Joe Benning: About the Vermont Republican Party

This commentary is by Sen. Joe Benning, who represents the Caledonia-Orange District in the Vermont Senate.

In the early 1990s I joined the Vermont Republican Party. I did so because the VTGOP recognized five core principles: a free market economy, a local and efficient government that kept taxes within reason, an educational system that enabled our graduates to compete in a global marketplace, individual liberty, and personal responsibility. Those five core principles were wrapped together by a glue that bound us together as a society: the Vermont Constitution. Coupled with Vermont’s proud history of rugged individualism, these things defined our party.

state of Vermont

State Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia

There was no application process when I joined. There was no litmus test. I wasn’t asked whether I followed a particular religion or even if I was religious. I wasn’t asked whether I was pro-life or pro-choice. It was never demanded of me that I swear allegiance to any particular candidate or to every plank in the party’s platform. Nobody in their right mind would have insisted upon blind allegiance to an idealogue. Civility, integrity and an assumption that our election process was trustworthy were orders of the day.

The only reason a political party organization exists is to elect candidates. The VTGOP’s sole objective is supposed to be targeted at recruiting and electing those who can get elected. Even George Aiken, perhaps the most frugal VTGOP member, recognized one of government’s chief responsibilities is to help those in need. I’ve now participated in nine elections, the last being my first statewide. Successful in six and unsuccessful in three, I flatter myself in thinking I understand what it takes to get elected.

So where is the VTGOP today? A minor contingent still firmly believes the January 6th assault on the nation’s capitol was a patriotic event. A few display large flags on their homes and vehicles that say “F**CK Biden.” The loudest voices on social media (thankfully still few in number) spew vitriol and hatred against the highest vote recipients in the VTGOP and those who’ve spent the most time trying to hold the party together. They continue a narrative designed to undermine faith in our electoral process, label those legitimately in need as leeches on society, and adhere to every Q-anon conspiracy imaginable as if it is established fact.

Like it or not, that is an image problem we VTGOP candidates deal with on the campaign trail. Sure, everybody has a right to free speech; but these immature, sometimes dangerous and often bullying techniques will never attract electable candidates or Vermont voters to the VTGOP. Nobody marching to this drumbeat has a chance of ever getting elected in Vermont.

Some will argue Donald Trump’s vote tally in the 2020 election (112,704) is something to build upon. Mathematically that is not possible. Vermont’s voting demographic has twice soundly rejected his candidacy, giving Biden 242,820 votes in that same election. Vermonters want civility, integrity and trust in the people they vote for. The vast majority long ago decided Trump does not provide those things. No argument will change that. If the VTGOP is to survive and thrive, we’d best be moving on.

VTGOP leaders must recognize the largest voting block in Vermont is not Republicans or Democrats or Progressives. It is those who consider themselves independents. If VTGOP leaders move to rigid right-wing idealogues for comfort, we lose that block. The VTGOP course must remain center-right. As idealogues in the Democrat/Progressive supermajority drive policy that runs counter to Vermont traditions and fiscal capacity, independents will be alienated. This provides an opportunity for VTGOP candidates who stay true to, and can articulate, our five core principles and the glue that binds them together.

Images courtesy of Vermont Republican Party and state of Vermont

35 thoughts on “Joe Benning: About the Vermont Republican Party

  1. How would you know what the true Republican party in Vermont is, Joe? You haven’t been a faithful Vermont Republican for years. You and Phil are some version of the new, woke, appeasing Republican “leaders” that the leftists are trying to morph us all into. Don Turner is the same way. Our GOP leaders have abandoned us to appease the Democrats and try to hang onto power. Reminds me of Vichy and Quisling during WW2. You and Phil are not faithful to the Vermont Republican party Platform, and haven’t been for years. You and Scott have ruined the Party and looked down your noses at grassroots, conservative-minded Vermonters. Please go be a Democrat officially, as that is where your heart has been for years.

  2. If you want to continue to lose, take all the advice Joe can give.

    In 2002, when I won my first term to the State Senate, Republicans got clobbered. Unlike most who lost, I ran as a solid limited-government, free-market, conservative, including pro-life (which Joe, is a personal responsibility issue, among others) and not pretending that two men can get married. In fact, as a regular Bennington Banner columnist, I wrote two columns that I am sure Joe would think were certain to harm me: One was pro-life and the other took on the fraud of senseless theory of evolution, which with modern science has no basis. So we can now actually teach children that they have value and maybe start to address the cause of teen suicide.

    During my first term, to the alarm of elected Republicans like Joe, I introduced a marriage amendment, which also alarmed those running our local paper. I did inform the editor that marriage between a man and a woman was not a new idea and that I was not the one who came up with the idea. So I ran again in left-leaning Bennington Senate District with that as a backdrop. Republicans again got clobbered, giving Democrats a huge majority in both chambers. But I won again, and not by catering to any particular voting block, but by promoting sound ideas, starting with valuing people, including those hidden in the womb and those nearing the end of their life.

    The Democrat super majority is not because they catered to the imaginary “independent”, and not because the Democrat Party’s top goal is getting people elected, as Joe imagines is the top goal of a party. Rather it is because the Democrat Party has vision and ideas and will even lose elections to push those ideas forward. Now, I think their ideas are horrific, at best. But because they are the only ideas presented, they are they only option for people who actually want to vote for something.

    Joe lost because Vermonters would not put their trust in him. I won, not because everyone agreed with me, but because they trusted me because I did not simply try to guess what they wanted to hear. I listened, conversed and expressed my views with honesty. And that, IMO, after winning twice in a very left-leaning district, is how elections are won. And even when you lose, you at least moved a conversation forward. By contrast Joe’s loss has not redeeming value. It was a complete loss. Anyone who gave a dollar to his race, might as well have flushed that dollar down the toilet. It changed absolutely nothing.

  3. By lying to voters “there’s no question that the election was valid” Joe Benning is giving aid (in the form of narrative support) to election theft, foreign interference and CCP infiltration of electronic voting systems.

    To then turn around and blame disenfranchised voters for “undermining faith in our electoral process” is beyond grotesque.

    Joe Benning is a modern day Vichy collaborator betraying America from within and his treacherous lies about January 6th are an abomination.

    Regarding Benning’s so-called “mathematics,” Joseph Stalin said, “I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this – who will count the votes, and how.” We have no way of knowing the true count of votes tabulated on rigged Dominion fraud machines.

    Regarding the write-in campaign, Thayer’s poor results are due to the fact that he published a confusing op-ed and commentary immediately prior to the election in which he said Benning was a better choice than Zuckerman, but then immediately followed up by emphasizing that he wasn’t actually “endorsing” Benning.

    And regarding his smear of voters who challenge him on social media as “adherents of Q-anon conspiracies,” Benning is apparently unaware that President Trump effectively confirmed the authenticity of Q in numerous Truth Social posts:

    https://mobile.twitter.com/VTCitizenMedia/status/1595145215614267393

    So then the real question that emerges, given that the Q movement is as much as anything an anti-child-sex-trafficking movement, is why Benning is covering for elite pedophiles and child sex traffickers – and helping them steal our elections – by attempting to discredit it as a “conspiracy.”

    • The reason they hate Q so much is because it’s been so effective.
      Q is a tool that is making people THINK.
      It’s teaching them to think, to learn, to be curious.
      It’s teaching them to be students, to dig out information and to learn about what is going on.

      They don’t want all this..
      There is a reason that our media doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do: keep the citizenry accurately informed about what is going on within OUR Government so that we can hopefully cast informed votes to then control OUR Government.
      There is a reason they have been dumbing people down in Our Education system for decades now.
      There is a reason we are being indoctrinated with propaganda..there is reasons for it all.. and it’s sure not good for us.

      And no, this is not conspiracy theories.. there are millions of Americans that have been closely observant and engrossed with all this for our entire lives now and so much that we’ve been saying has been proven to be true!

      Benning is working very hard to not only keep the graft all going and hidden, but he wants a dumbed down, compliant people that will do as they are told..by insulting and shaming people, belittling them and then wanting money and votes for this.
      Whatta guy.

      These people are all the enemy within that the founders warned us of.

      • Sorry Laura, but embracing the bizarre Q-Anon cult is not a productive path either for the Republican Party or our nation.

        • And you embrace the cult of nothing. We have not left the Republican Party the Republican Party left us to morph into the Uni-Party with Communists

  4. Benning and the VT GOP leadership stated the party ” loss ” because of TRUMP,
    a pretty sad statement, this just shows the Vermont GOP, has no spine or cohones
    that will be from the ” F-Biden ” part of the VT-GOP party and are the ones that voted
    in 2020 …………. the others have given up, for a good reason !!

    I personally don’t care how crass DJT is, or he can be, it’s what he states he will do for
    the country, the only politician that I have seen in my entire voting life that did what he
    said he would do………………..for those so-called Vermonters ( 242,820 ) that voted for
    the current feckless senile old fool, I’ll stick with ” CRASS ” every time!!

    If the VT-GOP is to survive and save the state from the cancerous progressives agenda
    they better grow a pair, maybe Vermont’s Governor should call Florida’s Governor for a
    few tips……………………. what a shame.

    • Benning’s continued blaming of Trump for his election defeat seems a demonstration of the hubris in all of Vermont’s elected officials. Benning lost to a socialist. Vermont is a socialist nirvana. Trump had no involvement in Vermont politics since he did a rally here in Burlington’s Flynn Theatre in 2016. None. Like he could care less about 600,000 crazy socialists. Paul Dame had more impact on Benning’s race, with the VT GOP negative ads than Trump ever did. And the VT GOP is all but dead now, as the majority political view sees all things Republican and GOP and conservative as old, tainted and disgusting thinking.
      The outcome I sought in Vermont’s statewide races, particularly the legislature was some sort of even balance- not the one-sided super majority we now will see embarking on a legislative mangling of Vermont’s constitution and economy. We are about to face legislative sanctimony as this super majority goes to work ‘fixing’ all of Vermont’s and the world’s ills. Climate/Environment, Education, Healthcare and Firearms will all be targets. Likewise all things ‘woke’ will become priority for meddling and copious spending by these self- ordained saviors. Vermont is soon to enter a huge period of yet increased government control, spending, regulation and socialist evangelism, as the majority of these self- anointed legislators demand we as subjects worship at the altar of state and federal government.
      We are the beta-testbed for the northeast- to see just how far ‘woke socialism’ can go before it crumbles society.
      Mr. Benning, while you received my vote, it was certainly a ‘lesser of two evils’ vote. It seemed to me that you would offer some input and balance to the Senate, whereas your opponent will only cheer on the carnage to come, while waiting to advance to the Governor’s office.
      Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps, we need to allow the socialist/liberal agenda to continue unimpeded- let them have their way- until Vermont implodes from the weight of ‘woke’.
      It won’t be a long wait.

  5. Better get back to your uni-party, Benning. Americans don’t need lectures from their servants. There’s no principal you and your ilk won’t betray to remain in office. Americans have had it with quislings like yourself.

  6. Senator Benning,

    Thanks for your years of service and for your articulating the five principles that you feel underly the Republican Party: a free market economy, local and efficeint government that keeps taxes within reason, an educational system that gives our graduates the tools to compete in a global marketplace, individual liberty and personal responsibility.

    Focusing more on these principles and less on tearing people down and conspiracy theories would indeed appeal to more Vermonters.

    • You mean an educated system that programs children into Social Emotional Learning (SEL). I recently read a paper published in the Journal of Educational Policy. The paper was about phycho data mining children using SEL, and opening stated that understanding SEL is needed for the political and economical control of society. Basically, they are programming out children as they will be the future society. The World Economic Forum also talks about SEL as a government-corporate partnership to nudge society and their purchasing decisions to enrich specific stakeholders. They sterically reference META as a stakeholder. You know, the owner of Facebook, all children will be educated in the Metaverse for a global educational experience, so the government and stakeholders can treat them as human capital, whose futures can be wagered on. I recommend you do some serious reading on this topic. The New Discourse podcast is great and James Lyndsey has a number of podcasts about Social Emotional Learning, where he reviews various resources. Sadly, this agenda has nothing to do with educating children, nor does it have to do with fighting racism and white supremacy.

    • Richard, I am an ex-Dem. I don’t label myself an Independent. And I am not masking anything. I am proud to think for myself — to extricate myself from ALL political cults — and just like religion, they are ALL cults.

      You make such an ignorant statement. You don’t know the reasons or mind of anyone else.

    • John: I am not a Repub and likely never will be. But, I think there might be just a little hope for the party with you in it.

  7. I don’t think voters were looking for moderate voices. For instance, look at Nichole Loati in the house race for Lamoille Washington. She was an extremely center Republican endorsed by Scott and even outspokenly pro-choice. She got even LESS votes then Ben Olsen , an outspoken pro-life Catholic.
    I feel if Nichole had agreed to expanding rights and privileges for the LGBTQ+ community and had jumped on the Climate Gospel Train, she would have faired much better.
    The LGBTQ+ hold is a very real thing . If a candidate believes a person should not have preferential treatment simply because of a certain group that they happen to fall into, that candidate is labeled a ‘hater’ and doomed in Vermont.
    Also the enigma of Climate Religion. They can not bear to hear another scientist’ take on climate change. Their hearts are hardened to anything except green energy. I liken it to an occult. I mean this with all seriousness.
    So in a nutshell I think the LGBTQ+ community and Climate Religion are the two main sources of problems for the VTGOP

  8. Good grief, Senator, have you read John Klar’s article here about the exploding levels of drugs and highly violent gang bangers that have flooded into Vermont?
    Have you read ANY of Attorney Klar’s work Senator?
    It’s all quite eye opening.

    Vermont is in really serious trouble and this man is saying that Vermonters want ‘civility” ???
    Then why on earth are they voting for more of what is destroying the state?
    Vermont’s soft on crime policies are actually attracting the worse people we have *globally* right into Vermont like a bear goes to honey.. now tell me, how is that concluding that the state wants ‘civility’?

    The senator also fails to understand that we are not at all dealing with JFKs Democrat party anymore.
    Has he heard about Hunters laptop and the crimes of the Biden family, their connections to China, this stuff is getting out there now to the degree that some congressmen are actually saying out loud that Joe Biden is a threat to our national security..
    I could go on and on, the regulars here all know the list and yes, the criminal element extends right into our back yards.
    But my point is that the Right has been forced to react to the Democrat party that now has many people openly admitting they are Marxists, Socialists and Communists..

    I’m sorry Mr.Benning if we all don’t choose to just keep sitting here silent doing as you wish like stupid compliant sheep on their way to the abattoir.

  9. Joe, how many of the 112,704 Vermonters that voted for Trump in 2020 would have voted for you in 2022 had you not stood against us. You may be the Lt Governor elect right now. I fought long and hard with myself before I found that I could not bring myself to vote for you.

    • Rich: Donald Trump in 2020: 112,704; Joe Benning in 2022: 118,249. I think that alone should answer the question, but if not here’s a couple more thoughts.

      This was my first statewide race. It was my opponent’s fourth. He clearly had name recognition advantage. He was one session removed from being a two-term incumbent and Vermonters don’t normally jettison incumbents. He had many times over the amount of money I raised. By the time I had enough to commence television advertising to gain name recognition, probably one third or better of the electorate had already cast votes in early voting.

      Of all the statewide and federal Republican candidates, I was the only one to surpass the 40% mark with just shy of 43% of the vote. The nearest fellow Republicans got 35% and all three of them (Taglavia, Paige & Morton) were Donald Trump supporters. Gerald Malloy got 28%.

      I lost by 31,000 votes, the bulk of which came from Burlington, South Burlington, Montpelier and Brattleboro. A concerted effort was made to write-in my primary opponent. He was a Trump supporter and considered himself a patriot for being at the nation’s capitol January 6th. If I give him credit and take into account the roughly seven times voters misspelled his name writing him in, he got 341 votes. Clearly those votes would not have made a difference.

      Simple math thus suggests moving the party farther to the right does not improve Republican chances of winning. Winning is the sole reason a political party exists. Do we want to win, or do we want a purified coffee club?

      • Joe,

        Winning doesn’t matter if the person you’re electing is out to destroy your state.

        You obviously can’t separate truth from fiction and your disturbing belief that somehow Trump is bad is disgraceful.

        Have you even bothered to take time out from your propaganda spreading campaign to look around the country today and see what’s your buddy Joe Biden has done to America?

        I don’t care what side of the aisle you’re on if you can’t recognize that we were much better off under president Trump then we are under this corrupt administration which will soon be exposed there is something wrong with you.

        Even in your latest statements you can’t stop trouncing on your primary opponent for showing up to participate in a historical event at the capital of the United states of America.

        Are you really trying to convince others that what took place was done at the hands of patriots?

        Why doesn’t the FBI answer the questions at congressional hearings about their involvement in the january 6th event at the capitol and how their people played a part and what happened there?

        You thought using your propaganda would immediately thrust you into the second highest office in the state of Vermont however people here are more intelligent than you would like to believe.

        Face it Joe you lost because people don’t trust you… And it’s for good reason.

        I would never vote for someone that supports the slaughter of The unborn and the mutilation of our children and the destruction of the family unit.

        You forget one thing Joe government is we the people not you the politicians control we the people.

        I’ve been here a long long time and our state used to be a beautiful state until people just like you came along and started to sell their rotten apples.

        Vermonters want Vermont back not a bunch of loonies trying to control vermonters.

        And you continue to say you’re a Phil Scott republican which tells me you support the left agenda because you guys vote for and support Joe Biden.

        A Phil Scott republican is a sellout to Vermont and America.

        I know Dave Zuckerman personally and I do not support his agenda at all..

        But the reason Dave gets elected and you don’t is because Dave has a great personality and he’s not afraid to tell the truth..

        I can’t believe anyone in their right mind would vote for someone who does not support their values just because they claim to be a republican.

        No thanks Joe, it’s because of people like you that Vermont is a lost cause.

        Maybe california is more suitable to your political beliefs.

        I’m encouraging everyone to continue to vote for people that respect your values and want to make Vermont the beautiful state it once was.

        May God bless the green mountains of Vermont and the United states of America.

  10. Gaslight Joe Benning is still trying to convince the low information voter that Trump was to blame for the GOPs losses in the last election when the blame lies with the Republican party.

    Before the election on the tube, I saw Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell say he didn’t think the Republicans would take the Senate because of the quality of the Republican candidates. This was a blatant rebuke of all the Trump endorsed senate candidates.

    A few days after that statement on Newsmax Dick Morris said that what McConnell is trying to do is destroy all of the Trump endorsed America First candidates, the reasoning being he would rather be Senate Minority Leader than Senate Majority Leader because that majority might have the vote to remove him as leader and give it to Rick Scott-R-FL. When the red wave didn’t happen, McConnell trashed the MAGA candidates again.

    How could this be? A republican that didn’t want to take the Senate and put a halt to the Biden agenda, with the biggest reason that being Biden would not be able to get judicial nominees, federal and supreme court thru the Senate. Was there a conspiracy between the Democrats and McConnell? The Democrats funded several MAGA candidates in the primaries with the hope that they could beat them in the general by, like Joe Benning, labeling them extremists. Now all the swamp creatures are coming out to say it was Trump’s fault and that his candidates lost the Senate. Really? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fhkvbocrmk

    McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund had over 100 million dollars to help Republican senate candidates get elected. So, what did he do with the money? Let’s start with Arizona. McConnell gave zero dollars to Blake Masters. Masters was outspent by 64 million dollars. Kelly 73 million Masters 9 million. In Pennsylvania OZ was outspent by 15 million dollars. Fetterman 52 million OZ 37 million. In Nevada Laxalt was outspent by 34 million dollars. Cortez Masto 46 million Laxalt 12 million. In Georgia Walker was out spent by 43 million dollars. Warnock 75 million Walker 32 million. In New Hampshire Bolduc was out spent by 34 million dollars Hassen 36 million Bolduc 2 million. McConnell stopped sending money to Bolduc after he was endorsed by Trump. Republican governor and rino Chris Sununu won election by a wide margin but didn’t lift a finger to help Bolduc. McConnell gave ZERO dollars to Gerald Malloy who was a Trump endorsed candidate. Now we get to Alaska where the Alaskan Republicans censured Lisa Murkowski. Then Murkowski’s friends put in ranked choice voting to make sure that Sara Palin and Kelly Tshibaca both Trump endorsed candidates would be stopped because Murkowski couldn’t win in a straight up election. McConnell funded Murkowski because she would vote for him as minority leader. This is even after Murkowski said she would be voting for Democrats. Murkowski had six times the funding of Tshibaca.

    Now the Trump trashing starts. It was the election deniers. It was abortion. We have to go in a new direction. Trump’s time is passed. His candidates can’t get elected. Why? It’s because they fear Trump. He is a threat to people like Mitch McConnell’s and the Uni-Party’s power. If you recall when he was elected in 2016, he had to rely on the Republican establishment’s recommendations to fill White House and cabinet positions, FBI, CIA, etc. And they made sure they put people around him to weaken his authority. Not so this time. If he should get elected again, he will be able to drain the swamp by coming in with his own staff, cabinet and appointees that will greatly diminish their power. Tucker Carlson’s interview with former congressman Steve King from Iowa King said Paul Ryan did everything he could to thwart funding for the border wall.

    When I was a correction officer an old timer told me when an inmate asks you for something or tells you something always ask yourself why. What’s their angle? So, what is the Republicans angle? The angle is the Republicans are using conservatives like the Democrats use Blacks. They only come around when it’s time to vote. They never give us what we want. Is it time for a new Constitutional Party?

    I’m glad I wrote in my vote against Gaslight Joe Benning and Zuckerman. And as for Trump? Do you want Charlie Tuna with good taste? or Charlie Tuna that tastes good.

    LET TRUMP BE TRUMP!

    • People will soon realize the tremendous power that Pat Leahy had for pulling pork, and that his new replacement in the senate will have no such clout. Democrat leadership in DC has no reason to bribe the voters of Vermont with public treasure since they know a majority of us are already mind-numbed leftists who will vote that way anyhow.

  11. Hello again, Mr. Benning.

    Re: That you weren’t “asked whether I was pro-life or pro-choice” … might suggest that you weren’t listening.

    In 2019 you opposed H.57, the bill providing access to abortion in Vermont for any reason, at any time, or for no reason at all. Yet you supported Article 22, that expands the scope of consideration from ‘abortion’ to ‘an individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy’. Was it your intention, in 2019, to oppose H.57, that addressed only abortion, in order to open the door later on to allowing virtually any issue arising in the vast and undefined arena of ‘personal reproductive autonomy’?

    • Jay, I actually listened quite well, and can list numerous pro-choice Republicans who were in office at the time. It was why we called ourselves a “Big Tent.”

      As to H.57 and Prop 5, I thought I was perfectly clear during our coffee meeting. I opposed H.57 because it declared a fetus had no rights in Vermont whatsoever. I don’t believe the majority of Vermonters support that position. I supported Prop 5 because I believe it replicated the Roe v. Wade balancing test. In it the Supreme Court labeled protection of a viable fetus in the third trimester as a “compelling state interest.” I do believe a majority of Vermonters agree with that and so do I.

      I also remember we agreed to disagree on your theory that Prop 5 “allow[ed] virtually any issue arising in the vast and undefined arena of ‘personal reproductive autonomy.'” There wasn’t any intention to open any door- I simply don’t agree with you that it does.

      • Mr. Benning: I suspect you speak with many, many people. And you may have difficulty keeping the conversations straight. And while I didn’t record our conversation, I’m quite sure we only discussed H. 57 or Prop 5 in passing, if at all.

        We did discuss your five principles.

        I also asked whether or not you had any evidence that the Vermonters (including Greg Thayer), who rode on the Jan 6 bus, breached the capitol grounds (you didn’t have evidence). I asked you to list one Trump policy with which you disagreed. You made one vague reference to a Trump policy citation a couple of years before he ran for office – but nothing specific.

        We discussed election strategies and the advice you were receiving from your consultants, recommending you be aggressive toward your critics, as you had been toward the Jan 6 crowd.

        We also discussed our mutual musical interests.

        But again, we didn’t really discuss the abortion issue at all. Apparently, you’re referencing my online criticisms. And I have no record of any written responses on that matter from you. Perhaps I missed them, and you can enlighten me.

        In the meantime, your assessment here of Roe v. Wade, argued December 13, 1971, and decided January 22, 1973,
        at least according to the Legal Information Institute and the ‘findlaw’ record of the actual SCOTUS decision text, is incorrect. The term ‘reproductive’ right is not used. And references to abortion restrictions in the interest of the State first occur after the first trimester, not the third trimester. But I digress.

        Again, the term ‘reproductive’ right, or ‘reproductive’ autonomy, doesn’t appear anywhere in the SCOTUS Justices’ Roe v. Wade decision text.

        In fact, the earliest reference I can find is: West R (2009). “From Choice to Reproductive Justice: De-Constitutionalizing Abortion Rights”. Yale Law Journal. 118: 1394–1432.

        and

        Nelson, Erin (2013). Law, Policy and Reproductive Autonomy. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 121. ISBN 978-1-78225-155-2.

        So… where, in Prop 5/Article 22, is the term ‘reproductive’ right defined?

        • Crickets again? How about another cup of coffee, Mr. Benning. On me. There’s a great place just down the road from here on Rt 5. Give me a call. You have my number.

  12. This guy lost out bigtime to Ponytail…who lost previously to a well-marketed newcomer to Vermont politics who was subsequently thrown to the curb in the next primary because she didn’t have as many victimhood credentials as her opponents. In moonbat, marxist Vermont, it’s all about appearances and feel-good intersectional credentials. It’s all about marketing “progressivism” and no longer about who will defend our precious, dwindling freedoms. We have a legislature that publicly apologized for their support of eugenics policies 100 years earlier who then laid the groundwork to enshrine do-it-yourself eugenics into the Vermont Constitution. There are no guiding principles to the Vermont left. It’s all about feel-good politics. I am willing to give Joe the benefit of the doubt that he truly wanted to reverse this travesty and hypocrisy of Vermont liberalism, but he really needs to grow a pair. I feel bad for him, having lost to that faux-farmer from upscale Masschusetts who came to Vermont to be a big fish in a small pond. Thanks for trying Joe, but Vermont has become a lost cause.

    • Spot on, Rich….you say: “….but Vermont has become a lost cause.”

      The sooner you all realize that, the sooner you can plan for your families safe future. And it should not include remaining in VT. Covid MULTI-BILLIONS have kept VT afloat for a few years…and that windfall is soon be blown on a myriad of worthless “feel good” stuff. VT cannot spend $9.1 billion yearly, and RISING every year, for 640,000 people. VT cannot pay for back the upwards of $5 BILLION unfunded pension and healthcare Union retirement liability. …65% of Vt population pays little in income taxes and they all get their property taxes subsidized.. Plan NOW…because the only choice for VT is to take more of your money, if you are middle- upper income….Reality, will be the “Last at Bat”….VT is – “Broke & Woke ” 🙂

    • Rich, He can’t grow a pair. He and Scott are of the castrati and are singing alto in Montpelier.

    • I am voting with my feet as soon as I can. Vermont is lost from my point of view. Others can stay here in their hippy utopia, but I don’t have to put up with the taxes, high cost of living, and liberal nonsense anymore.

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