As Maine Went: Governor Paul LePage and the Tea Party Takeover of Maine (Paperback)
Description
The improbable and compelling story of Paul LePage’s ascent to the governor’s office in 2010 and the impact of his first term. Not one quote, statistic, or conclusion of this book has ever been refuted, and no one who reads it will be surprised by LePage’s second term.
IMAGINE THAT THE FUTURE WELL-BEING OF YOUR STATE is handed by 38% of its voters to a governor who tells the NAACP to 'kiss my butt'; who jokes that the worst his lax policies on toxic chemicals in consumer products will do is cause women to grow 'little beards'; who falsely claims that an active wind turbine is fake and run by 'a little electric motor'; and who loudly condemns your state's public schools as the worst in the nation while a national news magazine is ranking them among the best.
Maine's governor Paul LePage has said all those things and much more in his stormy tenure. As disclosed for the first time in this book, he also spent 13 hours in 2013 in private meetings with conspiracy theorists discussing what he would do if the federal government allowed Russian troops to invade North America, while at the same time claiming that he had no time to meet with legislative leaders.
For the past 6 years, Maine has been a laboratory for Tea Party governance. When a movement defined by its distrust of government is handed the keys to a state, what happens next?
As Maine Went examines Paul LePage's record to answer the question that matters most: Is he making Maine a better place?
About the Author
Mike Tipping writes about Maine politics and policy with a focus on analysis and explanation. He works at the Maine People's Alliance and Maine People s Resource Center, writes a political column for the Portland Press Herald and is @miketipping on Twitter. He is the author of The Tipping Point blog on the website of the Bangor Daily News. He lives in Westbrook, Maine.
Praise For…
A
case study of how someone can go completely off the rails when he’s stuck
inside a Tea Party bubble.
— Kevin Drum - Mother Jones
Hats off to Mike Tipping for stepping back from the daily barrage of
headlines and diving deeply into the political phenomenon that is
Governor Paul LePage. From health care and education to buffaloes and
black flies, As Maine Went paints an informative and often troubling
portrait of one of Maine s most unforgettable public figures.
— Bill Nemitz, columnist, Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram
