Watch a fiery back-and-forth between Laurie Osher and Billy Bob Faulkingham
An Orono Democrat on Monday compared members of the Maine Republican Party to the German Nazi Party in the run up to World War 2 and the Holocaust.
“So the books being banned and challenged around the nation are often written by marginalized people, and students in clubs that would read them, or in classes, may have the– this may be the only way to learn about diversity,” said Rep. Laurie Osher (D-Orono).
“This deeply concerns me because this mirrors what happened in Germany in the rise before-,” she said, at which point Republicans raised a point of order.
The bill that led Osher to compare Republicans to the Nazi Party — a political movement that systematically enslaved and murdered more than 10 million people in the 20th century — would have required schools to put a rating system on library books, similar to how movies are rated.
According to polling conducted in February by the Maine Wire and Co/Efficient, policies that would allow parents more say over whether their kids can access sexually explicit books are broadly popular with Maine voters.
Asked whether schools should have safeguards in place to make sure students can only access books and materials that are appropriate for their age, 80 percent of Republicans, 47 percent of Democrats, and 63 percent of unaffiliated voters said yes.
After the raucous debate, the House killed the book rating bill in a party line vote.
