The key to Lockman
Larry Lockman can tolerate people — so long as they’re white, Christian, cis-gendered, heterosexual, American citizens and Republicans of the MAGA persuasion.
Or they could be neo-Nazis.
Lockman’s disdain for anyone he perceives as different from himself manifests itself in, among other diseases, homophobia, racism, xenophobia, misogyny and egotism. But it doesn’t explain how he got that way. To understand what makes Lockman such a clog in life’s sewage pipe, here’s some necessary background.
Lockman is a former GOP state representative from Amherst. When he first took office in 2012, he had a reputation as a fringey kook who claimed he didn’t have to pay federal income tax. He tried to reinvent himself as a conventional conservative intent on cutting welfare and taxes, but he also had a nastier agenda. The liberal Maine People’s Alliance tracked down his more inflammatory opinions, including a 1987 letter to the Lewiston Sun Journal that characterized homosexuality as “a perverted and depraved crime against humanity.”
In 1995, Lockman gave a talk in which he was quoted as saying, “If a woman has [the right to abortion], why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman? At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t result in anyone’s death.”
Legislative Democrats called for his resignation, and Lockman issued a squishy apology: “I have always been passionate about my beliefs, and years ago I said things that I regret,” adding that he held “no animosity” toward gay or transgendered people.
Soon after, Lockman called a liberal candidate for Lewiston mayor “an anti-Christian bigot” because Ben Chin, an Episcopal lay preacher, delivered a sermon criticizing some churches for opposing abortion and social-welfare programs. Lockman’s attack prompted more Democratic calls for his resignation.
Undeterred, Lockman demanded a five-year moratorium on all immigration and an end to welfare payments to legal immigrants. Under the guise of something called the New England Opportunity Project, Lockman sent out flyers suggesting that Democratic state Rep. Jeff McCabe of Skowhegan favored giving welfare benefits to “Islamic State terrorists living in Maine.” The project was fined by the state ethics commission for failing to follow campaign finance law.
Remember that “no animosity” claim about LGBTQ folks? In a 2016 Portland Press Herald op-ed, Lockman stated, “[C]onfusion about one’s ‘gender identity’ is a symptom of mental illness, not a badge of victim status.”
Qualifying for such a victim badge, in Lockman’s view, required refusing to believe climate change is caused by people. In 2017, he introduced a bill to ban discrimination against anyone who rejected what he called “a faith-based ideology of climate change hysteria.” As with most Lockman bills, it went nowhere.
In 2018, Lockman sent out a flyer promoting his re-election that warned of “the left’s war on whites.” That swayed at least one person’s opinion. Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who’d previously donated to Lockman’s campaigns, announced she would no longer support him.
That same year, Lockman started the Maine First Project, a political action committee promoting anti-immigrant views. Its website featured propaganda such as: “EXPOSED: Open-Border Leftists Plot to Invade Rural Maine with Muslim Refugees.” Lockman told The Bollard there was nothing racist about that because, “Islam is not a race …. It’s about Sharia law, a primitive, totalitarian ideology that has no place in our society.”
In 2019, Lockman introduced a bill to prevent public-school teachers from expressing any controversial views in classrooms. He said it would counter the “abundant evidence that leftist indoctrination is taking place” in Maine schools. The measure was likely an unconstitutional infringement on free speech, prompting a unanimous ought-not-to-pass recommendation from a bipartisan legislative committee.
Buoyed by that lack of support, Lockman, now living in Bradley, announced his candidacy for a state Senate seat held by a moderate Republican. Even with the backing of former Gov. Paul LePage, he lost the primary.
After that, Lockman kept busy promoting a fake Twitter account that disparaged immigrants in Portland, and by contributing to legislative candidates who promised to support banning teachers from discussing racism, gay rights or transgender issues in class. Four of seven who made that pledge lost.
Recently, he posted an essay on the conservative Maine Wire that claimed “the legions of neo-Marxist tyrants in the corridors of power in the Statehouse” pose a greater threat to Mainers than “a few neo-Nazi bigots playing with guns in the woods of Springfield.”
Lockman’s many defeats have left him with little to show for his wackadoodle ways, but beating his head against the wall seems to reinforce his innate weirdness. He’s now trying to launch a lawsuit aimed at getting the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn state laws granting civil-rights protections to transgender students.
There’s a bit of irony in that. Although there’s no indication Lockman is misgendered, several biologists I didn’t bother to consult said there’s evidence he may be what they termed “trans-specied.” Best guess: Inside his seemingly human body, there’s a slime mold trying to get out.
Send ooze I can use to aldiamon@herniahill.net.
