If LD 429 is passed, it will undo the progress achieved in the past 16 years. While some of the bill aims to clear a backlogged judicial system, the bottom line is Democrats risk reversing a solid record of results and endangering the lives of Mainers.

Republicans have painted Democrats as the “party of government.” When anything goes wrong, count on Republicans to say, “See, government just can’t do everything.” Count on Democrats, when anything goes wrong, to say, “We need a program (regulation, staff, etc.) to fix it.”

There’s a reason that everyone naturally recoils from Winston Smith’s work in “1984” in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, changing old newspaper articles and photographs to update them in keeping with the dictates of the party. The falsity, the thoroughness, and the need for control, extending all the way to the past, are all disturbing hallmarks of totalitarian politics.

Nowadays the trollers tend to be right-wingers playing power games and getting a charge out of their intimidation tactics. But crusades to police media consumption are also being waged by elements on the left. Several colleges now let students anonymously report someone they feel — or say they feel — shows discrimination or bias.