Oh, the hypocrisy, but there is an opportunity for redemption.
by Rob Roper
In the wake of multiple tragic incidents of political violence, Rep. Laura Sibilia (I-Dover) recently penned an op-ed calling for respect, participation, open mindedness, and dialogue with those with whom we disagree. “Too often,” she writes, “when people talk about those they [emphasis added] disagree with, I hear ‘they’ or ‘them.’ Used this way, these words are vague and dehumanizing. They create distance and make it easier to dismiss or demonize.”
All well and good, except for the fact that she used the term “they” to describe the people she reprimands for using the term “they.” I get it; English is a tricky language.
The piece rambles on for some five hundred words with preachy bromides such as, “The lesson is simple. Once we decide we already know everything about ‘them,’ we stop listening. Once we stop listening, we stop learning.” And “Real progress starts when we stay open to learning from one another.” She calls down from her high horse for us to eschew “phrases like ‘those people,’ ‘the left,’ ‘the right,’ ‘the politicians,’ ‘the media’ or ‘the elites.’ All of these labels lump people together and let us avoid dealing with what individuals are actually saying or doing.”
She should have stopped there. She could have gotten away with a dull and banal but relatively inoffensive act of politically mugging for the camera (or in this case the opinion page) on a topic of public interest. But she didn’t stop there. Sibilia decided to end her call for respect, civility, dialogue, and putting a stop to dehumanizing those with whom we disagree with this out of the blue verbal assault on, well, those with whom she disagrees:
National politics has grown more unstable, with threats, lies and violence replacing dialogue. We are already seeing some of that emerge here in Vermont, with outside groups like Americans for Prosperity working to inflame division.
Okay! I guess she was careful not to Americans for Prosperity as “those people,” but I would argue the label she employs, “outside groups,” is equally as bad if not worse as a means of they/theming, lumping, and dehumanizing those with different opinions. Is there a more evocative word you could come up with to “create distance and make it easier to dismiss or demonize” than “outside”? Oh, the sad hypocrisy, Laura!
Sibilia’s accusation that Americans for Prosperity (AFP) represents an emergence of “threats, lies and violence replacing dialogue” is totally unfounded and potentially libelous. Something she would realize if she were “paying attention to what the individuals” at and with AFP are, in her words, “actually saying or doing.”
In fact, AFP is saying and doing in Vermont exactly what Sibilia says we should all be saying and doing. Over the past several months, AFP held a series of public town hall meetings around Vermont to open up a dialogue between citizens and politicians to discuss the issues most important to the people of our state. These conversations have been civil, respectful, and productive. Exercises in the very listening and learning Sibilia says we need more of.
Sibilia’s beef with AFP is that she is a lead advocate for a number of policies that AFP opposes, including the Global Warming Solutions Act, the Clean Heat Standard tax on heating fuels, Cap & Invest carbon taxes on gasoline and diesel and the Renewable Energy Standard surcharges for electricity – all of which are regressive policies that drive up the cost energy. Based on polling — and the ultimate poll, the 2024 state house elections — generally speaking it appears a majority of Vermonters agree with the outsiders at AFP and not insider Sibilia in that we should not be actively making Vermont a less affordable place to drive, stay warm in winter, and power our appliances.
But rather than practice what she’s preaching and engage AFP in a constructive dialogue, Sibilia instead, in a flagrant act of projection, unleashes the “lying, divisive, flame-fanning outsider” label in order to “other” AFP in hopes that folks will dehumanize and dismiss – and certainly not listen and learn from – what AFP has to say. Uncool.
I do not criticize, however, without offering construction. If Rep. Sibilia genuinely believes what she wrote, that “Once we stop listening, we stop learning,” and “Real progress starts when we stay open to learning from one another,” then how about she and AFP hold a public panel discussion (or a series of them) delving deep into the Vermont energy policies she advocates for. Let her make her case. Let AFP make their case. Let the public weigh in with questions and comments.
I offer this idea up as a challenge and an opportunity to both parties. After all, “Real progress starts when we stay open to learning from one another.” Right?
Listening and learning?
Rob Roper is a freelance writer who has been involved with Vermont politics and policy for over 20 years. This article reprinted with permission from Behind the Lines: Rob Roper on Vermont Politics, robertroper.substack.com