Category Candidates

Apr 18 2018

Through The Conservative Prism 2018

 

In the last Gubernatorial race, I published a series of articles reviewing the candidates for Governor entitled “Through the Conservative Prism”. It is my intent to publish one overview of the Republican Gubernatorial candidates under the same title. The primary race comes down to two contenders, Garrett Mason and Shawn Moody, in my opinion, and I will explain why.

First of all, Ken Fredette, with all due respect to his talent and ability, has all but been eliminated from the race. His sheer will and determination to stay in the race are commendable in some respects, but his campaign has failed to gain any traction. Mr. Fredette understands politics and he should know that the honorable and common sense thing for him to do now is withdraw and allow his supporters to align themselves with stronger candidates.

Mary Mayhew started out as the front runner in some polling. Scandals from DHHS mishandling and neglect of child abuse situations has all but derailed her campaign. The spotlight from investigations has revealed even more troubling trends under her leadership. If by some strange twist of fate Mayhew would win the nomination, these swirling clouds of accusations of negligence would bury her in the general election. In my opinion, Mayhew should withdraw also.

One of the standards I use in judging a candidate for public office is to never believe anything a candidate says while running for office. Look at their record. This should be applied to all, especially Shawn Moody.

The basis of Moody’s campaign is that he is not a politician, but an outsider…..except….that he was appointed to public office by the Governor, which makes him…..a……politician and this is not the first time he has run for office, so he’s a politician. He asserts that he is an outsider because he is the only one who has worked in the private sector, but so have all of his opponents whom he claims have not. Mayhew an administrator, Fredette a lawyer, Thibodeau in construction and industry, and Mason in construction and an administrator for professional sports.

I’m not sure it is good policy for a future governor to pick and choose which job professions are legitimate and which are not. Moody has differentiated himself from his opponents in one respect. He is the only one who has built his campaign on a complete lie. He is a politician, He is no more an outsider than anyone else, and he is no different than his opponents in both those respects.

Now his record is troubling in its duplicity. He has very strong friendships and ties with green energy interests yet claims he is for the everyday hard working people whose businesses and home budgets are being crippled by green energy mandates and subsidies. He claims he is for the traditional family and family values but has in the past talked about instituting his own new social values. What exactly are those?

He claims to support gun rights but at recent sportsman show posted pictures touting his support “for this blue collar issue.” The natural born right to self defense is not relegated to a blue collar. It is an every collar issue and this shows a troubling trend of a politician trying to adjust on the fly to the issues in an effort to get elected.

Moody is a good businessman. Obviously, Governor LePage has tapped him to be the third and fourth term of his administration, as most of LePage’s staff are on Moody’s campaign team. My concern with Mr. Moody is that his campaign rhetoric does not match his past behavior on many issues.

Garrett Mason is the wild card. For much of this race, he has been discounted because of his youth. Yet, continually he has shown himself to the steady hand and the adult in the room. In all of the issues, in contrast to Mr. Moody, Mason’s record is consistent. His conservative belief system, instilled in him from his youth, has guided his legislative actions as well as his personal. On family, on fiscal issues, on gun rights, and on issues of the Constitution and Liberty, Garrett Mason has a steady consistent record of defense that speaks for itself.

Campaign rhetoric means nothing if does not match your record. There is too much doubt that hovers around the other three candidates. Garret Mason’s record is clear and consistent. It is for these reasons that The Maine Conservative Voice endorses Garrett Mason to be the Republican nomination for Governor of the State of Maine.

Mar 31 2018

Guilty

 

Read all the child rearing books and they will tell you that most often when you have children, one will be the strong-willed child and another will be the compliant one. No such luck for me! I have been blessed with three variations of the strong-willed, defiant child.

Two boys, whom I have tagged my “two knuckleheads”, (A term of affection that I can assure you did not start out that way) that have proven to have a strength of will that can try the most stalwart of heart. Their sister, well, for example, after watching “The Sound of Music” with her mother, she was dancing in the living room doing her best imitation of Julie Andrews atop the Alps, when the “two knuckleheads” entered, engaged in fierce light-saber battle, and disrupted her idyllic “the hills are alive” moment by tumbling over the top of her and falling to the floor in a heap. She promptly retaliated by shouting at them, “Brothers, can’t you see I’m dancing here?!” and threw herself on top of the heap of “knuckleheads” putting her knuckles to their heads; in other words, she’s just a female version of her brothers.

Welcome to my world. I should have known this would happen when a man, who does not shy from stating his opinion, married a strong powerful woman, who is no wallflower. It stands to reason that three little images of us would from time to time be staring back defiantly, testing boundaries, and causing us to scramble to the phone, calling their grandparents to ask the proverbial “How did you do it?”, and desperately flipping through the pages of child rearing books.

It was in those moments that I learned something in the desperate conversations and frustrated reading of book pages from those wiser than me. Stop honoring the tantrums with your attention. Amazingly, when my wife and I started putting the children out of our presence when they were throwing the tantrums, they began to stop.

This is in no wise eliminates discipline; in fact, separating them from our presence was a source a discipline. I was guilty of allowing myself to hover over every tantrum or outburst trying to correct it. This is not a child rearing lesson for I am far from qualified in that regard, but I am drawing a parallel from knowledge gained from those who are.

With the poor behavior of the Parkland High students on full display for the nation to see, we have been guilty of the same mistake that is so easy for adults to make. In our haste to address the tantrums, either to correct and confront, or placate and pacify, we have given attention to the narcissism of a spoiled child. Children may be the greatest narcissists that have ever walked God’s green earth!

A narcissist thrives on attention, positive and negative. A child narcissist has even more power to control attention because adults feel they are required to pay attention to the outbursts. These children have been given a national spotlight by the press and a license to attack their fellow adult citizens by wealthy celebrities.

But the constant negative attention they are receiving from those us who feel compelled to combat their poor behavior simply feeds their power. So let’s stop! Stop feeding the egos of tiny little despots!

Let’s focus on the many teenagers who still have respect for the 2A rights of their fellow adult citizens. Let’s focus on getting out the votes for those candidates who truly support the 2nd Amendment. Let’s take back our power and keep it!

-Andy Torbett

Mar 28 2018

Wednesday’s Wisdom

Here is my thought for today, and it is a follow-up to my Blue Wave comment yesterday: If Republicans campaign on defending the 2nd Amendment and call out the Left for seeking to repeal the 2nd Amendment, we just might see a Red Wave in the Mid-Terms. But Republicans have a consistent history of self-destruction and capitulation…time will tell. The 2nd Amendment is a winning issue, but too often the GOP get their campaign strategy from the Legacy Media.