And are, in fact, disastrous.

by Rob Roper

The Democratic Socialists around the country are feeling their oats! Mamdani’s mayoral win in New York and Katie Wilson’s in Seattle are sparking speculation that Alexandria Ocasio Cortez could emerge as the Democrats’ presidential nominee in 2028. That’s a serious political high! But we in Vermont know – or should know – a few things others might not after living for the past three and a half decades under Bernie’s Dem Socialist policy shadow. Their policies don’t work. How much evidence do you need?

Democratic Socialist policies have dominated Vermont’s healthcare system for three decades. I think we can all agree it’s been a disaster. The more they try to make healthcare a human right, the more unaffordable and elusive healthcare gets, and the fewer humans have access to an actual doctor. This comes at both the state and local levels. Obamacare stinks, just as Green Mountain Care stunk and OneCare stunk. Results! We now have the highest health insurance premiums in the nation by far.

Democratic Socialists have dominated our public education system for decades. I think we can all agree it’s been, well, a disaster. Vermont now has the second highest per pupil costs in the country paid for with exploding property taxes (along with all of our sales tax revenue, chunks of the vehicle purchase and use tax and the rooms and meals tax, a new payroll tax for pre-k and surcharge tax on short term rentals, the lottery funds, and a skim off the top of Medicaid. This despite a steadily declining student population, and the results for all that taxing and spending: the largest drop in student performance for any state in the Union. Mississippi students, once the perennial lowest achievers, now outperform Vermont in math and literacy. Do we really want to keep doing this?

The progressive “Green” agenda and its deceptively-named Global Warming Solutions Act has done nothing to impact future climate trends, but it has driven up the cost and decreased the availability of housing via restrictive land use policies and “net zero” building codes. It has driven up the cost of electricity with renewable energy mandates, and, given the Dem Socialists’ druthers, will drive up the cost of home heating and transportation fuels with a Cap & Invest or Clean Heat Standard program. Disaster.

Crime? Defunding the police has been a predictable disaster for Democratic Socialist Burlington, and the pending “safe injection site” is proving to be another ideologically driven fiasco. Approved by the Dem Socialists in the state legislature, instead of investing settlement money from the opioid lawsuit in proven, existing, but underfunded programs, they insisted on pushing forward with a new, federally illegal, medically supervised, state sanctioned, no-tell drug den. Two years of dithering later, we find out it won’t be medically supervised for lack of resources, and likely won’t be located anywhere drug addicts might find it convenient because (who could have predicted this) nobody wants the thing in their neighborhood.

Vermont’s $14.42 minimum wage, nearly twice the federal rate, is supposed to keep and attract young workers to our state. What it’s actually done is drive employers and entry level jobs out of the marketplace. Meanwhile, four out of the top five states with the fastest growing economies have a $7.25 minimum wage, as do three of the top five for percentage population growth. In other words, those states have figured out how to attract more workers and generate more wealth by doing the opposite of what Vermont is doing. None have a higher minimum wage than Vermont. According to the Vermont Chamber of Commerce 2025 business climate survey, lack of workforce is the number one challenge Vermont businesses are facing today (77 percent). So, another swing and miss for the Dem Socialists!

Sure, one can’t entirely blame the labor shortage on a poorly conceived minimum wage rate. There’s also the prohibitive cost of housing, ridiculously expensive health insurance premiums, inability to get a dental appointment, and crappy schools for the kiddos (all touched on above) driving young people to choose other more fertile economic soils to put down roots. The problem is the whole Dem Socialist package!

So, as the legislature prepares to return to Montpelier in January, one has to ask if this is the year a meaningful majority of Vermonters wake up to the undeniable, evidence based, fact that progressive, Democratic Socialist, whatever you want to call what we have here in Vermont policies just… don’t… work. At the risk of experiencing another Charlie Brown and the football moment, I take optimism from an article in Compass Vermont titled, Young Vermont Met Turn Against Sports Betting.

The gist of the piece is that while young men are initially enticed onto the platforms with promises of sign-up bonuses (a.k.a. fun, free stuff, and the chance for big wins), they quickly “encounter the reality of the business model,” which leads them to experience financial distress, a sense that the system is rigged against them (it is, duh) and putting up obstacles to their success. Sound like a familiar dynamic?

Long story short, “47% of men under the age of 30 now view legal sports betting as a ‘bad thing for society.’ This figure has more than doubled from just 22% in 2022.” People can learn from experience. Let’s hope everyone in Vermont can be just as analytical about politics and the policies our elected officials enact to supposedly improve our lives. If experience demonstrates that they are bad for society, as Kenny Rogers would advise, know when to walk away; know when to run.

Rob Roper is a freelance writer with 20 years of experience in Vermont politics including three years service as chair of the Vermont Republican Party and nine years as President of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free market think tank.