William Jennings Bryan ran as a third-party candidacy for president. He did so well that the Democrats adopted many of his positions, and started winning elections.
In 2010, Eliot Cutler came in a strong second to Gov. Paul LePage, whipping a Democrat whose qualifications were long service to her party, and positions that showed her to be clueless.
In 2014, rather than live up to their rhetoric that LePage is too everything, and must go at any cost, by stepping aside for a man with a strong run against LePage on record, Democrats put up a man who ran ads saying he has a plan, but he wouldn’t say what it is, that said he shares our traditions, without specifying which traditions he meant, and was backed by a national party that seemed to have a program based on keeping its power.
They demanded that Cutler stay out of the race so a real politician with a real party could show him how it’s done.
The Federalists won their objective, lacked a new mission, and are gone. So are the Whigs. As the Klingons say, “Grow or die.”
Tom Heyns
Chelsea
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