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by Pam Baker
I attended the Town Hall event on Monday by Balint and have submitted the letter below to the Brattleboro Reformer. I will also submit it to other outlets as well. You will notice, I have toned down my normal rhetoric. (Or maybe you won’t notice…) And I did this purposefully to get a message across to the middle of the road voters and citizens. If we don’t start trying to build community, we will lose it all in a little over 3 years from now. The only other option is untenable. Use your imagination. Think… “ashes, ashes, we all fall down.”
As a Vermonter, I am deeply concerned that Rep. Becca Balint fails to build trust across ideological lines — a core responsibility for any elected official representing a politically diverse state. Roughly one-third of Vermonters identify as conservative, and another third as independent, libertarian, or unaffiliated. That means a majority of the people she serves don’t necessarily share her political ideology — and yet, their voices are too often absent from her agenda.
Since taking office in 2023, Rep. Balint has aligned herself almost exclusively with the progressive wing of Congress. Her public statements and legislative priorities rarely reflect the concerns of those outside her base. This isn’t just a missed opportunity — it’s a failure to fulfill the basic responsibilities of her office. A representative is elected to serve all constituents, not just those who share her political ideology.
At a recent town hall in Bellows Falls on April 14th, this divide was only deepened. Conservative constituents were effectively excluded from the conversation, as her staff carefully managed which audience members were allowed to ask questions despite the appearance of randomness. Only one independent voter was given the opportunity to speak. Instead of fostering open dialogue, the event became a rally of sorts — with Rep. Balint taking aim at the current administration and even encouraging the audience to “disrupt” government. The tone invited division, not unity. Attendees shouted epithets, and one visibly nervous citizen was berated by another audience member simply because she was hard to hear. That’s not what democracy — or decency — should look like.
One phrase stood out: “Let’s throw some punches.” While some might write that off as political bluster, language matters. In today’s tense climate, that kind of rhetoric only fuels a combative mindset. It doesn’t invite cooperation; it signals opposition — not just to policies, but to people. And that mindset trickles down to our communities, where many Vermonters, regardless of political affiliation, no longer feel safe talking to their neighbors about the issues that matter to them. When both conservatives and progressives feel silenced or shamed, we have a serious problem.
This pattern isn’t new. In February, Rep. Balint made misleading claims that “unelected billionaire Elon Musk has illegally seized control of the payment systems at the United States Treasury.” She described it as a national emergency. Yet, when 2.9 billion personal records — including Social Security numbers — were compromised in a major data breach in August 2024, there was no comparable public response from her office. If she is truly concerned about our data security, where was the outrage then?
At a time when so many people feel isolated and ignored, her message that “you are not alone” rings hollow to those outside her ideological circle.
Rep. Balint could use her platform to bring people together. Instead of focusing on “ugliness” inside the political system or adopting an adversarial tone, she could say: “While we face serious challenges, it’s more important than ever that we come together to find common ground and make progress for the American people.” That’s the kind of leadership Vermont — and our country — needs.
We deserve a representative who works for all of us — not just those who agree with her. That means attending events hosted by conservative groups, holding inclusive town halls, engaging respectfully with differing perspectives, and recognizing that leadership isn’t about choosing sides. It’s about bridging them.
The author is a West Halifax resident and 2024 GOP candidate for the Windham-6 House seat.
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Categories: Commentary
Considering the amount of ad time she’s bought on YouTube – she claims that she and her staff are there to help Vermonters with issues involving three letter agencies of said government. How can she help if she is encouraging and instructing to disrupt those offices? Is she adversarial to the agencies she is voting to fund and support by her actions on the floor and standing behind rallying with Chuck Schumer and Maxine Waters? Pandering platitudes based on which zip code she’s standing in at the time – apparently. Still auditioning to be a ranking member of the Squad – they’re down a member and others under investigation. Carry on!
If it is true that “a majority of the people she serves don’t necessarily share her political ideology” how did she get elected?
How is this often called for “unity” supposed to be accomplished? The Left has strayed further and further away from me. I will never make common cause with abortion on demand; the freakish WOKE subculture; the Marxist collectivist Christian hating elitists; the total control of my life through DEI, Climate Change, extremist environmental policies. The only possible unity would be trivial aspects.
She got elected by Sam Bankman Freed ( sic?), directing 1 million through a super pac that landed in her chest, a week didn’t go by without another glossy 8×12, additionally, the news was directed to color her amazing ,to triple her coverage and to color others negative, this is for the trans human ai agenda, she fills the bill. lastly for this shortened list, with no hand checks of voter counts, who’s counting? Dominion? WE ought to begin calling out hate speech of these people.
More thinly veiled violent rhetoric from the party that likes to accuse their political opponents of fomenting violence…Real Vermonters are just beaming with pride knowing how well represented we are in congress…2 New Yorkers and a Masshole…
Well put, Ms. Baker.
But I suggest caution when asserting the idea that “We deserve a representative who works for all of us”.
Is there such a person? I ask only because I’ve never seen or met anyone who can do that work. And if, by chance, on the one day that person does work for me, as surely as we are human and subjects of our own human nature, the next day will bring about a contrary result.
I’m reminded of Henry David Thoreau’s sentiments expressed in Chapter 2 of his missive Walden, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For.
‘There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted. It is human, it is divine, carrion. If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life, as from that dry and parching wind of the African deserts called the simoom, which fills the mouth and nose and ears and eyes with dust till you are suffocated, for fear that I should get some of his good done to me,—some of its virus mingled with my blood.
No,—in this case I would rather suffer evil the natural way. A man is not a good man to me because he will feed me if I should be starving, or warm me if I should be freezing, or pull me out of a ditch if I should ever fall into one. I can find you a Newfoundland dog that will do as much. Philanthropy is not love for one’s fellow-man in the broadest sense. [My neighbor] was no doubt an exceedingly kind and worthy man in his way, and has his reward; but, comparatively speaking, what are a hundred [neighbors] to us, if their philanthropy do not help us in our best estate, when we are most worthy to be helped? I never heard of a philanthropic meeting in which it was sincerely proposed to do any good to me, or the like of me’.
And in consideration of Rep. Balint’s call to “… throw some punches”, she too should be cautioned by Thoreau’s two-fold warning in his missive ‘Civil Disobedience’.
First, that –
’I heartily accept the motto, “That government is best which governs least”; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe–“That government is best which governs not at all”; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.’
Second, what do we do to escape misplaced or forcibly institutionalized charity, when running away is no longer possible? Again, consider Thoreau’s sentiments.
“The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.”
Ms. Balint: Be careful what you wish for.
We are first and foremost, not intended to every be or want to be a democracy. Her job is to defend the constitution.
However, Balaint was bought and paid for by one person to the tune of $1,000,000. Yet nobody in Vermont batted an eye. This should be brought up when ever her name is mentioned.
She is a pimp for Agenda 21, United Nations, she works not for any Vermonter, but in truth is an agent of subversion, whose masters want to overthrow a perfect good Republic……we are supposed to be a Republic.
Of course, our education system is so abysmal, no body stands up for this simple, widely known for centuries fact.
Dear Becca. Read this and adjust, or resign please. D Morrisseau. I’ll take your seat.
YOU WILL OWN NOTHING AND YOU WILL BE HAPPY. In Vermont you will become a renter on the land you once owned. Hyper inflation will bankrupt you and deflation will destroy property values. More to come in 2025.
It’s too bad. The Republicans play by Marquess of Queensberry Rules, when they represent Vermonters, but the others take all their shots below the belt.
All I’ve seen lately from Sanders, Welch and Balint collectively is political performative “art”. Limited or no substance to date. On March 31, Balint Introduced the Transgender Health Care Access Act. Give me a break… that’s insanity in my book.
Balint is waging war on Vermonters in the name of opposition to Trump. Ultimately, she is waging war on the far left — opening borders to violent criminals and offering them more benefits and privileges than the citizenry hurts ALL of her constituents. She deludes herself that her toxic vitriol is virtue-signaling for the marginalized, but it is the precise opposite. It is not virtuous to advocate for anarchy, defend criminals, expose Vermont women and children to dangerous gang trafficking of drugs and sex slaves, endanger girls by allowing boys to play in girls’ sports, or tax us into starvation and homelessness. It is also not very wise to agitate against the federal purse strings upon which Vermonters in particular rely upon — including the truly poor. Becca is out for her own ego, a la Bernie. Let her do this — and answer at the polls when she shifts her pitch to unity and common sense. She is all in on her scrappy little anarchist routine — let her double down, and take her progressive ideology down the toilet bowl with her.
Baliint is from Germany and sought the good live that once was in Vermont. Her actions show that she doesn’t know, understand, relate to the Constitution and Bill of Rights. She should take a cognitive test to determine if she’s fit for an office to serve the populaces. Also illustrates that Vermont is full of Shepeople that can be easily influenced, a serious dumbing down of VT.
Ms. Balint was born to a United States service member serving in Germany. I don’t care for Ms. Balint but I don’t like untrue statements either.
I wholeheartedly agree that she clearly doesn’t care what the Constitution or Bill of Rights states as demonstrated by her many egregious behaviors.
I have watched Ms. Balint speak in public several times now. She screams “lets get
violent” in all of her dog whistle phrases. She has no plan or alternative to anything she disagrees with. I am pretty sure she is a AOC wannabe. Ms. Balint is trying desperately to carve out a place for herself and be visible, unfortunately she does not have a message that has any answers to anything other than being a “scrappy little dyke”. All Vermonters deserves so much better than Ms. Balint.
Oh Look! She spent ten minutes out of her party tuxedo!
Baker writes, “…That means a majority of the people she serves don’t necessarily share her political ideology …) Rep. Balent was elected by a clear majority, so the majority of Vermonters do share her political ideology.
Not necessarily @jdevino1791. Being “elected by the clear majority” means nothing these days when Election Fraud isn’t random and seems to always lean in favor of the candidate representing the World Economic Forum’s ideology.
Not when “Dominion” Electronic Voting Machines are counting our ballots. “Dominion” from the Book of Genesis 1:28 means; “to rule over all creation, and have ‘dominion’ over the fish, and birds, and every living thing that moveth upon the earth’. The 1% billionaires manufacture these Electronic Voting Machines. It’s high time we go back to Paper Ballots.
Re: Dominion Voting Machines… Does anyone really believe Biden (the least popular Democrat running in 2020) won? No. He was selected; a self-proclaimed “Zionist” who would march in lock-step during their unconstitutional Covid Lockdowns (closing Vermont small businesses) & going along with Fauci’s C19 Vaccine mandates, leaving thousands of Vermonters C19-Vaccine-Injured.
The C19-Vaccine-Injured; who are being told by Bernie Sanders (representing the WEF & Pfizer, not Vermonter’s) that their suffering is from “Long Covid” (when it’s likely 5% at most)… Denying the C19-Vaccine-Injured Victims the TRUTH, and falsifying the mandates that violated the Nuremberg Code of Ethics we’re “safe & effective.”
… Bernie’s “Moonshot Bill” is just to obfuscate the truth and force the Tax payers cover for the astronomical Healthcare Bill that Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Jansen SHOULD BE PAYING… Not the American people murdered & disabled by these unlawfully mandated and coerced C19-injections.
Bernie and, his “Long Covid Moonshot Bill”… is Performance Art … Just like Balint threatening to “throw some punches.”. They’re both being funded to Play the WEF Role, just like a good little Nazi’s.
Becca Balint, Bernie Sanders & Peter Welch represent the New World Order’s Agenda 2030 and they’re all ready, and willing to walk the sheeple of Vermont off a cliff to serve this diabolical New World Order being shoved down our throats. As a lifelong Democrat, I am beyond horrified at what this party has become.
Absolutely spot on “maureenschilder”. I was waiting for someone to make the claim “jdevino1791” has made, regarding majority.
And I was careful in my language use. For instance, “…don’t necessarily” was used because we cannot be certain of the election results. There is no ability to audit the results or verify them against rolls as so many town clerks have not purged the rolls. Just the fact that the current process absolutely cannot be audited should be enough for rational, mature adults in this state to take serious action. But alas, they’d rather sit on their phones or watch Netflix or whatever, than pay attention to what is happening in the world around them. And then use the brains God gave them to suss out what the truth is and take action. Just my opinion, and you know what those are like. I could be wrong.
Balint is underestimated. Now preparing to run for a Senate seat, she is much more reckless and dangerous than previously recognized. It’s not easy being on the wrong side of every issue siding with the 20% against the reasonable and responsible 80% but Balint somehow manages to find her way there. She may be well-educated, but she is neither smart nor wise.
In reality she is just another transparent panderer, overly ambitious out of stater using Vermonters to move up the food chain, to gain more power, more wealth. Just another lemming, a clapping monkey or what Stalin termed a “useful idiot.”
While her rights as a gay woman would be respected and protected in Israel, she supports Hamas which would rape and mutilate her. Where is her moral compass? Her lack of human values and sound judgment must serve to eliminate her from public office. Any so-called leader who calls for violence, as she does, urging the “throwing of punches” needs less time in Washington and more time in a psychiatrist’s office to work out her anger issues.
It’s really quite simple. It’s good versus evil and if you don’t have the decency and courage to see it and call it out for what it is, then you forfeit your standing to competently and justly represent and advocate for others. Vermonters deserve better.
Indeed Mr. Meiselman, Vermonters do deserve better. Unfortunately, we are hampered by a corrupt legislative body, a corrupt and biased media, present platform notwithstanding and and brainwashed and lazy populace. But, we continue to march on, do the best we can with what we have and pray. Always pray.
Balint and her VT State cohorts acted the same way when the “climate crisis” working group first held public meetings. Only those who subscribed to the narrative were given time to speak. It was a great struggle to demand to be heard. Nor was here equal time given, whatsoever. The “public meetings” were engineered to avoid facts or the development of any scientific rationale for their contention. Those public meetings began with the forgone conclusion that there was a climate emergency, a climate crisis, and from there sprung the culture changing initiative, agenda and steam rolled restrictions on carbon emissions because, don’t you know, CO2 is a pollutant?! Efforts to halt the progression of their rhetoric and canned presentation, requiring information or evidence to support their contention that there was in fact such a man made climate urgency were ignored then and have been since. The people were just supposed to swallow it, nod and accept whatever consequent severely restrictive changes to our lives resulted, to eventuate in carbon neutrality. What of the fact that IF it were possible to reduce atmospheric CO2 appreciable, you would NOT want to do so. Why? Because today’s atmospheric CO2 level at approx 400 ppm is relatively low. Lower is Not better. Significantly lower risks starving the plant kingdom. In simple terms. lower reduces plant food which reduces animal food. Higher atmospheric CO2 has been the rule for most of the earth’s history. Way higher! Many times higher. At times, 10x and more higher. The earth, the plant and animal kingdoms all did very well under higher atmospheric CO2 conditions. Similarly, temperatures now are relatively low, not high. So low that compared to other inter glacial periods, today we have ice at BOTH poles. Most of the last 7 inter glacial periods have had ice at only 1 pole. So to force the Western world to change to severe CO2 emission reductions (India and China, the big polluters, refuse to reduce) is illogical. There’s no scientific basis to support such restrictions but there is plenty of reason not to restrict plants from receiving their source of life energy, CO2. Learn more at CO2Coalition.org from actual climate/earth science/and geological experts.
Balint’s path hasn’t changed since then, though now she began expresses herself as a far left climate radical aligning with Marxist and Communist colleagues.