Editor’s note: this op-ed represents the personal opinion of reporter Paul Bean and does not represent the official policy of the Vermont Daily Chronicle nor the views of Editor and Publisher Guy Page.
By Paul Bean
To every single Republican who was so quick to react and immediately “condemn” Sam Douglass for this group chat hoax: You should be ashamed of yourself.
I have never been more disgusted with the current state of politics – especially Vermont Republicans.
How many of you have ever even been in a group chat? Seriously. How many of you have been in multiple group chats at once? As a young person, if you are entrepreneurial, politically engaged, or in business, you are likely in at least 5-10 group chats, if not more. It is near impossible to track everything that is said and you legitimately cannot.
Even putting that aside, if you’re offended by anything Sam or his wife said, I have news for you: You are a weenie. No seriously, you are soft and a crybaby.
The truth is that no one is actually offended by anything Sam said, and especially those who understand the context of the messages – and most of you do not. It is all performative.
Everyone who is “offended” is pretending they’re upset and literally just putting on an act to appease the left – who are also pretending to be offended. This includes Governor Scott who I know for a fact has heard ‘worse’ in the construction industry. I understand the Governor has to condemn the situation and punish Sam in some way, but this was plainly too far and unnecessary. It isn’t 2016 anymore guys.
All this is a slime-slingingfest. Someone threw slime at Sam. It stuck. And everyone has taken the opportunity to disparage him. You all took the first chance you could get to pull him down while pulling yourself up.
The worst part? None of you even reached out to him before immediately striking him down.
You are addicted to cancel culture. Vermont is addicted to cancel culture. Vermont’s culture is cancel culture. Vermont is also addicted to schadenfreude: pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune.
Every story I read about this situation disturbs me. The way everyone is acting like this is a real thing. Like this is all somehow a real scandal.
It’s not. It’s all fake. And you are all cowards. He shouldn’t be resigning.
You might not like everything about Sam, his work, and what he does, but if there is anyone who has been ‘the poster boy’ for the future of the Vermont GOP, it is Sam Douglass.
In the last 10 years, he has done more than anyone to build the VTGOP and the Vermont Young Republicans. In fact without Sam there is no Vermont Young Republicans organization. That is what disgusts me the most. He has dedicated his entire life to this thus far and has been doing it in the most genuine way. He has a genuine desire to serve his people, his community, and has always made an effort to represent everyone in his district, not just the people that vote for him.
Sam has gone above and beyond to fulfill the Phil Scott platform, again and again. Honestly, even to a fault in my opinion.
And what does Phil Scott do to Sam when push comes to shove? Tells him to step down from the Senate and leave the Republican Party. The Vermont Republican Party that he is largely responsible for rebuilding.
For most of Phil Scott’s time as Governor he’s basically taken no ownership over the VTGOP. And now he’s devouring Sam Douglass for his own political gain. Actually the entire party is.
I do not think there is a state in America that hates young men more than Vermont.
Even the people that are supposedly our ‘mentors’ and elders within the party who are supposed to be guiding lights are actually just cowardly, empty vessels, seeking to use us for their useless causes and wasteful projects.
Successful, driven, and motivated young men can bring the worst out of people. If you have a little bit of light in your eyes and the rest of your life ahead of you, beware. There are ravenous wolves seeking to devour you. Vermont is especially struck with this kind of mental illness.
This brings me to a more important point:
Our political world is descending to a world of hatred, death threats, canceled culture, and infighting.
What we’re witnessing now, however, is the VTGOP in its earliest stages of ‘becoming.’
I fear that the VTGOP is ‘becoming’ exactly what it originally set out to oppose.
People have been whining and complaining too much about Paul Dame taking a paycheck from the party. Look, I get it we want to be fiscally responsible, but at the end of the day not a single one of you people complaining would have ever wanted to do that job for the last four years for free, and those of you who say you would, would not even be effective.
There are two people who have put the most time into building the VTGOP.
It is Paul Dame and Sam Douglass, and now everyone is out to tear them both down.
Before 2024, the Vermont Republicans barely existed. They were all but gone. No one wanted influence over the party because nobody cared. People have already forgotten how bad things really were for the VTGOP before 2024. Dame and Douglass rebuilt it because they genuinely believed in it. For both of these guys it’s always been more than a job or a paycheck. It’s their home. Their livelihood. Their land. Their lineage.
Suddenly you have people who were formerly Democrats seeking influence over the party. You have random organizations with deep pockets seeking influence over the party (why?). You have a Governor, who until recently could not care less about the party, telling people to step down from it.
Anyone remember last year when that Democrat Legislator got a DUI outside the State House?
Where was the outrage then? Or how about Jay Jones, the Democrat running for Attorney General in Virginia who has been called out by our Vice President for texts where he calls for murdering the children of political opponents?
We constantly see liberal elected officials and supporters calling for literal violence against people.
There are countless other examples of people on the ‘otherside’ doing and saying actually terrible things, and never once do the Republicans do anything about it.
But one of their own?
“YUP! Winner winner! Chicken dinner. Let’s devour him!! Great opportunity!”
This entire situation proves that there really is no ‘opposition,’ not just in Vermont, but nationally as a whole. Sam isn’t the only young Republican who has suffered from this situation. However, reaction within the party proves that this entire political system is essentially two wings of the same bird.
The apparatus and its silencing mechanisms operate the same way on both sides of the political spectrum and they have the same enemy: young conservative men and you are all trying to silence us.
Hence why you can consider this as my official exit from the Republican Party. I’ve never had an official role within the party and I never will. But at this point I have determined that it is literally a risk to even associate with most of you at any level. At least the Democrats stick together when fecal matter interfaces with the air distribution device.
All the time, you see liberals and Democrats saying actually racist statements, sexually objectifying women and children, and calling for literally violence against people and literally no one cares or does anything.
Why? Because Republicans are soft and belong at Super Weenie Hut Jr’s.. Actually I think I am going to start calling that little corner of the cafeteria where all the Republicans hang out at lunch “Mega Weenie Hut, Jrs.”
If you’re not familiar with the reference, Super Weenie Hut Jr’s is a fictional restaurant in the cartoon, SpongeBob SquarePants, and is located in Bikini Bottom as a playful, childish, colorful, whimsical eatery designed for “weenies” (wimpy or nerdy characters), and themed nights such as Mega Weenie Monday.
It serves as a contrast to the gritty, tough guy hangout spot, the Salty Spitoon, first appearing in the episode “No Weenies Allowed,” where SpongeBob is redirected there after failing to prove his toughness. Obviously this is a silly joke. But, Vermont Republicans would fit right in.
I have to give Vice President JD Vance credit for standing up for all the Republicans involved in this. I am sending respect his way…
I am worried about the future of humanity as the technocratic oligarchs are honing in on every single branch of our lives… and this situation proves the dangers of our ‘Brave New World.’ I fear that AI, social media, algorithms, and now ‘group chats,’ are being designed to compromise and destroy all who engage. And it should not be like this and it does not have to!
Humans are complex. We do not fit neatly into boxes of left and right. As much as the internet is trying to force us into hating each other, we do not have to.
Increasingly I find myself seeking to become less and less polarized. I have no desire to cancel anyone or target their livelihood over fake scandals.
I myself have dedicated a lot of my young life to VTGOP and its growth.
Sam and I are friends and we both first ran for office back in 2022. We’re the same age. We both lost in 2022 and since have both taken different directions. He really leaned into the whole “Phil Scott Republican” thing, meanwhile I became so called ‘far right.’ Last year he ran and won.
However the young, white, Christian, new father couldn’t even last a full year in office here in Vermont, where white guilt and the hatred of men reigns supreme. Vermont and its elected leaders claim they want more young people and that we desperately need young people and families. Actions speak louder than words.
I have been canceled locally multiple times. Including once by our Governor when they asked me to step down from the workforce development board he appointed me to after I lost my election in 2022. The Democrats wrote a nasty thread on X about all of the ‘worst things I’ve ever said on twitter/X.
For example, I joked that onion water was the cure to Covid, and that chemtrails were a conspiracy to create climate change on purpose, which looking back I am so proud to have been canceled for that.
I have to admit, over the last year I’ve thought to myself, “what if I had done things different? What if I decided to lean into the whole ‘Phil Scott Republican’ thing and run for office again in 2024? What if I just kept my mouth shut? Could I be a State Senator like Sam now?”
I am so thankful I leaned into my values and not compromised them to appease a Governor, who would literally cut my head off even if I had done everything they had suggested.
I now know for a fact that I would not change a thing because my intuition proved correct. Oh and by the way, getting canceled has actually had the opposite effect than intended. Every time it has happened I’ve earned more clout and it has amplified my message. It’s also forced fake people out of my life, which I am so thankful for. I am sure Sam is experiencing the same thing. He now knows who the real ones are. And almost everyone failed the test.
I would much rather live and die by my own sword because I know that It doesn’t matter how many times you kiss the ring in Vermont.
You can bend again and again to what ‘the left’ wants. And it will never be enough.
Apparently Vermont’s Republican Party hasn’t realized this…
See you all at Super Weenie Hut Jrs..
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Categories: Commentary, Opinion
Thank You Paul Bean for hitting the nail on the head.
Ditto! Paul, your message was spot on, and you said things that needed to be said. I applaud your refreshing righteous indignation. Sam Douglass should cancel his resignation and get back to work.
Well said Paul. He needs to pull his resignation and continue to serve.
Keep doing you, Paul.👊
While I understand Mr. Bean’s sentiments in coming to the rescue of his ‘friend’, not only do I think Bean has over-simplified the issue, he’s now offended me in the process. And I’m not pretending, Mr. Bean. Go ahead, call me a ‘weenie’. The urge you feel fits the current political climate to a tee.
But what Mr. Bean clearly doesn’t realize is that his protestations of Sam Douglass’s treatment diminish Douglass’s standing nearly as much as his association with the NYYRC. In fact, of everyone in Vermont politics right now, including you, Mr. Bean, Sam Douglass stands head and shoulders above you for taking the honorable path and admitting to his indiscretions.
I don’t care that everyone acts this way. It offends me when they seek to represent my interests.
And now, Mr. Bean, you have offended me too. If you think I’m a ‘weenie’, lets you and I have a dialog… here and now. As I asked another VDC commentor, when is the last time you mistook a woman who was obese and didn’t bathe often as being of Indian descent? When did you last expect a Jew of being anything less than honest? And since when does confessing one’s sins before God absolve us from being personally responsible to those we’ve harmed in the process?
This ‘coward’ is toe to the line, Mr. Bean, and waiting for you.
Bravo! I stand with Paul Bean!
Well said, Paul. I’ve left the GOP as well.
To go where?
Dan, I’ve been arguing that trump supporters (And I’m not speaking for or about Renee) are not republicans. His ways and values are a disgrace. He mocks american citizens and calls democrats enemies. Dems are citizens with differing viewpoints. For those people who don’t like diversity of opinions, there is trump. It’s his way or on the enemy list. While he may not be called a king, he sure is acting like one.
Rosato, I support the majority of Trump’s policies (though not all, for example his recent commuting of George Santos’s sentence has me scratching my head) – and I’m not a Republican.
In that regard I’d ask you to provide facts to support your contention that Trump ‘acts’ like a king, but then I don’t know how you think a king acts. Consider King Charles of the UK? Or King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden? Or King Felipe VI of Spain?
Normally, I would consider asking if you think I’m mocking you, here and now, or merely expressing ‘differing viewpoints’? I’d also consider asking if you consider that your remarks, here and now, are mocking me with your political projection – the process of attributing your own thoughts or feelings to another person in order to rationalize your own behavior?
Then I recalled that for you, facts are meaningless, and that whatever your answer, it too would be meaningless.
Jay, I know you’re not one for nuance, but I’ll say my views anyway. Trump is not a king yet, but his motives are very much in line with one. In the declaration of independence, regarding a reason to have “no kings” it says about King George: “He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us.” (Well, remember Jan 6?) Also, in the famous document, it says the king was “cutting off trade with all partners of the world.” (Consider trumps unilateral tariff policy that he didn’t ask congress if they liked the idea.) Also, “imposing taxes on us without our consent.” (Tariffs are a tax paid by american citizens and importers: not agreed upon by congress. I know you think otherwise, but search the internet and you’ll find videos of american consumers opening tariff bills in order to get their goods.) Trump, when asked if he had to uphold the constitution he said “I don’t know.” I know he is not a king at this time, but he really, really wants to be one. BTW… how do you feel about his video s****ing on americans and also the live munitions shot over southern california? Those are both things real americans would do, eh?
The Constitution Party and the Libertarian party is would welcome all of us who work so hard to get Republicans elected only to have many of them betray the platform.
Vermont needs a Constitution Party.
I’d join the Constitution Party.
Well said Paul. This whole thing about Sam is making Mt. Everest out of a mole hill. I bet all the people pilling on Sam have said worse when they’re in the company of their buddies. In my youth, no ethnic, religious group or sex was spared joking about. If Don Rickles came on stage today, 3/4 of the audience would run crying to a “safe space”.
WEENIES are exceptionally small people. COWARDS are people that show shameful fear. Comment from Richard Day.
I always thought Weenies were Hot Dogs.
Weenies and cowards? You sound just like Phil Scott.
P.S. I am neither.
Well written, i agree 100%. Phil Scott is and always has been a democrat in GOP clothing, can’t trust him.
Alice Gonyaw- Piette alicepiette035@gmail.com
You’ve “never had an official role within the party and I never will,” but you’re “officially” exiting from the Republican Party?
Making critical decisions when emotions are pegging the meter are almost always premature. While the VTGOP might be in the pubescent phase of an overhaul and afraid of its own shadow, what other political organization can me mustered to combat the communist left? I argue that your giving up the ship before you have fired your last round is ill advised. I for one, while in agreement with your argument, am seeking to renew my commitment to leadership in the VTGOP and work diligently to change the metal from tin foil to titanium of those that are willing to remain. I have not yet begun to fight. Retreat is not an option. Run if you must. I pray that you establish another camp dedicated to the defense of the Constitution of Vermont.
Paul Bean is just now realizing what I knew a long time ago. There are no Democrats.
There are no Republicans. There are only Communists that change their name every few years to Liberals or Progressives or Democratic Socialists and PATRIOTS.
Ephesians 6:12 – Put on the whole armor of God, that you may stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places.
Nice job, Paul Bean. You are in good company. As you noted, our Vice President has weighed in on this latest circular firing squad lamenting the “pearl clutching”, another apt way of describing the weenie behavior of the critics calling for immediate resignations.
My heart laments – is this part of the CCP rollout? One sure way to kill conservative/Patriot agendas is being played out on this stage.
THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES TO ONE’S ACTIONS. If someone has made a mistake, especially when they have CHOSEN to invite scrutiny by running for office, they need to own up to it. It also makes me wonder what people think of their own party when they think that this sort of conduct should represent it.
I have many independent ideas and I’m not afraid to say them. But the difference is how you say things. If you want an echo chamber: they abound, especially online. But if you want to affect the hearts and minds of those who don’t already agree with you, you need to think of how to get your point across. YOU are the person who wants to express something, so it’s YOU who is responsible for figuring out how. If you don’t agree with how someone was treated, you can do that without insulting and attacking others for not sharing your view, making enemies of people you may otherwise have convinced.
Victim mentality needs to disappear from society, and especially from politics.
Douglass did own up to it: he apologized. I don’t think people consider the messages in the Chat to represent the GOP. There was a rush to judgment and a call for resignation before due diligence was conducted: we do not know the full content and context of the chat. It was a private chat gained through extortion. It was never intended to represent the GOP. There’s an amazing number of people casting stones – who knew we had so many perfect people in Vermont?
“This sort of conduct”…? Show me which of the big 10 Sam has violated, I beg of you. Anything short of those and you have fallen into the foulers snare.
Renee: I disagree that my sentiments on the matter, for Sam Douglass to resign, were based on a ‘rush to judgment’. You are speculating… incorrectly. I viewed what was posted in the NYYRC chat platform. I considered the context of those posts. Your inference that I consider myself to be a perfect person for doing so adds insult to injury… as have so many of the comments presented here defending Sam Douglass’s behavior. Douglass took the honorable path. And that you continue to make excuses for him diminishes your standing, not his.
I find it curious that no one, not Neil Johnson, not Paul Bean, and not Tom Chase, have answered the question I put to them.
‘When is the last time you mistook a woman who was obese and didn’t bathe often as being of Indian descent? When did you last expect a Jew of being anything less than honest? And since when does confessing one’s sins before God absolve us from being personally responsible to those we’ve harmed in the process?’
Clearly, these statements should not have been made with the expectation of privacy – if, indeed, they were. They were posted on a state and nationally syndicated platform. They were posted in the context of myriad other racist and misogynistic posts.
But more to the point – they shouldn’t have been expressed at all. And to expect only ‘perfect people’ to hold all of you to account is disingenuous at the very least.
Mr. Douglass took the high road. I respect him for doing so. And now you, and other commenters, are diminishing his standing. Suffice it to say, I am anything but a perfect person. But I will stand my ground in this case and hope that Sam Douglass isn’t lured back into this pandemic of political duplicity.
Let’s follow Sam Douglass’s honorable lead. It’s time to hold all of our politicians to a higher standard. And that includes Governor Scott, who, in my opinion, has been equally duplicitous. If Scott is unwilling to hold other politicians (specifically Vermont State Senators Rebecca White and Joe Major) to account, he too should apologize and resign.
Now you are free to pursue chemtrails without dragging the party down, thanks
As for Sam Douglass:
Psalm 101:5 (ESV): “Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy. Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not endure.”
&
Proverbs 10:18 (ESV): “The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever utters slander is a fool.”
As for this article:
Ephesians 4:31-32 (NIV): “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another…”
Sadly no one saw the whole thing for what it really was … Political hit piece. Not many took the time to look at the big picture. I am afraid Vermont is done ! Left turn Phil will continue turning left and the rest well … they will continue to follow the masses. Sam should have stayed right where he was and stood his ground. The people that get their panties in a bunch over words may someday see what has been happening to our culture bit by bit. All by design !
Mr Bean is very astute on the Vermont climate. Just observing what direction VT has gone via human reality of power, greed, self importance, taxation, regulations, people leaving educational system, bureaucrats, failed governor, idiot mentality of “weenies” etc is enough to make a honest native puke. I take opposition of Mr Eshelman’s stance in opposition stating “he’s now offended me in the process”. He’s lowered his respectability. Over the many years I’ve noticed commenters are mostly realistic and anger over how this government is doing to it’s people being the third most overly taxed state in the nation mostly due to Flatlanders in VT government who have no Vermont values only what they brought with them. The VTGOP really, are wimps, butt kissers who are in government only to collect a pay check as they couldn’t find a job to make a living. Just puppets and worry about their image.. This isn’t the state I grew up in and protected. Now the bureaucrats are going after a farmer and desire to destroy them. All food outlets that know of a “customer government employee” being in their business shouldn’t serve them, food, petroleum or other life supporting benefits by those that are heavily controlled and taxed. Post a placard of all lousy legislators.
I’ve stated before regarding commenters that seemingly care, post their opinions of how sick the state is. My response as been and will, given what I read, NOTHING WILL CHANGE. Mr. Bean’s article proves that point. One by one, good people don’t win. Mg Hanson’s article backs that up. My opinion was and is she would be a great VP and Mr. Klar governor, both highly intelligent, but intelligence doesn’t get one into office. With Mr. Douglass, it’s shame. The powers were out to get rid of him, Scott (fake Rep) included,. Seems the Republicans in Congress are getting their power back, don’t see Vermont Reps will ever.
Sending this article to friends outside Vermont indicating they are lucky not to live here. Noting also of the six New England states, there are no Republicans in Congress. Yup, as the old saying goes, “as goes Maine, so goes Vermont”. How can anyone decry this article given historical events.
Re: “ I take opposition of Mr Eshelman’s stance in opposition stating “he’s now offended me in the process”. He’s lowered his respectability.
So, Mr. Chase, I’m now not respectable because I’m offended when Paul Bean characterizes me as’ a weenie and a coward’? Perhaps you might be the first to toe the line and answer the questions I asked – if for no other reason than to maintain your own respectability.
Vermont has gone from one of the most self reliant States to one of the States most dependent on Government for everyday existance, not to mention to one of the most regulated and taxed just because a certain political party wants to be like California and NY
100%!
ONE NATION, indivisible? I pray these so called political parties and the division they are creating will NOT lead to the demise of America.
Remember, the enemies of this great country are laughing at this.
Or rather the enemies are behind this. And the funding of many other things that have tripped up and re-wired the education of the people: a Democracy (even Representative) requires a well educated and well informed electorate. The means and methods have been documented in the past and some recently exposed as in USAID and the Department of Education.
I agree with you Paul. True Conservatives have little voice in Vermont Politics. The Republicans Party has little backbone to stand against the direction our stay has gone and is going.
Perhaps in the end the resignation was the right thing to do. But as Renee McG suggests, the apparently immediate and very public (grandstanding) call for the young senator’s resignation is troubling. He was not given any credit for the good work he accomplished. Just imagine how this could have played out differently if Republican leadership had met with Senator Douglass and then together issued some sort of joint candid statement and taken questions from the press. Instead – mob rule. God help us.
He was clearly effective, he got cancelled, that is the best compliment the uniparty bestowed a person!
The left/right paradigm is the grand illusion. Hallelujah! it’s starting to come undone by their own deeds done down and dirty. Liars and deceivers – no honor among thieves – as thick as thieves – a den of vipers indeed! The Emperors have no clothes and losing their grip on control and power. The machine is no match for human instincts, natural intellect, and divine intervention – no matter how they try to disconnect, penalize, divide and conquer – they always lose control and power by their own devices and divisiveness. They know the end game is coming – like a freight train. Make no mistake, they will stop at nothing to take a great number down with them. The pyschological and spiritual warfare is hitting fever pitch. Thankfully, more are snapping out of the delusions each passing day. Smile and wave at your enemies!
Thank you Paul. Beautifully said.
While the Vermont commenters on this site dance, in their puddleofpiss, many things outside of Vermont are going to have a major upset for many people. This dog and pony show is going to send this country down the drain. STAGFLATION and more UNEMPLOYMENT will put this country into a depression. Comment from Richard Day. Still trying to make since of the Charlie Kirk drama and now the Sam Douglass drama that will go on until the next problem develops to keep your mind busy.
Spot on, Paul.