Vermonters, and probably most Americans, want their elected leaders to work together to solve the problems we face today.  They are less interested in ideology and more interested in results that make our government work better for all those who live under it.  But in just this calendar year alone there have been major problems that demonstrate that the Democratic Party in Vermont is no longer serving Vermonters first, and may not be deserving of a super majority.

The first instance was earlier this year during the once-a-decade redistricting process.  The Democrats in power, led by their candidate for Secretary of State, intentionally ignored the expressed written will of a few local communities in southern Vermont for the purposes of preserving their party's political power.  The towns of Manchester, Arlington, Sunderland and Sandgate each expressed the benefits of a map that would break their current area into two separate single member districts and keep every town whole.  Even Manchester, who stood the most to lose under this initial proposal, was noble in their admission that they gained an unfair advantage, and were willing to give it up in the sake of a fairer map.  However Democrats did not want to listen to the local communities, or their sense of fairness.  Instead their top priority was protecting their incumbents and their political power from the people who think differently.

A few months later Democrat Thomas Bock took the time to listen to the feedback from the voters in his district.  They told him overwhelmingly to support Governor Phil Scott’s veto of the new tax on home heating fuel that Democrats had passed.  Yet after Rep. Bock cast his vote according to the will of the people he represents, he was dressed down and pressured by party leaders who wanted desperately to advance their partisan ideology.  They wanted him to ignore the concerns of voters in one of the districts held by their own members.  After being treated so poorly for doing the very job he was sent to do – represent his constituents – it’s no wonder that he decided not to return.  Now Democrats hope to replace that independent thinker with someone who will get in line and protect their party from the people who think differently.

Jjust in the last week or so Democrats demonstrated why there are overly committed to their own agenda more than what is good for the people of Vermont when one of the only moderate Democrat Senators remaining made a public endorsement of a Republican candidate for House.  In a spirit of bipartisanship this Democrat saw a Republican they thought they could work with in Montpelier and was willing to buck the party trend to say so openly.  But almost instantly after the endorsement became public this Democrat was getting an increasing amount of pressure to retract their endorsement, and take back their public statement.  And unfortunately they did.  and Once again the Party protected itself from people who think differently.

These three instances from just the last 8 months are just the most public and high profile.  Like an iceberg, we can be sure that even more examples of arm-twisting exist below the surface and are undetectable for now.  But these three events form a pattern of troubling behavior that have come to define today’s Democrat Party in Vermont and in American.  It centers around conformity.  The Democrat party exerts pressure on their members to put the party over their own judgement and over the will of the people – and the pattern seems to be that despite what the members might say on the campaign trail, in the end they conform to those pressures. Those who do not are removed.

This represents a great danger that many Republicans have seen in their committee rooms.  It means that Democrats have a structural problem listening to and integrating dissenting opinions.  There is too much power concentrated in the Democrat party, and that power is serving the party at the expense of the people, in at least some cases.  When an institution like the Democrat party accumulates the kind of power it has, it tends to abuse that power and take measures to maintain that advantage.  The result is that Democrat legislators get caught up in the party machine and become unable to resist it when it turns on them.

That’s why Independent-minded Vermonters should seriously consider their Republican candidates for the House and Senate.  Republicans will continue to honor our approach of encouraging our members to vote for their constituents and their conscience.  If we don't have broad consent about something, Republicans would argue that maybe we shouldn't be using state resources to do it.  Or if there are differences of opinion, can we find a way to get a consensus that can work for everyone, not just the people with power? 

While Republicans create space for different ideas, opinions and welcome discussion, Democrats have created their own unyielding dogma, and strictly enforce their own orthodoxy.  This is one of the reasons that Democrats, despite full control of the Federal Government in both Congress and the Executive Branch, have struggled to lead our country into prosperity.  They have created an echo chamber of wrong answers that have compounded our problems on public safety and inflation.  Democrats are unwilling to entertain policy ideas from outside their party, and seem unable to generate new solutions from within.  It's time to dial back the volume of Montpelier's echo chamber and create a new mix of diverse ideas from some of our best Republican candidates who are running in your local area.

Chairman Paul Dame