I wish I could get an honest answer from Gov. Paul LePage on this question: Why does he have such a problem with the ideal of popular democracy?

I’m afraid I may already know the answer: greed and owed favors.

It’s about time others start to see what drives the political machine. And while I doubt the Democratic Party has more pure motives, at least the citizens supporting voter registration and clean elections are persuaded by an appeal to an ideal fundamental to the American hegemony: The people should, at least on the surface, control their representatives.

On the other hand, exaggerations, lies and scare tactics are the milk and honey of the Republican repertoire. What ideals are they pandering to when the Republican-controlled Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee is (currently) dismantling the Clean Election Act that “we the people” fought for a decade ago — the right to buy elections?

I don’t think many people are persuaded by the thinking that corporate donations are protected under individual rights to free speech. They are persuaded by the heavily exaggerated, misguided fear that other elements of the population (immigrants, the poor, Democrats’ hacks, the apathetic and the ill-informed) have undue influence over elections, so they are willing to vote for the rights of the wealthiest Mainers and out-of-state corporations to exert more control over elections and the elected.

What irony.

Josh Gagne, Lewiston

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