By Paul Bean
Speaking to about 50 Republicans last Saturday in Rutland, former Gov. Jim Douglas reflected on his hopes for Vermont’s future, drawing on the lessons of his own political career.
“Even with a Democratic Governor Tom Salmon, we were able to prevail on a lot of issues and votes and work with the Governor to find common ground,” said Douglas, who was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1973, a “half century ago” he joked. “It was a time when everyone respected one another and fraternized in the evenings across party lines and got to know one another,” Douglas said to the crowd of Rutland County Republicans.
Speaking in reference to the Democratic Supermajority, Douglas said, “It seems to me this legislative session it has not been just a drift, it’s been a very dramatic shift. We seem to have taken a quantum leap in a direction that is not positive for the people of our state. I think we have to confront that.”
Following the Governor, Orange County Republican Committee Chair Bill Huff spoke on G.E.T. R.E.A.L, a platform that he believes all Vermont Republicans should adopt as part of their campaign to be elected to the Vermont Statehouse.
After Huff gave his presentation to the crowd and I asked him to summarize his slogan/acronym:
Global Warming Solutions Act reform, recalibrating the law to reflect realistic and affordable goals;
Education reform, refocusing our schools’ mission back to excellence in core subjects;
Transportation and infrastructure with a priority for fixing our roads;
Regulatory reform to lower the cost of housing;
Environmental protection initiatives focused on protecting and preserving our natural resources and landscapes;
Affordability and tax reform to lower costs for working Vermonters; and restoring
Law and order in our communities.
Bill told the crowd, “I was just up one morning at 2 AM and I couldn’t sleep. And I got up and started typing.”
In a State that has increasingly been dominated by one political party, it seems there is an increasing demand for an alternative choice. The question remains – can the VTGOP pull it off? As Governor Douglas pointed out, the party has struggled to maintain seats for the larger half of the last 50 years. “There’s no question that things have been drifting in one particular direction during that time” [the last 50 years].
“The problem we’ve been facing as all party is an issue of identity,” said Huff. “The problem with the Vermont Republican Party is we haven’t really even given a way for voters to know what we stand for. So we are defined by our opposition, and that’s just… that’s not right.”
In a commentary last week, Huff wrote about GET REAL and some of the issues he believes are being caused at the root by bad policy making. “Crime in our once uniquely safe state is now a top issue because of the supermajority’s unrealistic belief that defunding our police, allowing criminals to shoplift and commit other crimes without consequence, and fostering a permissive drug culture would somehow make our communities safer. The opposite is true.”
Paul Bean is the Social Media Director for the Vermont Daily Chronicle and was a candidate for State Senator in 2022
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Categories: Video
governor douglas should have got real when the other govie shut the state down and wanted 80 percent of the vermont lab rats to take the covid kill shot/// now it is to late to become a hero ////
Better late then never
Lost my final bit of respect for Douglas when he signed off on Scott’s never Trump letter a few weeks ago.
I would dare say, Douglas is a RINO. He has certainly disguised this ailment quite well until now.
😯I did not know that!
Get Real? When ‘compromise’ is the false dichotomy of choosing to shoot oneself in the right foot instead of the left foot, compromise isn’t a settlement of differences through concession, it’s a difference with no distinction. Mr. Douglas will have to concede more than that to garnish my support.
In reality, Vermont’s conservatives have compromised for decades since the 1960’s, accepting all sorts of laws and regulations brought from outsider politicians to change Vermont into what they left. Since the 1990’s, rabid D and P politicians have decided to no longer accept compromise- totalitarian rule is the order from these leftists. We have “gone along to get along” for so long, we’ve usurped our rights and allowed the results we now have. Douglas took a thrashing from the legislature when he was governor, with peter shumlin leading the attack. scott seems to follow the “go along to get along” theory, using his veto power only sparingly for the most egregious of legislation- and to Vermont’s conservatives- it’s all egregious legislation. Should this November’s election results not show a swing back toward center, Vermont as we knew it is gone- replaced by the current socialist/totalitarian and by definition- fascist government for generations to come.
Consider this: Vermont is a “Beta Test” for discovering just how far a population can be pushed to ‘democratic socialism’ and the results will and are being studied closely.
Last week, former Governor Douglas lost all my respect. I had voted for him every time he ran for state office. As it turns out, he’s just another Jellyfish. When you stand with the current crop of VT RINOs and disrespect the national choice for the republican presidential candidate well, that makes you a tool for the continuation of the destruction of the Vermont republican party and the state. Until these types are overthrown and new leadership installed nothing will help the party win elections.
Yes VIP1, The Jellyfish is the perfect analogy to the Vermont Republican Party. It should be their logo. It fits perfectly, spineless, brainless, heartless, eats its own, craps thru its mouth and is full of poison.
Vermont’s GOP is sailing off course and has “NO” real leadership to right this sinking ship !!
So do we have any fight left in the GOP, or do they just cower to the progressives, I know that’s the Governor’s game plan……………… pretty pathetic.
Get Real – Middlebury Connections
Forgive me for being skeptical, but Middlebury College – the epitome of white privilege – has crushed freedom of speech and turned the area into a bastion of radical environmentalists.
Bill McKibben “grew up believing—knowing—that the United States was the greatest country on earth. As a teenager, he cheerfully led American Revolution tours in Lexington, Massachusetts. He sang “Kumbaya” at church (Unitarian Universalist?) And with the remarkable rise of suburbia, he assumed that all Americans would share in the wealth. But fifty years later, he finds himself in an increasingly doubtful nation strained by bleak racial and economic inequality, on a planet whose future is in peril.”
Mike Farber, a former lawyer and communications executive with experience in several sectors from technology to NGOs and Megan Mayhew-Bergman, assistant professor of English and director of the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ conference, have founded a new company to help companies fight the climate crisis …. just repeat the lie enough times and you’ll create an industry out of it. The once beautiful pastures are now turned into Darth Vader’s playground covered in solar panels.
Then there is Elizabeth “Wibs” McLain …. appointed by Gov. Douglas to head up the Agency of Natural Resources. Back then there was a Citizen’s Advisory Board to Fish and Wildlife and also a Governors Advisory Board. After she attended one meeting of the CAB it was disbanded. The CAB was made up of individuals from every county representing the Nature Conservancy, the Audubon Society, the Outdoor Writers Association and the hook and bullet crowd. This was a very eclectic group that got a lot done for the state.
Many of these are the immigrants that moved to places like Portland Maine, Concord/Manchester NH, Dartmouth, Middlebury and UVM. They left behind the Democrat cities of moral and political corruption – Boston, Hartford, Providence, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago and many cities from the West Coast – moved here to fix what was broken in Vermont.
Inevitably they brought that which they detested the most – the political dysfunction that ran where they left into hopeless chaos. We’ve seen the influx since the latter 60’s as it built its way up route 100. Million dollar homes brought to you by the Hawk Corporation, stuck out in the woods, purchased with Venezuelan cattle money to be occupied three weeks out of the year, which raised property taxes, creating one gargantuan service industry after the industrial jobs were driven out.
Add to that the scarring of Vermont’s beautiful mountains with the “economic boom“ of the ski industry, which paved the way for over priced condominiums, along with the gentrification of places like Pomfret & Dorset, which have made housing totally unaffordable for young people today – all in the name of greed and control – the one party system of government which we have today.
Now the evidence is clear, the ‘outlanders’ have taken over places like Burlington/Chittenden county, Norwich, Brattleboro, Manchester/Dorset, Ludlow/Shrewsbury, Montpelier, Waterbury and surrounding bedroom communities. The two largest employers in the state of Vermont are staunchly Democrat. They are the state employees and the teachers, ergo we make very little that could be considered of substance.
Tax & spend …. that all we have now.
An immigrant, as per definition, is a: “person who leaves one country to permanently settle in another”.
Therefore, anyone who relocates from one state to another, as do thousands of people who were born in Vermont & then move to take up residence in NY, Washington State, Oregon, Colorado, etc. etc. – anywhere within the other 49 states or territories seeking employment or lifestyle alternatives – cannot correctly be referred to as an “immigrant” as they are each/all born as US citizens & have Constitutional right to choose to reside anywhere within the USA at any time for any reason.
The only immigrants to Vermont were the many who came here in the 18th and 19th centuries from Europe primarily & settled here and any who similarly came thereafter. The so-called native population in Vermont are comprised of specific Indian tribes who were here prior to colonization.
oh you forgot the medical mafia as a major employer/// 50 years ago i drove truck for a living/// in vermont you did not have to have a c. d. l. to drive/// when that changed you became a life long patient of the medical mafia by having to keep getting a physical each year/// that ended my trucking career because i was not going to obey///
No disrespect, but some of the staunchest Conservatives I know have no problem requiring you to prove that you can drive an oil truck before you crash into their house and prove that you won’t slip into a diabetic coma before you drift ten tons of steel into the other lane. Medical mafia lol
Responding to Chris,
Are you also concerned about the illegal aliens getting drivers licenses and those illegals who just do what they want? How did we ever get this far without the administrative state? How many more restrictions and requirements will we need before you feel safe? Are you worried about all the fools driving and texting? What would you do about that? They passed a law, but I still see it happening. Since when did a physical exam stop a medical event or is it just another way for the nanny state to collect fees and give people the illusion that every truck driver is A okay behind the wheel. Responsible trucking companies do not want to hire just anyone who could be an insurance risk. We have too many people controlling everything we do. Life is a risk, you better stay home!
Or how about this brainchild.
“U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman recently ruled that an illegal immigrant previously charged for carrying a semi-automatic firearm could legally carry guns under the Second Amendment.”
No disrespect. Forget about crashing a truck. It can’t get any crazier than this. But I suspect it can get a whole lot more deadly. It’s time to get real, indeed. Better arm up to defend yourselves folks, if you haven’t already.
Fifty years ago a Vt drivers license was good for everything except a school bus. The every two year medical exam guaranteed I would catch something from being in close proximity to sick people. The hazmat background check and fingerprinting became a waste of a day and a tank of gas as well as a days pay. It was and is a good gateway for the endorsement but becomes a ridiculous waste of time and money as I have never heard of fingerprints changing. Just another way to generate revenue.
message to chris//// you should be more worried about the truck drivers that took the covid kill shot and having heart attacks/// this is why the airline industry is short of pilots/// they will not let them fly/// a tractor trailer can hold ten thousand gallons of gas/// this is a very dangerous job/// i have had some experience with that fifty years ago///
ops i forgot// it was the medical mafia that pushed the kill shot along with tel/// lie/// vision/// and million of dollars in ads from big pharma/// now most smart people know the truth/// and many will not admit it///
Still waiting for all these people, including myself to keel over and die from the COVID vaccine. You guys crack me up, as for VIP: “Responsible trucking companies do not want to hire just anyone who could be an insurance risk.” This is literally why they have the physical exam that I am talking about you rocket scientist. As for Jay, once again, rather than engage, you move the goalposts to talk about illegals getting machine guns. No actually, if you are too fat to drive a truck, its not the deep state that puts your hand in the Doritos bag.
Gentleman Jim Douglas and friends seem to be whitewashing the NWO agenda. A page taken from George Bush Sr and George Bush Jr. and their administrations. What does recalibrating the global warming act mean? I think repealing all such nonsense based on the “hockey stick” graph is more appropriate. How many metric tons of ice remains and keeps building? Funny how they separate environmental issues and natural resources from climate change issues. The climate and the environment – how does one exist without the other or is this tricky, yet intentional, semantics at play?
Housing, education, transportation and tax reform. There we have three issues caused by one unconstitutional levy on the People. All three are laden, levied, and dependent upon taxes. If they lower one, they raise another. Rest assured, the current system will never repeal or eliminate taxing a citizen servant from birth to death. No matter what side of the aisle they pontificate from currently.
The GET REAL campaign is clever, but cloaked therein are the nefarious NWO talking points. They use the same exact flaccid, deceptive platitudes repeated every single election cycle for decades now. They have no solutions, they have a narrative that is washed, rinsed, and repeated ad nauseum.
The notion that Vermont is dominated by one party appears true on paper. Yet, looking logically at the state of the State, the policies set forth since Jim Douglas (broadband was his multi-million dollar grift first and carried forward by Shumlin and Scott for more multi-millions!) it appears the VTGOP and their donkey allies have done more dirty dealing than not. All done in secret so they can point the fingers at each other, scrape their share off the top, and laugh at taxpayers for believing their lies for decades and, seemingly, getting away with all of it for decades.
When I hear something I haven’t heard countless times before out of these connected, establishment, old guard thieves, I will pay closer attention. Until then, blah, blah, blah is all I hear and the results speak for themselves.
Re: “The notion that Vermont is dominated by one party appears true on paper.”
Keep in mind that in a state where Democrats ostensibly outnumber Republicans 2 to 1, more than 70,000 votes were cast in the Republican primary this year and only about 60,000 were cast in the Democrat primary.
There are surely several reasons for this. But ‘on paper’, at least, there is at least some indication that reason and sensibility is beginning to percolate up out of the Vermont swamp.
Then again, I wouldn’t bet against Duke, no matter what Obama thinks.
Jay, I see the tide turning and the panic under the Golden Thunder Dome speaks volumes. I will never forget who took the plane ride to the Asian Pacific rim (Kingdom Con.) I will never forget that no Congress or State representative was or is held accountable for selling citizenship to the USA and leaving the Northeast Kingdom holding an empty bag. If only those Asian investors had waited, they would not have to pay a dime to enter the USA and get free everything to boot. We’ve been ripped off and hoodwinked long enough – hoping and praying the majority of my fellow Vermonters see through these criminal deceptions.
Jim Douglass Did you sign off off on Rhino Scotts never Trump letter ? Please truthfully confirm or deny publicly.
As Vermont Citizen Media has posted on X, Jim Douglas promoted January 6th lies, tried to drive President Trump out of the Republican Party, and colluded with the Nikki Haley Vermont Leadership Team RINOs to solicit Democrats to subvert the Vermont Republican Primary.
‘THEY WANT TO HURT REPUBLICANS’:
https://twitter.com/VTCitizenMedia/status/1765438085674774891