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by Kevin Ellis
So …
Donald Trump wins the presidency by a decisive margin in a country with four percent unemployment, inflation under control and people’s stocks and 401ks doing really well. Crazy right?
What is more surprising? A Republican governor in a Democratic state, who stands against everything Trump espouses and who voted for his opponent, wins the governorship for a fifth time with 73 percent of the vote.
And that governor leads a tidal wave of populist backlash against a Democratic Supermajority through a combination of quiet leadership and intimate understanding of the citizens he represents.
Example 1 – Phil Scott held his election night party in a central Vermont warehouse owned by the Associated General Contractors of Vermont. Not a hotel ballroom in Burlington. The Democrats held their party at the Higher Ground music venue in South Burlington.
Example 2 – Phil Scott hammered away at a message of affordability. Vermonters cannot afford a house, can’t find an apartment and can’t afford child care, not to mention the double digit property tax increase that recently hit them. Phil Scott got that problem not because he reads the policy papers from the Joint Fiscal Office. He understands it because he has lived it.
We know the story by now. Grew up in Barre, toggled between regular high school and the technical school. A gearhead. A tinkerer. A race car driver who would rather sit on an excavator than sit in a policy meeting. Phil Scott is the people who voted against the Democrats because of their property taxes.
Phil Scott is NOT the Vermont Natural Resources Council or VPIRG. He understands climate change, homelessness and the changing society. But he also comes from a culture that voted for Trump. It is a world of workers, not non-profits and foundations.
I haven’t asked Scott this. But I suspect one thing that really burns him – and that is partly responsible for the Democrats’ defeat this election – is the so-called Affordable Heat Act, or Clean Heat Standard. That bill seeks to move us away from fossil fuels to clean energy by using a carbon tax to do it. It is good policy. But what killed Democrats was their effort to disguise the carbon tax as something else that would not raise heating bills. Too cute by half.
Phil Sott got that and voters go it. The Democrats overrode the governor veto – among many others – because they thought they were right. And over the next 20 year period, they are right. But voters wouldn’t stand for it. And Phil Scott understands Vermont voters.
It is Phil Scott’s Vermont now. He is the most popular governor in Vermont history and now the most popular governor in America!
He can sustain his vetoes. And the Democratic legislature now has to work with him and his staff to get anything done.
This dominant role will challenge the governor to be less passive and propose an agenda for affordability that the legislature can pass. In the past, the governor likes to see what hand the legislature plays before committing. But now he is in charge. His moderate tendencies will be challenged now because the times demand bold action to help Vermonters afford to live here.
The question now is what policy agenda the governor will propose come January.
As I said – Vermonters can’t buy a house. Even if they can afford it, they can’t find one. A neighbor of mine pays $36,000 a year for child care for two children.
There are a host of unanswered questions out there waiting for the governor and the legislature to solve. Vermont remains a state with a 1950s infrastructure in a modern world.
We have 14 community hospitals, 17 electric utilities, lots and lots of school districts and schools that voters can no longer afford. A national consultant recently issued a report after studying our health care system that said UVM Medical Center is bloated and that small hospitals must stop doing expensive procedures.
Instead of convening a roundtable to discuss the report and act accordingly, the hospitals fought back and said community health was at stake. The governor was quiet. So was the legislature.
These aren’t easy problems to solve. But we have answers and the talent to solve them.
Now that the legislature is back in balance and the governor has a firm mandate to make the state more affordable, let’s see if they can come together and make it happen.
Now more than ever, Phil Scott has a mandate to do just that.
Kevin Ellis is a host of WDEV’s Vermont Viewpoint program and publisher of a public affairs blog, Conflict of Interest. He is a former newspaper reporter and lobbyist.
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Categories: Commentary, Opinion
The people who write these stories suffer from COVID VAX. mind control make believe world. You will know by June of 2025 if anything will change.
Re: “It’s Phil Scott’s Vermont now…”
It may be. But the tide has turned and, as long as we can present our opinions on these matters (thank you VDC), sooner than later, hopefully, it will be Vermonter’s Vermont.
Mr. Ellis,
Can we please stop pretending that Governor Phil Scott is a Republican? He doesn’t agree with or support Trump because he doesn’t believe in our United States of America as laid out in our Foundational Constitutions. He has shown us this as he has sided in many ways with the Globalist Liberals.
While he made such a big deal out of opposing the Democrat Super-majority’s extreme spending and regulating Bill known as Act 18, did Scott oppose the VT GWSA? The Act 18 Legislation was born from the GWSA.
Many would say Scott laid the foundation for the GWSA and Act 18 as he signed Vermont up to be a member of the US Climate Alliance. Please look it up. It’s a Global Plan. How can Scott oppose the Dems/Progs Climate Plans when he laid the foundation for their actions?
Another question: How is an Elected US Governor who took an Oath of Office to support our Constitution(s); our Rights, Privileges and Freedoms able to sign up and commit our State of Vermont and Its People to a Global Plan?
Let’s also remember what Scott did to ALL of us during Covid. He usurped and ignored our State and Federal Constitutions, HIPPA Law, The Nuremberg Code and other Laws to tyrannically force Vermonters to take an experimental shot.
Also, what actions has Governor Scott taken to secure our northern border?
Let’s be honest please. Scott is certainly Free to be who he is, but let’s not pretend he is what he is not.
VTBeliver, you got it exactly right.
More leftist nonsense on VDC. Americans voted for a Trump agenda, not a RINO agenda. Americans want traditional values restored and the rule of law followed, nothing less. But just as the Senate defied this clear mandate with their secret vote today, so shall VT representatives. Pretty sad that this many public servants are deaf, blind. And dumb. Especially the latter.
“The Democrats overrode the governor veto – among many others – because they thought they were right. And over the next 20 year period, they are right.”
The 100% renewable, Net Zero 2050 policy that Vermont has embarked on is a trip into a cul-de-sac of energy poverty, energy scarcity and economic collapse. The sooner New England builds a pipeline system connected with the Marcellus shale natural gas resource in PA, (one of the largest reserves in the world) and the sooner Vermont builds a next generation nuclear power plant at Vernon, where transmission still exists although the power plant sadly no longer does, the better off Vermont, and the New England grid it is connected to, will be. Anyone who believes renewables can power the grid is woefully brainwashed and/or uninformed. Ask Germany how its working out for them.
Anyone who thinks the Clean Heat Standard /a/k/a Affordable Heat Act is good policy is not paying any attention whatsoever to the PUC’s development of the rule and all that goes with it. Tune in tomorrow to the Technical Advisory Committee meeting’s ten millionth meeting (I’ve lost count), Kevin, and see what an unwieldy waste of time the entire concept is. No, it is not good policy, it is not a good idea, it is stupid. Any my mother taught me not to call people or things stupid. So I go to that extreme to point out just how ridiculous, absurd, impossible-to-implement bad idea the legislators handed to the Public Utility Commission, which has a useful job to do and the Stupid Heat Standard should never have been sent to them.
Right On Annette!
And ……. take a look at ALL the layers of un-elected persons that are appointed and make up the committees listed in the GWSA and Act 18. They are ALL getting paid with Vermont Tax Dollars to play along with this pretend Globalist Game.
It’s not Phil Scott’s Vermont, Scott did get the majority of votes in the Governor’s race, but just look at his competition, pretty pathetic, If and when Vermont’s get a real conservative competitor for Governor, trader Scott will be gone !!
Let’s see how he will proceed in his up coming term, I bet nothing will change, the same old flip flop Phil.
Remember Phil, Vermont is still pretty blue and the left that voted for you this time will be gone in a heart beat………………
Mr Ellis’ attempt to suggest that this election was a total victory for Scott is another joke. It isn’t a victory for him at all. He is losing the base that he ultimately relies on.
He has no sway with mainstream Republicans. His vote for Harris, a deeply flawed candidate in every way, was ignored. His u-turn on gun legislation is still remembered and his “oh but what can you do” attitude to abusive legislation such as the the GWSA bill all combine to define him. Add to that his grasping for federal money to dry up every puddle from a rain shower and you see what he is.
He is NOT of a small government conservative. He’s a hypocritical money grabber in active cahoots with the democrats to nab as much cash as he can. The preferred mark is the federal government but us taxpayers will do if that trough fails to deliver.
It’s especially comforting to realize that when he’s stealing he also gets to give us the moral lecture on “climate change” or “child care provision” or whatever emergency exception to his otherwise perfect small government record is fashionable.
He’s a fake. He is not Republican, he is not conservative. He’s popular because he is a cow bird. He sits in the Republican nest to prevent any coherent opposition to the commies from forming. He does that job well. I will give him that.
The problem for him is that he is being discovered. And when he loses trust with real conservatives he will not be useful to the commies any more. Then he is done. I hope that day is soon.
They are trying to line up another cow bird (Rodger’s) to take his place. That may work for a short time. It won’t last long, though.
Maybe Phil can write all that on the road in front of the State House…
Delusion comes in many forms, this time in an article in VDC.
How can a Republican Governor get re-elected again and again in a state where the prog/dem is a supermajority? One would think that the prog/dem’s would want a Democrat or a Progressive Governor? But, wait, oh, they actually do have one, he’s just using another party’s name. This is a Global plan being orchestrated by a Marxist Playbook. Vermont has been used and abused for decades, but that will not last forever.
But God. His Truth is final and never changes.
Question for Mr. Ellis: Vermont is unaffordable, who praytell made it unaffordable in the first place? Scott has been a Senator, Lt. Governor and Governor for how long now? Quite a number of years of backslapping and campaigning – what ever happened to his numerous campaign promises of “good paying jobs?” Does it include the green energy jobs that were done by out of state contractors who paid Dominicans and Mexican workers higher wages than the native folks? How did the Kingdom Con workout for NEK? How did all those good jobs and new businesses work out for the State? It is not all on Scott, it’s on every baffoon and thief sitting in a seat under the Golden Thunder Dome and within the Capitol complex.
Here is what selection season in Vermont is for the past three decades: Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic before “the iceberg (wink, wink)” came into view.
I highly suggest those on the left and right stop gaslighting themselves. Stop pretending we have represenation that isn’t compromised and compensated by foreigners, Wall Street insiders, or the NGO enforcers. The collapse is coming and no amount bailing or wailing is going to stop it.
Phil Scott is a “Republican” like Bernie Sanders is a “Socialist”. One is actually a Progressive, the other a Communist.
The only difference between Progressive, Social Democrat, Socialist and a Communist is that the Communist has a gun.
“There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide”. – Ayn Rand
“That bill seeks to move us away from fossil fuels to clean energy by using a carbon tax to do it. It is good policy. ” Mr. Ellis does not justify what is good about the GWSA — the bill he just said got Dems tanned. He does not explain how Dems are to address that issue. The VT GOP must introduce bills to simply REPEAL the GWSA, and terminate causes of action by foreign corporations regarding our carbon emissions. If Democrats refuse to agree, let them be on that record in two years. Making Vermont affordable means reducing government spending….
Every year on the 4th of July, I have driven by the Vermont state house and noticed not one expression of it’s importance to our country. No American flag decorations, nothing. Also painted in the street, Black Lives Matter. The Gov could okay that but not the 4th of July decorations? Proves who he really is to not offend the people who elect him, mostly democrats.
As for Ellis’ friend spending $36K for childcare, the guy should be happy as he’s obviously a wealthy liberal who voted for the people who drove home based childcare providers out of business. My kids went to a lady’s house that we knew very well and they were taken care of and safe. Now children must be dropped off at another government indoctrination center all controlled by the government. So, as a result the progressives had to tap into all of us taxpayers to help pay for the exorbitant increase in childcare expense and barely any competition and less in numbers. The created a problem and then made everyone pay for it through another payroll tax.
Re: “It’s Phil Scott’s Vermont now…” But it’s Trumps America. What is RINO Scott going to do when Trump stops federal funding for law enforcement for Vermont being a sanctuary state and allowing sanctuary cities. What does RINO Scott do when Trump puts Border Patrol and Troops on Vermont’s leaky northern border? What does RINO Scott do when Trump ends federal funding of Vermont’s schools for pushing woke transgender policies and allowing trans boys to play in girls’ sports? What does RINO Scott do when Vermont no longer gets federal funding for education for pushing woke ideology in schools?
Is Phil Scott a Republican who identifies as a Democrat, or the other way around?