A Republic If We Can Keep It – A recent article in the Vermont Standard asked for and provided the thoughts of local “leaders” in our troubled times, including the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate and the challenges of maintaining American democracy. 

This rhetorical exercise is fundamentally flawed. First, the people responding to the Vermont Standard are politicians. How have they transcended their public roles from mere vote-collectors to leaders? Property taxes for many Vermonters in 2024 rose by an incredible 25–30 percent. Far from demonstrating courage and integrity, Vermont’s political elites have actively sought to make our state unlivable for those of us who work hard for a living.

Second, what lies behind the left’s fetishization of the word “democracy”? 

Neither the state of Vermont nor the United States of America was intended to be a democracy. Article 4, Section 4 of our Constitution guarantees that every state in the union will follow a “republican form of government.” When Benjamin Franklin left the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, he was asked by a citizen if the U.S. Constitution would provide a monarchy or a republic to which Franklin answered, “A republic, if you can keep it.”  

Franklin and his contemporaries were students of history with a deep understanding of the dangers of direct democracy. They created a constitutional republic with a division of powers, checks and balances, and a bill of rights. The founders understood, as did the ancient Greeks, that democracy at its heart translates to mob rule and always ends in despotism and tyranny. In a 1992 Los Angeles Times article, Marvin Simkin famously and accurately wrote, “Democracy is not freedom. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. Freedom comes from the recognition of certain rights which may not be taken, not even by a 99% vote.” 

Sadly, it is not hard to believe that these elementary concepts of comparative government were once hammered home to me as a student in Vermont’s public schools. Those were the days before secondary and post-secondary education became synonymous with left-wing indoctrination. 

Today, our elected representatives willfully obscure the distinction between a constitutional republic, which we are, and direct democracy, which we are not. They insist that democracy is the only natural way to govern a nation and always serves the best interests of the “people.” In fact, the only people that benefit are the exclusive governing class to which these politicians belong. 

As for the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump – who is a former United States president and not only a 2024 presidential candidate – how many of the Vermont Standard respondents and their Democrat Party colleagues have equated Trump to a genocidal tyrant, specifically Adolf Hitler? State Senator Dick McCormack (D-Windsor) and House Representative Elizabeth Burrows (D-Windsor-1) still insist on the same, albeit with less candor. 

Lastly, let us not forget the monumental role played by the left-wing media in distorting objective facts, eroding public trust, and undermining healthy governance. Consider these shameless media headlines on Jan. 13. CNN Politics reported, “Secret Service rushes Trump off stage after he falls at a rally,” while The Washington Post stated, “Trump escorted away after loud noises at Pa. rally.” Borrowing the Vermont Standard’s phrase, how has the media contributed to the “discouraging events affecting the nation recently”? – Stuart Lindberg, Cavendish

Losing our naval edge to China – One major advantage our military has over our adversaries is our submarines.  No country can come close to our technical strike advantage.  However, a recent Government Accountability report on the Navy revealed we are more than 400 months behind in building the Virginia class attack subs that will be replacing our near-end -of-life Los Angeles-class attack subs that have been so critical to maintaining our national security.  

Our Navy is surely handicapped by not having repair facilities or the capacity to build new ships/subs.   Our fleet is under 300 and declining every year.  At one time we had twice that number.  People have talked about expanding our fleet to 440 but under current conditions and political climate that is a dream until we get new leadership.  Today’s focus is on greening up our planes, ships, tanks etc.  Wonderful…..and who cares if there’s a 20 year backlog of maintenance and repair work that has left much of our fleet under-employable with some perfectly good ships mothballed.  

China’s shipbuilding capacity is now 232 times greater than that of the United States and that the US is using Chinese-made drydocks to repair and maintain our Navy warships.  What has happened to our Military-Industrial Complex in meeting our needs and defense priority politicians are absconding in protecting us? – Frank Mazur, South Burlington

New study shows flaws with “Best Management Practices” for trapping – A new peer reviewed paper, “Best Management Practices for Furbearer Trapping Derived from Poor and Misleading Science,” was recently published and debunks Vermont Fish & Wildlife’s  attempt to convince the public that “Best Management Practices” for trapping result in more humane trapping practices. They don’t.

In 2022 there was a bill to ban leghold traps—a straight-forward bill that would’ve saved thousands of animals each year from broken limbs and teeth and other painful injuries. Vermont Fish & Wildlife opposed the bill because, as most state agencies, they are politically beholden to trappers. The Commissioner and his senior team implored the legislature to not ban leghold traps—instead, he urged the legislature to require regulations be promulgated to require that trappers adhere to so-called “best management practices” (BMPs) for trapping. Fish & Wildlife spoke of an extensive study that resulted in criteria for more “humane” traps, all in an effort to assuage the public’s fevered opposition to leghold traps and to market a solution. But it was no solution, it was a ruse. 

Upon first learning of the proposed BMPs, Protect Our Wildlife raised concerns, including the fact that trappers and their spouses, friends, and other interested parties labeled as “technicians” in the study were often the only ones in the field recording BMP data. POW released this white paper in 2022 challenging BMPs that were conceived, studied, and evaluated by the very people that they aim to regulate: trappers. And the conflict of interest doesn’t end there. The study was spearheaded by a private organization, the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies (AFWA), a public relations advisor to state fish & wildlife departments, including the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, a dues paying member. To say that they had a vested interest in the outcome of this “study” would be an understatement. A fact that was never raised by Fish and Wildlife during their promotion of BMPs is that they are inhumane by their own standards: 30% of animals are allowed severe injuries, including amputation, compound fractures, even death and still pass the BMP test!

The topic of trapping has not quieted despite Fish & Wildlife’s attempts to greenwash it, including starring in a promotional trapping video for the Vermont trappers on the taxpayers’ dime. All one has to do is see an animal languishing in pain in a so-called BMP approved trap to know the truth. 

To those legislators that are using the recent BMP regulations to not take legislative action to restrict trapping, we encourage you to dig a bit deeper into the new peer reviewed research paper. The study reveals, “The fish and wildlife agencies represented by AFWA have specific goals of promoting trapping and its supposed benefits, yet we expect their research on the impacts of trapping on wildlife to be transparent, reproducible and unbiased. The close association of promotional aspects of trapping with wildlife professionals and the evolution of BMPs, should raise concern about the objectivity among those engaged in the BMP process.” The study also states, “The analysis methods used by [AFWA] White et al. (2021) are flawed, not transparent, and irreproducible. Therefore,we question the outcomes of the study as representing best management practices for capturing furbearing animals in restraining traps.”

As for the new BMPs, Vermonters are still left with baited landmines on our shared public lands. Steel-jawed leghold and kill traps are set with no required signage, even on our National Wildlife Refuges. There are no required setbacks from public areas for large, powerful body crushing kill traps that are placed in the water, including shallow streams where dogs often like to lap from. If you cannot imagine your dog or cat painfully restrained in a trap, I ask: what is the difference between your domestic tabby cat and a majestic bobcat who is trapped during the recreational trapping season? No animal deserves this, all in the name of recreation and tradition. -Brenna Galdenzi, Stowe