Maine Republicans adopted an official party platform over the weekend that reiterates many long-standing conservative policy positions but also includes language seeking to limit overseas deployments of the Maine National Guard.
During the state GOP convention in Augusta, party activists approved a platform containing several dozen principles and policies, including lowering taxes, reducing the size of government and to secure all U.S. borders. The platform also includes social statements, such as defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman, opposing taxpayer-funded abortions and calling for welfare reform.
Reflective of the ongoing culture wars in U.S. politics, the platform also called for restricting schools to only teaching about male or female genders, prohibiting public K-12 schools from "promoting the subject matter of hormone replacement theory" and opposing critical race theory.
But by a voice vote, the gathering of more than 1,000 party activists also endorsed calling on the Maine Legislature to prohibit Maine National Guard deployments into foreign conflicts unless Congress formally declares war. Maine National Guard leaders have previously called similar proposal "dangerous" to the Guard's mission and federal support.
It was only a symbolic vote, as are all of the items in a party platform. But the author of the proposal, Sen. Eric Brakey of Auburn, said Monday that it sends a message to Republican lawmakers that party activists want them to lead on the issue. Brakey has introduced similar bills in the Maine Legislature.
"If we are going to take [Guard members] and ship them off to fight in foreign wars, Congress just has to do the bare minimum of their constitutional responsibility," Brakey said Monday in an interview. "They have to actually vote on it and go on record so that if it's a bad decision, they can be held accountable when elections come around."
With the vote, the Maine GOP joined a small number of state Republican parties that have now incorporated the "Defend the Guard" movement into their platforms.
"This is going to be many states, standing up for their men and women in uniform and saying this long-term abuse that has gone on for decades now of undeclared wars without clear missions that seem to only benefit the military industrial complex, this is not going to continue anymore with our soldiers," Brakey said.
The "Defend the Guard" movement has yet to receive approval in any state legislature nationwide, however, although it has passed several legislative chambers. The New Hampshire House, for instance, endorsed the proposal earlier this year only to have it sidelined in the state Senate earlier this month.
In fact, Brakey was the only senator to vote in support of his bill on the floor of the Senate last year. The measure picked up some bipartisan support in the Maine House but still failed by a roughly 40 vote margin.
Those votes came after the then-head of the Maine National Guard, Major General Douglas Farnham, called the bill "dangerous to the entire National Guard." Testifying to a legislative committee, Farnham raised concerns that approval of such a measure could result in a federal decision to move National Guard missions or components to others states that are viewed as more "accessible" to the Department of Defense.
"lt is my concern and belief that the state would risk the loss of federal units and equipment, as passage of this legislation would be seen by DOD as unwillingness by the state to uphold the federal obligation required by the dual oaths taken by National Guard members," Farnham said. "It puts at risk the Guard’s standing as the primary combat reserve of the U.S. Air Force and US Anny. It is this status that leads to the funding of the nearly 3000 members of the Maine National Guard and our equipment, including the I0 KC-135 air refueling aircraft in Bangor. This represents over $130 million in federal payroll alone."
