Last week, a white supremacist carried out another mass shooting, leaving ten dead at a Buffalo grocery store and a paranoid, racist manifesto. In his unhinged diatribe, the shooter espoused the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory that white Americans are being deliberately “replaced” with non-white people with high fertility rates. Like other far-right terrorists before him,…
As many of us were watching the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, perhaps listening to youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman speak of “striving to forge a union with purpose, to compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man,” the chair of the Maine Republican Party…
After a violent mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday afternoon, temporarily disrupting the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Maine Republicans rushed to release statements emphasizing their belief in peaceful protests. What those statements elided was the role many of those same figures have played in fomenting and spreading…
Taking aim at Waterville Mayor Nick Isgro for refusing to recognize Maine’s first official Indigenous Peoples Day, U.S. senate candidate Betsy Sweet told a rally of about 100 people on Monday that the holiday is just the first step the state must take to help heal relations with native people. “It’s particularly important to stand…
Alicia Garza, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, spoke to a crowded hall of Maine progressives on Thursday on the need to understand and transform power if the larger anti-racism movement is to succeed. She also suggested that Maine, where 95 percent of people identify as white, according to the most recent census data, has…
Attempting to position themselves as an embattled minority, members of the University of Maine College Republicans have been posting bigoted content and daring members of the university community to challenge them on their First Amendment rights. The UMaine College Republicans declared on Facebook last week that “[b]oth anti-white racism and heterophobia are an epidemic on…
Dueling bills were heard before the Maine legislature’s Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. One, by state Rep. Craig Hickman (D-Winthrop), is an attempt to clarify and maintain a distinction between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities, ensuring local police do not engage in the prosecution or deportation of immigrants. The other, sponsored by state Rep.…
Community members are pushing back against hateful rhetoric targeting Children’s Book Cellar, a locally owned bookstore in Waterville, which in partnership with Central Maine Pride is holding a Drag Story Hour intended to celebrate gender diversity in the state. Elizabeth Leonard, who’s been a Waterville resident for over 30 years and often brought her own kids…
Earlier this week, Rep. Scott Strom of Pittsfield joined just a handful of fellow Republicans in the Maine House in backing a bill to increase immunization rates by eliminating non-medical vaccine exemptions for children attending Maine schools. He faced an immediate backlash, with fellow Republicans and even some members of his caucus deluging him with…
The bigotry of Waterville Mayor and Maine Republican Party Vice Chair Nick Isgro is once again on full display, and yet most of his party colleagues are avoiding the issue or even backing him up. This week on the podcast, Ben, Taryn and Mike discuss how much of their reaction is reflexive and how much…