Maine Bans Same Sex Marriage, Reflections on Maine
The State of Maine has voted to ban same sex marriage. The legislature had approved it, and now the measure has lost in a public referendum. This makes Maine the 31st state to block same sex marriage through referendum.
The supporters of same-sex marriage outspent opponents 2-1, already had the laws on the books, and had political support, yet still lost a very close vote (53%).
In other words, a bad sign for getting this idiotic decision reversed any time soon.
Maine means something more to me than the forgotten land up north with nice lobster, I went to college there. And there are things about Maine which I really like. Simplicity, friendliness, hard work ethic (in general), natural beauty etc etc. It is unfortunately also a state marred by incompetent and protectionist political leadership, widespread racism, poverty, drugs, prostitution, and a highly insular and often backwards view of the rest of the world.
A NYT article mentions Maine's "libertarian background," to be perfectly honest, I have no idea what they are talking about. Maine has largely failed because of protectionist, isolationist policies including the second highest corporate tax rate in the nation, high personal income tax, and a propensity to attack anything profitable (when I was at Colby, students were petitioning for a special tax on Nestle, owners of Poland Spring, one of few industrial success stories left in Maine).
Maine has completely screwed itself. The simple way out is to blame geography, but that is incorrect. Our beer loving neighbors to the North prove the fallacy of that argument, with francophone Montreal, a wonderful and European city, and anglophone Hallifax, a bustling and successful port city both showing that being to the north does not equal being backwards, incompetent, and hickish.
So where does this leave Maine? From one perspective, it leaves it in the same place as the majority of states in this nation, fundamentally opposed to granting a minority a basic right the majority already enjoys. Against the principles of this country? You bet. But that also makes Maine hard to single out: its in the same boat as California after all.
Yet, for Maine, it is one more step into oblivion. Maine has a huge brain drain. Smart? Born in Maine? Its almost guaranteed you dont live there now. College educated Mainers flee the state. Look a little to the left on the map and you find NH, which has the opposite effect. It brings in smart people from the rest of the country, consistently increasing its per-capita GDP and maintaining better roads, schools, and public services than Maine all while having much lower taxes.
Smart people love freedom. They love open environments. They love to live in cultured areas of interest. These things have a toehold in Portland, a very nice small city regarded by much of the rest of Maine as "not real Maine." This move to ban same sex marriage is just one more step by Maine it protect itself from all of those things, to ensure obscurity, and to welcome further decades of poverty, pointlessness, and crystal meth.
The supporters of same-sex marriage outspent opponents 2-1, already had the laws on the books, and had political support, yet still lost a very close vote (53%).
In other words, a bad sign for getting this idiotic decision reversed any time soon.
Maine means something more to me than the forgotten land up north with nice lobster, I went to college there. And there are things about Maine which I really like. Simplicity, friendliness, hard work ethic (in general), natural beauty etc etc. It is unfortunately also a state marred by incompetent and protectionist political leadership, widespread racism, poverty, drugs, prostitution, and a highly insular and often backwards view of the rest of the world.
A NYT article mentions Maine's "libertarian background," to be perfectly honest, I have no idea what they are talking about. Maine has largely failed because of protectionist, isolationist policies including the second highest corporate tax rate in the nation, high personal income tax, and a propensity to attack anything profitable (when I was at Colby, students were petitioning for a special tax on Nestle, owners of Poland Spring, one of few industrial success stories left in Maine).
Maine has completely screwed itself. The simple way out is to blame geography, but that is incorrect. Our beer loving neighbors to the North prove the fallacy of that argument, with francophone Montreal, a wonderful and European city, and anglophone Hallifax, a bustling and successful port city both showing that being to the north does not equal being backwards, incompetent, and hickish.
So where does this leave Maine? From one perspective, it leaves it in the same place as the majority of states in this nation, fundamentally opposed to granting a minority a basic right the majority already enjoys. Against the principles of this country? You bet. But that also makes Maine hard to single out: its in the same boat as California after all.
Yet, for Maine, it is one more step into oblivion. Maine has a huge brain drain. Smart? Born in Maine? Its almost guaranteed you dont live there now. College educated Mainers flee the state. Look a little to the left on the map and you find NH, which has the opposite effect. It brings in smart people from the rest of the country, consistently increasing its per-capita GDP and maintaining better roads, schools, and public services than Maine all while having much lower taxes.
Smart people love freedom. They love open environments. They love to live in cultured areas of interest. These things have a toehold in Portland, a very nice small city regarded by much of the rest of Maine as "not real Maine." This move to ban same sex marriage is just one more step by Maine it protect itself from all of those things, to ensure obscurity, and to welcome further decades of poverty, pointlessness, and crystal meth.
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