For a governor whose main calling card has long been posing as a political centrist and always coming out ahead in comparisons with the execrable Republican president we all just suffered four years under, Chris Sununu has certainly taken a right turn to the Dark Side with his June 25 signing of the New Hampshire state budget.

In many respects this $13.5 billion disaster resembles something that would be cooked up by hard-red state governors like Greg Abbott of Texas or Ron DeSantis of Florida, especially pertaining to its social and education aspects.

The Granite State only has itself to blame for this, with last November’s hard-right swing by our voters on our state level, while thankfully doing the right thing (as New Hampshire voters usually do) by making sure that we maintain solid Democratic representation in Washington D.C. with Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan in the US Senate and Annie Kuster in the House. NH voters also held a strong Biden-over-Trump edge as well. But the new GOP majorities here in the state Senate, House and Executive Council were a recipe for disaster, and that disaster has arrived.

Let’s look at abortion rights in the bill, signed by a governor who laughably insisted that he is a “pro-choice governor” before he signed it. Abortion for any reason is now illegal after 24 weeks, the only exception being to save the life of the mother. And the forced-ultrasound rule brings New Hampshire women back to the 1950s and before, as here in the year 2021 their autonomy over their own bodies and ability to choose has been eradicated. Doctors who perform abortions for any reason save for the mother’s life will be subject to felony charges.

And the Sununu/GOP oft-repeated lie about the new law being no different from liberal states like New York and Massachusetts is dispelled by taking a quick look at those states’ abortion rules, and see that they don’t match up at all. And it’s a pretty good shot that the Bay State, our friendly neighbor-to-the-south, may become a number of NH women’s new best friend starting about now.

Our public schools took a beating as well, with a new voucher program (read “Rob Peter To Pay Paul” sensibility) that will subtract dollars from their budgets, while simultaneously cutting both corporate taxes and those of our richest citizens. Last week various Tri-City officials gave a press conference in front of Somersworth High School, voicing opposition to the financial ramifications that the new voucher program represents.

By allocating $4000-$5000 per student and allowing them to use the money either in the public school they’re enrolled in or a private school, millions of dollars will be diverted from the public school system. Estimates range up to $70 million lost in the next three years, which would decimate the far lower-cost option that had existed for NH families.

Voucher systems have been favored by the GOP federally and state-level for decades, despite the ever-present fact that it would financially decimate whatever public service is being affected. And Sununu’s plan is no different, as it overwhelmingly benefits the for-profit private sector.

And a “kinder, gentler” American past is about to be unfurled to our young students, the levels of mendacity remaining to be seen. But the history of white racism in America, from the beginnings of the slave trade all the way up to the Tulsa Massacre and everything in between, is sure to get a thorough “cleaning up” under the new laws of inaccuracy being implanted.

We’ll see how this rolls out going forward, but our youngsters may have to become home-educated regarding past and ongoing White/Black relations by home viewings of fine films like “Selma” and “12 Years A Slave” (with, say “Judas And The Black Messiah” for sociological balance) in order to get a nuanced view of our nation’s continuing failure in that regard.

One of the infuriating quotes by a number of victorious Republican reps and senators was intoning ad nauseam about how the new conservative majorities have successfully “reeled in spending” from the last few years of Democrat influence. The Granite State has among the very smallest total tax bites of all 50 states, and has for years, and it is ludicrous to repeat the canard that tax cuts are tantamount to our residents’ survival. Except unfortunately many people actually believe it simply because the rep or Council person they voted for said it, instead of doing 2 minutes of investigative GOOGLING and finding out just how low our taxes are, while also discovering our reduced services compared to the many benefits that Massachusetts and other states’ residents enjoy with their higher tariffs.

Chris Sununu has 15 months to go before he can be held accountable for this unpopular late-Friday-afternoon-signed fiasco. Let’s hope that our voters make a better choice in November, 2022.