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..