ASHLAND, N.H. - With the quick Christmas break concluded, Republican presidential contenders return to the field today to begin making their final case to voters. In this bellwether town, conservative and moderate voters alike say it is a difficult case to make, with a Republican lineup that’s rife with candidates flawed by embarrassing revelations, political histories, and policy flip-flops.
New Hampshire voters are well-known for waiting to make their decisions - the benign tyranny of small-state voters who get to loom large every four years.
Is it just me, or is that a subtle elitist insult?
Voting, elections, representative democracy, is tyranny?
Well, at least we know the viewpoint of the tyranny-promoting paper (what could be more tyrannical than 1-2% of the population controlling most of the wealth and media?).
But this year, decision-making in Ashland feels especially tortured as the unenthused eliminate candidates rather than select one....
Is it just me, or is the terminology and framing of that paragraph the same?
I will agree, voting has become torture in AmeriKa, but....
And some have selected a candidate, Globe. You just don't like the one we have.
The fuzzy politics are at odds with the severe quality of Ashland this time of year. Without leafy covers, the angles of houses jut more sharply, the battened-down mills take on a condemned Gothic quality, the hills loom as shadowed masses on the horizon.
Wow, what a dismal place. It's good writing, though. Makes you wonder why isn't this person writing novels?
Add to that the town budget just hammered out that’s tighter than it’s been in years. The town’s Christmas lights fund-raising that hit a wall. Domestic violence rates up. And the thieves, a few weeks back, who stole petty cash, a digital camera, and computers from the town library....
What, Muslims moving into town (sigh)?
Dave Marsh grew up coming to the gabled library. His roots are deep here; his grandfather was the town electrician, and the dam that powered the mills is named for him. Marsh left Ashland to work in Boston’s financial district as a computer programmer. But he gave up the money chase, returned to Ashland, and became a trucker....
Huh.
Marsh ticked off the candidates’ flaws. Romney: “Far too liberal to run as a Republican.’’ Ron Paul: “Something about the look in his eye makes me uncomfortable.’’
Fair enough, but please (heavy sigh).
Rick Perry: “He disqualified himself to me in so many ways, starting with his stand on immigration. Why should our citizens of the United States pick up the tab for illegal immigrants to go to our colleges?’’ Gingrich: “Everyone has such a short memory. He’s just as dirty as the rest of them,’’ he said, referring to Gingrich’s ethics violations while in Congress.
“I want somebody I can believe in,’’ he said.
Then look to yourself, sir.
Deliverance is a familiar refrain here. Ever since the last mill closed a decade ago, there’s been hope of someone riding into town, buying up the mills’ thousands of square feet, and making them economic engines once again.
Interesting:
"There’s plenty of reason to think stocks will rise fast in the coming year. U.S. companies are generating record profits."
Where is all that money riding off to, huh?
"Statistically, the recession ended in June 2009, but it’s been a tough slog since for nearly everybody. One exception: The number of people earning $1 million a year or more increased in 2010 by nearly 20 percent, the government reported last week."
And WHERE are the JOBS, Americans?
More than the Dollar and More Store that now occupies a portion of the space and sells kaleidoscopes made from the loom spindles of the woolen mill. There have been sniffs of interest, but little more. Now, as jobs in every sector have tightened up, the focus has shifted to a white knight for the country.
At first it seemed like it was Romney....
But....
Romney has his supporters here, of course. Bill Bernsen, an artist who makes sculptures in the converted railroad depot, told the Globe in the summer that he was behind Romney because he seemed like the sort who would buy a piece of art from him. Bernsen is still waiting to make the sale, but he’s still a supporter. And Romney at long last has clinched the vote of Marion Merrill, the 96-year-old grandmother of Romney’s New Hampshire chief strategist, Jim Merrill. She was undecided in the fall.
Should Ashland pass on Romney, it won’t be its first time rejecting an establishment favorite. Ashland was among the towns in the state that in 1996 bypassed Bob Dole to vote for the firebrand Patrick Buchanan.
Indeed, this year, libertarian-leaning Ron Paul is often mentioned as an antidote to Romney’s perceived flip-flops on policy issues. Paul, voters say, seems truthful and consistent.
What’s not clear is that folks here want what Paul is offering. Libertarian-leaning as Ashland might be, Paul’s vision of government is a bit too spare for some here.
But over at Leyton’s Restaurant and Pub, where bar patrons were sparse on a recent evening - no football game, no 25-cent wings, no karaoke - Chris Chapman, the 23-year-old assistant manager, had a few minutes to explain why Paul has the formula right.
“He’s totally uncharismatic. But he prioritizes what needs to be cut,’’ he said. He especially favors Paul’s proposed cuts to the military. “We are taught to fear everything. I don’t fear for my life from an invasion.’’
It's Ron Paul country, folks.
The political theater of this election season has skipped this town. There’s been no Occupy Ashland.
I've tired of the political theater.
Wealthy lakeside owners in neighboring towns provide a good number of jobs for Ashland residents and are viewed as necessary, if a bit over-the-top with their many-square-feet Adirondack-styled manses.
Yes, we are all dependent on the crumbs from the rich these days.
Btw, one of the mansions is Romney's.
Yet, some wonder why the other wealthy - those faceless Wall Street barons - aren’t asked to kick in more to the federal kitty.
“Washington doesn’t want to do anything about the wealthy,’’ said Lisa Ash, who owns a hardware store on Main Street with her husband. “I don’t think they put in nearly enough.’’
So why not vote for the Democrats, who advocate as much?
“I don’t agree with their ethical positions,’’ said Ash, who is opposed to abortion.
It's not only that; it's the disingenuous tax-the-rich argument after not only failing to repeal with a filibuster-proof (I was told) majority, but actually extending the Bush tax cuts that would have avoided all this alleged budgetary stress. Every time a vote comes up the false debate emerges as to the difference in the two factions of the corporate war party.
Which leaves her, for the moment, without a candidate....
Not me.
--more--"
FLASHBACK:
"At N.H.’s center, a town with a nose for winners; It’s uncanny, but as goes Ashland, so goes the state in GOP presidential primaries. It’s a perfect perch to gauge the political free-for-all of 2012" by Sarah Schweitzer Globe Staff / October 2, 2011
ASHLAND, N.H. - Often, feisty independence drives decisions. Ashland voters were among those in the state who gave the nod to outlier presidential contenders John McCain in 2000 and Patrick Buchanan in 1996....
Looks like Ron Paul country.
Ron Paul gave soft sells to the crowd the other night when the local Republican committee held its monthly spaghetti supper at the Legion, an all-you-can-eat affair with garlic bread, tossed salad, and a dessert table piled with pink sugar cookies, brownies, and cupcakes....
Folks here hazard guesses why their little town mirrors the state’s conservative political soul.
Uh-oh.
There’s its geographical position, lying smack in the middle of the state. (Officially, the center of New Hampshire is in neighboring New Hampton, but people in Ashland still claim the distinction, with T-shirts for sale at the Dollar and More store in the old L.W. Packard & Co. wool mill that declare, “Middle of Nowhere.’’)
Or maybe it’s the way that Ashland comprises so many of New Hampshire’s economic facets with its shuttered mills, lake houses, modern factories churning out gaskets and wooden shoe trees by the highway, and restaurants that cater to the Boston ski crowd headed north to Waterville Valley.
Like much of the state, Ashland has weathered the recession relatively unscathed. Property tax collection rates have stayed steady at 95 percent; one town position was eliminated and later restored.
But food pantry and welfare expenses have ticked up in recent years, and town officials are looking for new revenue streams, like charging $1 for a dump sticker- among other moves that have met with resistance from residents who say they have no more to give in these times.
More fundamentally, some sense that Ashland’s peak may have passed, with the once plentiful mill jobs gone. To be sure, Ashland’s last mill - L.W. Packard’s - was comparatively late to depart for China, in 2002. But as in other mill towns, thousands of empty square feet remain, awaiting a white knight to transform the space into condos or a restaurant, and today many residents work out of town....
Well, I don't think of Ron Paul as a white knight; he is simply far better than the other agenda servants auditioning for the job.
--more--"
Related: New Hampshire is a Terrorist State
Also see: Sunday Globe Special: Ron Paul Rising in New Hampshire
More fundamentally, some sense that Ashland’s peak may have passed, with the once plentiful mill jobs gone. To be sure, Ashland’s last mill - L.W. Packard’s - was comparatively late to depart for China, in 2002. But as in other mill towns, thousands of empty square feet remain, awaiting a white knight to transform the space into condos or a restaurant, and today many residents work out of town....
Well, I don't think of Ron Paul as a white knight; he is simply far better than the other agenda servants auditioning for the job.
--more--"
Related: New Hampshire is a Terrorist State
Also see: Sunday Globe Special: Ron Paul Rising in New Hampshire
