by Steve MacDonald
Have you ever seen someone you used to know whom you thought was put together well? Then you run into them years later, and they look like they just gave up. That’s Vermont.
A shadow of its once great self, unwashed hair but lots of make-up, searching other people’s pants pockets for change to feed the washing machine at the liquor laundromat.
No unfiltered Lucky Strike hanging from one chapped lip – they more or less banned those things. And so it goes. The home state of Calvin Coolidge. A land carved out between New Hampshire and New York in part by a militia and a will to self-govern, and look at it now. It gave up. Democrats rule. The state even banned militias. So, it should be no surprise that this same state has an unconstitutional religious test.
A pair of Christian foster couples is suing the Vermont Department for Children & Families (DCF) for allegedly blocking them from taking on additional foster children due to their Christian views on gender and sexuality. …
Brian and Kaitlyn Wuoti and Michael and Rebecca Gantt began fostering in 2014 and 2016, respectively, with the Wuotis adopting two brothers and the Gantts taking in three children. Brian Wuoti and Michael Gantt are both Christian pastors, as well.
Seeking to renew their license in 2022, the Wuotis were initially hailed by a caseworker who said she “probably could not hand pick a more wonderful foster family,” but mention of their Christian faith and “that they could not say or do anything that went against faith-informed views about human sexuality” prompted their license to be revoked, according to the lawsuit.
If you want more details on that, the internet has plenty. I’m not here to tote that barge or lift that bail. I’m more interested in the culture behind it—the dangerous political undertow visible at a distance, like the flag pole problem in Nashua. It’s just a flag and a pole, but that’s not the matter that should concern you most. As I noted here, yesterday,
What’s the worst that could happen? The City has to stop pretending to be non-partisan and unbiased; no more citizen flags of any stripe. That’s what Boston did after wasting two million dollars defending its viewpoint discrimination and losing. Let them do that and then we get to ask them what else about their administration is just like the flagpole
The answer is probably everything.
Nashua also has a criminal disregard for public records law. That’s a problem, but the real issue is what lies beneath it. So it goes with a State like Vermont, which—without any public announcements or citizen approval—deployed and enforced a religious test for foster parents. You’d be a damned fool to think there isn’t one for other features of State government or that the culture that abets such a thing hasn’t poisoned other wells in “the community.”
The volume of impropriety is a proverbial iceberg.
It is why we pushed back so hard on a bill to charge fees for public documents. It is why we pushed back on a Camel’s Nose red flag bill proposed by a Republican. I don’t care what protections you think you included. You can make all the sensible arguments you want; this will lead to abuses whose risk is far greater to life and liberty than the odds that a mentally unstable person will look for and find a gun-free zone in which to harm others with a firearm (the cure to which is to ban gun-free zones by the way).
We do not open these doors. They are hills to die on. And the religious test is not a fluke. It is evidence that the patients are running the asylum, and if you bother to look, you can see the results. Higher taxes. Declining services. Dumber students. Increased lawlessness. Drug crimes. Drug deaths. And the only answer the inmates can think of is for you to give them more money and power. A cabal that calls you names and tries to destroy you if you dare to push back.
And you voted for this.
So, when you think about the case of the Christian Parents, remember that this has nothing to do with their faith or yours. It is about the demise of a once great state that valued natural rights before political power. That’s what this is about. It is about watching that political system gnaw away at your rights until you have none (in the name of Democracy, no less). And you can choose to continue to ignore it or not.
It’s your state.
But I don’t advise it.
Steve is a long-time New Hampshire resident, blogger, and a member of the Board of directors of The 603 Alliance. He is the Managing Editor and co-owner of GraniteGrok.com, a former board member of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, and a past contributor to the Franklin Center for Public Policy.
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Categories: Commentary
It is indeed also about faith…especially when the godless governances infesting our state continue to undermine it…they want nothing to do with a Christian family adhering, affirming, pronouncing, and practicing their foundational belief in the True Word of our Mighty God. Vermont lost that long ago…
Hey Steve, when you become a good community organizer and submit to Karl Marx, they will let you do most anything after that. Just make sure you follow the guidelines laid out in their wonderful hymn book entitled “Rules for Radicals”, it dedicates praise and action to their true leader as laid out in the introduction. Step in line comrade or the power of organizers will crush, silence and strip away any wealth or freedom. See how wonderful things are on the other side of the river? They know not what they are doing.
I read somewhere, a long time ago, that India was the most religious nation and Sweden was the least, and that the USA was a nation of Indians ruled by Swedes. Things have only gone down hill since I read I read that.
The problem is that the process is too far along to be reversed. It has to collapse under the weight of its own contradictions before we can start to rebuild. If serious people step in too early they will take the blame.
It is logical that Vermonters vote to protect their wallet and since 38% of state’s workforce is employed by government, health services or education (120k of a total 315k non farm workers according to the Bureau of labor statistics) the likelihood that they will vote against more government spending is low. Financial services ( a large component of which is likely insurance ) represents another 15k worker (5%). These workers are also protected by ever higher premiums sanctioned by government.
Vermont’s energy sector employed a total of 21k people in 2021. Within that number a full 10k are employed by energy efficiency companies (3% of the workforce). This sector enjoys interest rate subsidies through vpirg. Again a sector that wants government largesse to end.
On top of all that, non profit organizations employ a total 44k people. If we back out hospital employment I guess/estimate that half of these work in non- health related non profits. This is another 7% or so of the workforce. Non profit enterprises rely for the most part of either federal or state government (taxpayer) support.
Add it all up. Well over 50% of Vermont’s workforce depends on ever higher taxes. But state government relies on ever increasing property values to maintain the illusion that we are wealthy and the federal government needs low interest rates. We pretend that Low interest rates, high land “values” and the ability to tax housing is sustainable. It isn’t. It already needs massive amounts of federal help to sustain it. None of it will survive a higher interest rate environment.
So just to be clear, we are poor. We are very very poor. We have been hiding this sad fact by pretending that government funded non-jobs are just as good as real ones. They are not.
We have destroyed the economy through decades of irresponsible monetary and fiscal policies that have created massive asset bubbles. Our political masters are so accustomed to the current situation that they massively out of touch with reality. But reality will hit them hard.
The adage that one shouldn’t try to catch a falling knife is apt here. The time will come to rebuild, but it is not now. Leave the current crop of politicians to carry the blame for their mess.
The latest thinking I have heard is that the $34 Trillion deficit will be taken care of by our land: you no longer “really” own your property, it and the public lands (parks and forests) are owned by the debt holders (china). This explains the fervor of the fed to acquire 30% of all land by 2030…so they can hand over the keys. The legislators are selling us out in exchange for continued power and wealth for themselves.
I do not recall voting for such terms myself. Just saying.
one has to be quick to catch a falling knife and then have to know how to use it////
Points made are true enough – however, I would say Chris Sununu, Annie Kuster, Maggie Hanson, and Jeanne Shaheen are not serving New Hampshire’s highest and best either.
The swamp runs deep and wide – Vermont happens to be captured territory – it’s demise is by calculated design. Soon, the wokesters are going to feel the pain and discomfort never imagined. No one is going to help them either or care about their feelings anymore. We are fast approaching the real upending and the day of reckoning for the wicked. I’m ready – is anyone else? The veil is thinning. The tares have grown right along side the wheat – the harvest is commencing.