The statehouse news this week has centered on the GOP House Budget and projected human service cuts that will dismantle NH’s social service infrastructure – forcing a downshift of costs to the cities and towns which will result in out of control property taxes! This all leads me to ask – Who are these People – can they really be this cold, heartless and selfish!
My mother always told me as a little boy to “not stare – it wasn’t polite”, however, for the past three months, sitting in Reps Hall – at the eastern end of section IV, [an area - I call the penalty box of political hockey] – I am constantly amazed by what comes out of their mouths and cannot help but stare and continuously ask – Who are these People and where do they come from!
Unfortunately, while much has been written about the new federal legislators – little can be found about NH House members. Being one of 400 allows for a degree of anonymity – a bad thing for the publicity seeking needy, but a valued tool for those who do not want to have their agenda exposed. Even some republicans have said they don’t know anything about these new guys. Note: I say guys because they are overwhelmingly male - this session has the lowest number of women members since something like 1974. But who are they – Are they all some sort of monolithic radical extremist political Borg – who think alike, act alike and look alike? That would be too easy.
So after three months of intensive staring – I believe they are not real republicans – they’re not even real conservatives, but radical extremists who want to deregulate everything and ultimately dismantle government.
Overall, they seem to fall into a continuum of center/center-right to extreme far right. I break them down into various sub groups: Standard Main Street Republicans (an endangered species) and the rest are tea bag types, or at least fellow travelers consisting of Home Grown Libertarians; Social Conservatives; and Free Staters.
MAIN STREET GOP:
Truly an endangered species – socially moderate, fiscally responsible, “live and let live” types are now near extinction. Sadly, should they voice disagreement with what is going on; they are immediately denounced as RINO’s (republicans in name only). I heard of a conversation with a distinguished old school republican who after talking about the need for responsible government, was denounced as ‘not really being one of us!’ FYI – once upon a time the state republican platform called for an income tax - the days of Winant, Peterson and Hager are long gone – this is not your father’s Republican Party!
TEA BAGGERS:
Now to call everyone else in the majority a member of the Tea Bag Movement would be wrong. Although many seem to identify with the tagline – they do come from different start off points.
Personally, what I really find the most offensive regarding this group is NOT their adherence to an originalist interpretation of the US & NH Constitutions. No – it is their usurpation of patriotic (historic) terms and that only their interpretation is accurate – a total intolerance for anything different. Yeah – that’s what I find especially troublesome – intolerance!
I break this collective crop of representatives into the following sub-groups – Social Conservatives, Home Grown Libertarians, and Free Staters
Social Conservatives: fewer in number than in other parts of the country, nevertheless this faith based subset is highly visible and seem willing to play ball with their more secular extremist colleagues. At first blush they appear to have cut a deal and postponed the repeal of same sex marriage. While some tout this as a victory – my concern is the issue will re-surface next year and be used to motivate their base to come out and vote in the ’12 elections, thus keep their majority.
Home Grown Libertarians: buoyed by numbers that they interpret as validation for their anti poor/anti family views – this group struts around talking in code and mumbling from the NH Constitution and starting a NH Militia. I secretly suspect that they are designing special uniforms with huge gold epaulets and lots of medals.
While some are truly sincere – many don’t seem to have too strong a link to what really is happening in the world. I suspect they are being used by others intent on turning NH into some sort of radical libertarian social science laboratory.
I include in this group a large number of Massachusetts expatriates who in many ways seem to have never fully left their home state [except for paying MA taxes.] Fiercely loud at opposing any broad based taxes – they sometimes seem to want all the creature comforts and services they left behind, especially more asphalt to Boston – they just don’t want to pay for it!
Free Staters: They appear to be driving the policy bus this session – and as such are the most dangerous and most invisible. It is not that they are quiet – it is that they (for the most part) hide their identity. Few have publically come out and stated they are Free Staters. Fortunately, they do give themselves away when it’s obvious they know nothing of NH history, geography or how to pronounce words like coos or how to correctly use ‘wicked’ in a sentence.
The Free State movement is a radical libertarian group who believe that, if they can get 20,000 like minded people to move to NH, they can take over and control local and state government. This would then provide an opportunity to dismantle government and experiment with their radical libertarian theories. Now – I know that I risk sounding like some kind of conspiracy theorist, but just look at what has been going on this session! I believe we are seeing the first wave of these interlopers who believe they know better than us – on how to run New Hampshire.
So who are they, and how do we expose them? If they were all a bunch of bomb throwing bullies we could easily tag them, however, many appear to be almost soft spoken – it’s only when they talk about guns that you see the intensity. In looking through the Blue Book it seems many suspected FS’s are educated possessing some social skills. Many also seem to be very tech savvy – maybe they have spent too much time alone before a computer screen communicating only with like minded souls. Actually this might be the crux of the problem – being affluent, and spoiled; they don’t have any knowledge about the needs of average NH families. All they care about are themselves and since they only know and talk to like minded people – they are convinced they know what’s best!
The Other ‘Real’ NH:
Allow me to compare this with a meeting I attended on Tuesday night in Claremont. A group consisting of union members, families, social service agencies and faith based groups met with our local State Senator. Basically, they were concerned about the House ideologues and what has been happening. Their hope is the NH Senate will be a counter weight and stem the tide to what they see as disaster.
Over a 100 people came out on a cold icy night to voice their fears about losing health retiree benefits, dismantling of collective bargaining, cuts in human services and weakening their ability to remain part of the middle class. Area state representatives were also invited – so we had an opportunity to hear, as well as put a face on our neighbors - the people who sent us to Concord.
Last week a long time representative stated that these proposed cuts are so bad that some people could die – hopefully it won’t come to that and the Senate and Governor will be the grownups. Let’s hope – because the People’s House is not listening!
