Bloody Bloody Populism

He's an orphan at 13 and an Indian-killing rock star soon after. And the people LOVE Andrew Jackson.

Why not? In the Public Theater's musical "Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson" now on Broadway, like any rock star Andrew is a sexy, angry, bloody mess who seeks our adoration. He urges us not to think about what he says and does, but just to love it. And we do, in all our contradictory glory: don't kill the indians, but don't let them live near us; tell the federal government to go screw itself, but wait! we want its money; etc.

We are supposed to find his adolescent rages and impulsiveness attractive, and many do in the same way Maine voters supported Paul LePage ("I'll tell President Obama to go to hell") or NY voters Carl Paladino . . . or Glenn Beck, or Rush Limbaugh . . .

Why is Andrew so angry? "Life sucks . . . for me in particular," he sings, and doesn't it seem everyone has a chip on their shoulder these days? Unemployment is too high, taxes are too high, the cost of gas is too high, not everyone can afford a McMansion . . . it is a pretty tough life we've got going on here in these United States, but what are any of us willing to do to fix it? So we throw the bums out, be they Democrat or Republican, again and again and again because no one can really solve these problems without asking the people to do something--stop driving SUVs? stop watering our lawns and filling our swimming pools?--ourselves.

Obama would shudder at the relevance of the show's anthem to his Presidency: "And we’re gonna take this country back for people like us, who don’t just think about things.”

Because as most of us regretfully know, the problem is not in our politicians but in us, the electorate. "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" brings that point home in 90 minutes of highly entertaining irony of the type seldom seen on Broadway.

Don't Allow Your Fear to Vote

One person, one vote: this is the rock of our democracy. It’s therefore very important this fall not to allow your individual vote as a Citizen to be cast by your Fear.

Our two party system—and our desire to approach politics as a football game rather than “one person, one vote”--is broken. This is glaringly evident not only in the inability of our federal and state governments to get real work done that improves our lives; but in our public support for independent candidates—not one, but three qualified to be on the Maine gubernatorial ballot—and for the Tea Party movement.

When a system breaks, those who comprise and benefit from that system—in this case, the Democrats and the Republicans—are never the people to turn to to fix it.

Yet this fall, Maine’s Democrat and Republican parties would have us believe that voting for an independent candidate is in fact a vote for the opposing party. They want us to cast our vote for their candidates not because we feel they are the best, but out of fear of the other guy.

It is important for voters to recognize that strategies based on fear are always created out of weakness. Telling someone “A vote for Cutler is a vote for LePage” or vice versa is a strategy closer to bullying than to a useful political strategy, and is an indicator of the truth: the candidates selected by Democrats and Republicans in their primaries are not strong enough to win the general election. Neither LePage nor Mitchell offers policies Maine voters can honestly and whole-heartedly support. It’s a shame that the core Democrats and Republicans who held sway in their primary elections were not attentive to the state’s realities and needs for integrity and substantive change in selecting their candidates. Now they are reduced to threatening voters that our vote for an independent is in fact one for their (dreaded) opposition. If you are an independent Mainer like me, this strategy makes you never want to vote for a Democrat OR Republican ever again!

And it’s just not so. Each of us is able to evaluate the policies, histories, and proposed actions of the candidates and select the best person to be the next governor for the state of Maine. Your vote is a vote for the best candidate, period.

Of the five gubernatorial candidates, only one has put forth specific proposal after proposal for ways to fix our state’s problems and move in a different direction: Eliot Cutler. Cutler has also shown, in the last few weeks, that he is the candidate on the ascendency and the only candidate who can pull both Republican AND Democratic votes and satisfy the central demands of Maine’s voters for integrity and change. He is on the rise, and the only thing we have to defeat us from having the best governor for Maine is our fear itself.

I believe Maine voters are too tough and independent to allow ourselves to be bullied into voting for a candidate who is not the best person for the job, or to allow our fear to hold sway in the voting booth. Your vote for Eliot Cutler is a vote for the best candidate for governor. You know you want to.