, where Democrats in the lower house of that state’s legislature stripped a Republican representative of speaking and voting privileges over the issue of transgender participation in high school sports.
The GOP’s Laurel Libby was sidelined on a party line vote. For sure, her offense was not above reproach: She posted on Facebook an identifying photograph of a transgender girl who had won a state championship in girls’ track and field.
Democrats and some Republicans attacked Libby for posting the photo along with the student’s name. A GOP member of the Maine House of Representatives, David Boyer, commented, “We should be able to advocate policy without making kids political footballs. … I don’t think the end justifies the means …”
State House speaker, Democrat Ryan Fecteau, said, “There is a time and place for policy debates. That time and place will never be on social media attacking a Maine student. Maine kids … deserve better.”
With Democrats in charge, the state House voted 75-70 to censure Libby. Before she can reclaim her right to speak on the floor of the legislature and vote on legislation, she must offer an apology.
Refusing to do so, she has appeared on Fox News. Libby is basking in her political martyrdom both on air and in print.
What might have been a Democratic win instead has been turned into a setback. Charged with stifling the free expression of opinion – opinion that has the added benefit for Republicans of being widely popular – Maine Democrats are playing the role of censorship ogres.
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers unaccountably threw a change of nomenclature into his budget message to the state legislature.
Referencing in vitro fertilization, Evers substituted the phrase “inseminated person” in place of “mother.”
Of course, Republicans ran with it. Days later, Evers, evidently smarting under the onslaught of ridicule, remarked, rather lamely, that “what we want is legal certainty that moms will be able to get the care they need. … Moms are moms, dads are dads. What we want is legal certainty.”
Which is worse? Evers assault on the English language, or his assault on political commonsense? There is no wrong answer here.
Back home, some local Republicans, having taken Donald Trump to heart, appear to be aping the president’s embrace of Elon Musk and Musk’s norm-breaking, personnel-shredding, program-destroying, cost-cutting, privacy-peeking, non-governmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
For example, there is Fayette County commission Chairman Dave Lohr’s recent concern over government spending. In December, Lohr, a Republican, opposed the county’s 2025 $54 million budget. More recently, the chairman voted to turn down a state-federal grant worth $2.5 million for the completion of the Sheepskin Trail in the city of Uniontown. (Commissioner Vince Vicites, a Democrat, and Lohr’s fellow Republican, Scott Dunn, voted for the measures, thus carrying the day.)
In both instances, Lohr used identical language. He was opposed, he said, to spending on “luxuries,” personified by the trail, while necessities, including, apparently, helping homeowners draw water from drought-afflicted private wells, requires county government attention.
Lohr said he couldn’t “justify” supporting trail funding,” not when “taxpayers are struggling.” And it didn’t matter the source of the funding – local, state, or national. Lohr said his eyeballs were on all dollars, regardless of their origin.
Then there is Jon Marietta, Fayette County recorder of deeds, who declared recently that he was “extremely dissatisfied.” The reason for his discontent was the failure of the county commissioners to bring the budget axe down on the two individuals responsible for getting potential jurors to the courthouse at trial time.
Marietta said he wanted to save tax dollars. The county commissioners, including Lohr, noted they had looked at the matter previously and decided savings could not be realized by switching out the elected officials for appointed ones.
Making government efficient should be a goal shared by everyone, elected officials and citizens alike. Nor is there anything wrong with cutting waste or trimming taxes. Government budgets require constant scrutiny. Problems arise when spending is slashed without study, scant attention to detail, or consideration of possible consequences.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.