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Magicians use misdirection to fool us. How has President Donald Trump used this technique in his recent attacks on the state of Maine?
While Trump and Elon Musk arbitrarily propose to recklessly slash federal programs like Medicaid, food stamps, Head Start, and other safety nets that protect millions of women, children, and their families, they seek to shift billions of dollars of tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans.
One way they divert attention from this transfer of wealth from the neediest to the least needy is to focus on one trans athlete from a small state by threatening to cut millions of federal dollars of support to education in the whole state and to start an unprecedented investigation of Title IX in all educational institutions.
They make the target of their attack the tiny fraction of vulnerable transgender youth, many of whom are living daily lives of fear and in which they are terrified for their safety and survival, and they target the female governor of the state. They say that this is all done to protect women.
Who benefits and who pays for this sleight of hand?
This is not a magical trick to entertain us, but rather a diversionary trick to divide us and that will bring suffering and oppression to millions of American women and others we love and care about.
Ilze Petersons
Orono
