In case you haven't heard yet, the US Census Bureau just announced its findings from the 2010 Census, and even a small state like ours saw a noticeable darkening of the population. In fact, the black population increased by an impressive-sounding 132 percent (actually, nearly every non-white racial group saw double-digit increases). Nervous white people need not worry though — our fair state will remain fair-skinned, since such folk are still something like 95 percent of the population, and slightly more than that if you include people who are part-white or are white-skinned Hispanics.
But while that made the news prominently, I don't think it means much in the larger scheme right now. Because it's not a sudden color-change we're likely to see anytime soon; rather, I see us having a serious increase in the level of poor and struggling folks. In fact, the more "progress" the GOP and Tea Party folks make, the more I fear the middle class is soon to be extinct. A return to the lord-and-serf model is in store for us, with a corporate twist and fairy tales that the downtrodden all have a legit chance at rising to financial security.
It's not enough that Governor Paul LePage is rude, crude, and insensitive, making himself the butt of jokes nationwide for his dickishness — er, I mean straight-forwardness — but it's very clear to me that he doesn't give a good goddamn about people of color, women — well, basically anyone who is not like him or supportive of him.
With proposed changes to the welfare system (by the way, I work in social services and have yet to meet anyone who moves to Maine for the plush lifestyle LePage thinks we supposedly afford our less fortunate), and his recent decision to have removed from the Department of Labor office a mural that pays homage to the working-class folks, LePage has basically issued a big middle finger to all us Regular Joes who slave away at average jobs that will never allow us to get ahead.
Yeah, the mural. So, you've heard the story: Some anonymous constituent faxed (or maybe not because the story keeps changing) a letter stating that mural bothered them and so LePage felt compelled to kowtow to one person by pissing off a slew of folks and even earning himself a sarcastic shout-out from Jon Stewart on The Daily Show.
LePage supporters will no doubt say that those of us complaining about LePage's latest actions are just sourpuss lefties, but considering that once upon a time we had no laws that protected the least fortunate and the average worker — it was the labor movement that gave us things like the 40-hour week and weekends, among other things — I am not sure why we are so quick to return to those days when employers could do with us what they wished, however they wished, whenever they wished with no lubrication.
