Dear Editor:

Its campaign season and the political mailers are flying. It is worth noting what they are saying and what they are leaving out. One example comes from a PAC touting a “conservative” candidate who “backs the blue,” and promises to “restore order.”

The PAC makes it clear that it's all the Democrat’s fault. It has been the perennial Republican proposition to lay the blame of all society’s ill at the feet to Democrats when blame can be attributed in large measure to either party. That is to say the problems facing our society are larger than either party and require the ideas and cooperation of both to make any meaningful difference.

But let’s look deeper into what else the mailer is telling us. The PAC promotes the idea that all we need to do is support law enforcement, deport criminal illegals, crack down on crime, and do away with policies that treat addiction as a public health issue.

In essence the PAC believes that we should double down on the so called “war on drugs.” One might suppose that after 50 years of policy failure, the GOP would come up with something else that might have a chance of succeeding.

The fact is, drug use, like poverty, has been one of society's intractable problems throughout human history. There is a well established link between crime and economic distress. The incidence of domestic violence, suicide and alcoholism or drug abuse increases as families struggle to cope with a rigged economic game. Jails will not help these people.

What is also interesting about the mailer is what it does not say. Apparently the candidate has no solution to the crisis of health care costs, or skyrocketing housing costs, or that so many Mainers are living below the poverty line.

What I get out of this mailer is that the PAC is using the specter of fear and anger as a cheap ploy to garner votes with no real solutions to real problems. This is not conservative in any sense, it is simply stupid.

Fred W. Nehring

Boothbay