John Klar: Vermont conservatives have had enough of their RINO governor

By John Klar

When a few branches are dragged strategically from a swollen beaver dam, the sudden release of rushing water quickly widens the breach, and all the beavers’ tireless efforts are swept away in mere minutes. In Vermont, the waters of resentment have risen steadily behind the faulty dam constructed tirelessly by “Republican” Governor Phil Scott. The vulnerability of this muddy mess stems from a putatively GOP beaver who has watered down the mud that once held Vermont’s GOP together, by incorporating the building blocks of liberal policies, topped with a heated pugnacity toward POTUS Trump.

The schism in Vermont was evident in the 2018 midterms, when large swaths of conservatives abandoned the Vermont polls in disgust with Phil Scott’s outspoken support for sweeping gun law restrictions that he had specifically promised he would oppose. Yet Phil Scott won handily, as many centrist Vermonters were not quite ready for his progressive transgender opponent. The Busy (Helping the Liberals) Beaver Scott credits his broad popularity for his win, but polls show he is supported inversely to his party affiliation: 56% of Democrats approve of him versus 15% of Republicans. If ever there was a RINO (Republican In Name Only) beaver governor Phil Scott is that creature.

Meanwhile, Vermont’s progressives fancy that their sweep of House and Senate seats in 2018 was due to their construction skills (of government programs, sanctuary status, Black Lives Matter flags in public schools, cannabis legalization, committees to call all Vermonters racists, gun control schemes, etc.). In misplaced confidence in a nonexistent voter mandate, these progressive beavers grew especially busy in 2019, constructing muddy extremist laws to ensconce abortion through the third trimester and preparing to enact ambitious carbon taxes, minimum wage hikes, business regulations, and other government-expanding dams to liberty and commerce.

But then Phil Scott did something that poked a hole in his whole damn dam.  He signed that extremist abortion protection law, and boasted about it. Third-trimester abortions? Per Governor Scott, he always felt that this should be a decision made between a patient and her doctor. Of course, even a woodchuck can see that by the time a baby is nearing delivery, that doctor has a second patient (acknowledged as “a compelling state interest” in Roe v. Wade). And this is when Phil Scott placed the full weight of a RINO on that frail illusion of “support.” Presumably, RINO Phil believed that pandering to his progressive base by signing the abortion bill would ensure his re-election, but the Vermont Democrats are hardly going to reward Phil with another liberal reign.  Like sharks, they circle to take him down in 2020.

The woodchucks (native Vermonters) who were disenfranchised in 2018 by Scott and his progressive beaver clan are funneling through that fragile levee, ripping down the defective dam that was intended to cow them. Governor Phil Scott will announce that he will not seek re-election in 2020, lose in the primary (to anyone), or lose in the general election. Currently, he is gnawing on more sticks, to construct even higher walls against his erstwhile supporters, in the form of diverted state funds to finance abortions, calling Vermont’s state police racist for arresting black and Hispanic narcotics-traffickers, and other slender reeds. Yet right before him, the water is rushing widely, and his blueprints for future damage to Vermont have been destroyed by the flood.

Stitched into Vermont’s restraining dam was another dysfunctional crew — the Vermont GOP leadership, which has for too long cajoled its groundhog base to pop up and vote for RINO Scott and his beaver buddies. Afraid to move in any direction, this fragmenting residue has been drowned in the rising waters, constrained by the irreconcilable pressures of supporting Phil Scott and Donald Trump concurrently. This is much like canvassing for both Charles Manson and Bambi on the same ticket (regardless of which one is viewed as which!).

The Vermont GOP’s 21st-Century schizoid clan now presides over an utter rout, as drowsily oblivious as the sloppy designers of Vermont’s crumbling ideological barricade. Within these swirling waters has arisen a well organized, highly motivated collection of those disenfranchised woodchucks, and they are mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore. Tenacious and weathered, Vermont’s natives are now being fueled by the same GOP schisms, only reversed — they will no longer stomach Scott at the helm, they do not wish to have their state’s future determined solely by a national referendum on Donald Trump, and they will not be controlled by the old-guard GOP sarcophagi.

Viewing their cause much as the desperate “300” Spartans who opposed overwhelming numbers of invading Persian conquerors at Thermopylae in 480 B.C., this swelling group of Green Mountain patriots has enunciated a specific centrist policy list that it commits to achieve.  Says Kate Bowen, a young farmer from Putney:

Working families of Vermont have sore and aching backs from the endless taxes and fees Montpelier puts upon them. Clearly, it will require rugged, determined blue-collar workers to remedy the left’s corrupt elitism. Who better than a farmer, who shovels manure every day, to clean out the Bureaucratic Bull at the statehouse?

Such zealous warriors lay waste to bureaucratic dams quickly and strike fear in the legislative chambers of those who have joined Governor Scott to condemn Vermonters and their culture. This nascent force of grassroots radicals proposes to effectively tackle the fiscal destruction wrought by progressive fantasists, employing the frugality, self-reliance, and personal responsibility of the Vermont tradition as weaponry. A coalition of Vermont neighbors has entwined the state’s Republicans and Libertarians into a political challenge to Governor Phil Scott, promising the “git’r done” work ethic and integrity of the authentic loggers and farmers who are forming both its leadership and its base.

Army veteran and Vermont farmer Terry Williams explains:

The majority of Vermonters are overtaxed, overregulated, and feel completely disconnected from their elected representatives.  Our supposedly Republican Governor has been a sheep in wolf’s clothing, and the flock has tired of being devoured.  People everywhere are just plain furious.  People are stepping forward who have never even voted before.  They will vote now!

Once RINO-beaver Scott is dethroned, these Green Mountain Spartans will muster the Vermont natives down from the colorful hills in populist fervor, to take back the constitutional protections and public coffers looted by invading flatlander elitists. These re-enfranchised voters will evidence their electoral power with vibrant working-class Vermonters, under the auspices of a name unique to their cause: Vermont’s Agripublicans©!

In 2020, America will clash to “drain the swamp” in Washington, D.C. In Vermont, the Agripublicans© will drain the progressive beaver pond and chase the flat-tailed varmints from the Golden Dome. When sensible Vermonters reclaim their lands, wallets, and liberties, the nation will observe that cultural diversity demands that vibrant, Judeo-Christian, rural American cultures must be valued and preserved, not gentrified or made dependent on government and corporate chains for every need.

John Klar is an attorney and farmer residing in Brookfield, and pastor of the First Congregational Church of Westfield. Originally published at American Thinker.

Image courtesy of Gov. Phil Scott official Facebook page

41 thoughts on “John Klar: Vermont conservatives have had enough of their RINO governor

  1. All I can say is rip off the bandage and lets put the pot smoking pony tailed wonder in as Governor. A few years of him and even the left will be leaving this state in droves………..We need to let it go and get the hell out of here fast! There is no going back to the right in this state, the left has polluted our public schools with their drivel and paid off the feckless with freebies to get them to vote their way…………we are doomed!

  2. Ah yes, Phil the Beaver (of course he has been referred to by many other names and titles too offensive to list here). A pretend Republican of the highest order, slanderer of his own people and well practiced LIAR. It says a lot about the man when his majority support comes from Left wing loonies and Democrats. Well done John Klar

  3. A truly conservative approach can win the hearts of Vermonters, it’s really the only thing that can.

    We have to ask….What is our Fruit? What do the people see us, true conservatives doing? Are we leading? I’d dare say no, we are only reacting to what agenda that Now Prssc put’s before us, what’s convenient is we already know the majority of their plan and it will NOT change, they can’t, they can’t veer from the tightly held handbook, which is really not about freedom but about control, the socialist dogma, Rules for Radicals, United Nations, Communism, Social Justice Warriors. The real weakness is they don’t operate on freedom or truth but propaganda and control. making them very easy to expose for the true hypocrites they are, most people thought mean well, they do not understand the cog to which they are, so why offend them?

    In Vt Digger this week they are talking about poverty and abuse increasing in Vermont. That’s because the current plan being used in this state is working perfectly.

    Take affordability. This is where true conservatives shine. They would have no issue with people building modest homes they could afford, they know it’s the easiest safest way for people to build equity. We can build affordable homes, affordable for 2 people on current minimum wage, we just don’t allow it, they would be good, modest homes.

    The Now Prssc crowd wants nothing to do with this. They are literally creating the poverty trap AND they are getting rich doing it. About every affordable housing project in Vermont is a complete scam. They build at $500 per square foot while the rest of the Vermont world buys and trades from $135-$250/per square foot. They have “free” grant money, tax payer subsidies and breaks all over and subsidies for the people living in the homes (which is the trap, as rent goes up as income does) and they are almost ALWAYS rental properties. THEY ARE LITERALLY RENTING FROM THE STATE! This is the perfect communist, socialist housing plan and it’s here in Vermont, in epic proportions! rinos seem to be keen on this too as they stuff their pockets with tax payer money, anybody who’s for crony capitalism is for this, it’s socialist’s first cousin.

    Now if we had Conservatives calling out this charade can you see how easy it would be to win on this point? People owning their own homes for 1/2 the price of rent!

    Course nobodies talking about this, because nobody knows about it, cause the press totally cover for the crony capitalists, because they are also beneficiaries of the “free money” trough.

    It would be so much fun to put the super majority on their heals this session, it would be so easy too. Just need a few people to work together.

    • Neil, I do think it can turn around. I just have not seen the will to do what is needed. It is the same story over and over. Doing the same things and expecting different results is … So just focus on the House and Senate and get people too busy to serve 5-6 months a year to run in every district on the platform that busy people get things done because they cannot afford the time to drag things on. Make a contract that if you win, you will serve about 2 months the first term and a 2 week budget adjustment session the second term of the biennium. That way a busy person has a deal with his constituents that enables him to serve. If they want a legislature to be a nanny and run their lives, then the voters have an option.

      My point is you need a fundamentally different situation if you expect different results. I have tried to make this point since I was unable to serve again because of the long sessions. See here: http://www.markshepard.us/vermontershouse/index.htm

    • Win a conservative super majority in the House and Senate. The House is very doable. Only 4000 constituents per person. It is all door-to-door. The Senate can also can work that way, but you have to do tons of door-to-door. That was a huge part of my winning Bennington District, which if you look at the makeup most people would say and they did say, I could never get elected. I sprinted between doors and really spent time with people in their homes. It was an incredible experience. Not once a bad experience. We did not all agree, but we enjoyed each other and learned from each other. The number one thing voters want in a candidate has nothing to do with any issue. It is trust. Honesty. And it should be because without that, nothing else matters. So get a full slate of busy conservative-leaning people doing this and you will have your conservative super majority. Forget about the state-wide offices. The legislature is far more important. Just look at what a super majority can do!

    • Neil, to support your points on affordable, tonight I just posted these comments to the Vermont Diggers article on Scott being the first Governor to support President Trumps Impeachment.

      They were not well received as they disappeared shortly after my posting.

      Phil Scott is as irrelevant as he is delusional, anyone who thinks making Vermont more affordable is a goal that can be accomplished by more programs, committees, commissions and subsidies doesn’t understand this is how we got here in the first place.

      Every time we engage in one of these practices the cost of living goes up and we forfeit more Freedom.

      We must at some point recognize the fact that if we continue to violate the principles of our free market system and over regulate commerce things can only get worse.

      But if you think its bad now, wait until Act 250 is married to the Climate economy next year. This will be paid for by incentive to develop in our villages and cities. Municipalities will become so excited to get their grants for economic development they will gladly shut down development in rural areas and not worry that average Vermonters will no longer be able to afford to build there.

      President Trump understands this concept of Freedom and what makes our country work, what does Phil Scott understand?

      • You are so correct about Act 250 and the “climate economy” they are going to get all our money and kindly redistribute it come hell or high water. My comments about the housing crisis in the Sugarbush area never saw the light of day either. I’m on the committee and it’s a complete orchestrated scam done by the regional planning commission. Straight out of Agenda 21, conveniently renamed sustainable communities.

        We need a dozen people to work together, then 10 of their friend and 10 of theirs….and we’d have something. Doing very small things, sharing posts, commenting on posts, etc. There is no team, there is no vision/plan. Our experience has shown us Affordability, School Funding and the Drug issues are most pressing for Vermonters. If there is something more important, let’s find out what it is and get behind it.

        It’s a tough puzzle, DNC side won’t change. RNC side is pretty stuck, couldn’t get press or support at the time for the Green Mountain Party….what is the answer?

      • Lynn, You are right on about the new ideas in development. It is a European model of everyone living tightly together with open spaces between. That is fine if that is how Europe wants to live, but Vermont was built and grew with an understanding that it is okay for regular working people to own land. Act 60/68 homestead exemption is all geared toward people living in clusters. I am sure the 2 acre exemption was hard for the left to swallow, but it was politically viable. They would much rather had a fraction of an acre exemption.

        From the perspective of land ownership our moving to Virginia from having been raised in rural Vermont, was much more like moving back to the Vermont we once had. I do not sense any push toward the European model here, but I sure felt it in Vermont … to the point where Vermont is no longer the rural state it once was. It is aiming to be a European model for America. I truly think that is their goal. It fits what the left pushes.

  4. Wow just wow….speaking of the devil..narcisistic good ole boy Comrade Phil just had to make front-page news as the *first* governor to call for our president to be investigated for impeachment…carefully couching his words but proving he’s another unhinged leftist loon. Let the bloodlusting thirsty lions-den complete with guts and gore begin as we watch from the comfort of our cushy seats…

    Phil Scott should be ashamed of himself…but never will be as he has none.

  5. So much anger here. THINK it thru! Yes, I agree Phil Scott should go. His “Kumbaya” approach to a super majority progressive legislature is a worthless endeavor.. However, the ONLY way Phil Scott got elected to begin with, is that ihe is a middle of the road Repub….many Vermonters can handle that…. the win by Phil was really more about “middle” Vermonters voting against SHUMLIN’S policies & tenure! SO? THINK! What possible chance does a “real conservative street fighter”, like Trump, EVER have a chance of….to win Governor of Vermont? There is no chance!!! a real conservative street fighter will never win. A RINO, yes….a hard charging conservative, no. So if you all… put a hard charging conservative as candidate — he or she… will lose. THEN WHAT! THEN you will get a progressive Govenor and a super majority progressive legislature!… If you think VT has problems now, just wait till that happens….and it will. My advice is to read the “tea leaves”. If you can get out, get out now. I’m now in AZ and I never realized just how miserable I was in my several decades in VT. And the WORST is yet to come – when the $4.5 billion unfunded Union bills start coming due. WHO will pay that???? It is near impossible to do that without a progressive & Bernie favored WEALTH TAX! Be scared, be very scared. Get out ASAP…. if you can!

    • We already have a supermajority progressive legislature, a progressive court system, and a progressive governor who is in the wrong party. It was the Democrats and Progressives who elected him, not the Republicans, many of whom left their ballots blank next to his name. A Republican running as a pro drug, anti gun, pro tax, anti growth, pro infanticide, anti Trump candidate won handily with the Dem/Progs, not with the GOP. Out of state liberal legislators escaped their fouled nests to come and foul ours. I hope Vermonters are getting angry enough to vote them and the governor out.

  6. Soo who is our ‘neighbor’…in the details of the good-samaritan it’s those who have a critical need which is in the power of said samaritan to meet regardless of other issues – love is doing so. Don’t think the one who encouraged this expects us to surrender our beliefs to make those who are, or aligned with, existential threats, positioned to destroy us and everything we cherish – bc we voted for someone they don’t like, happy. Personally do not seek to change anyone but if asked will answer legitimate queries

    I’ll be damned if I allow those whom I may disagree to define me, channel suckup by not uttering a controversial word for the priviledge of lending me their ear…I kinda think it’s highly likely behind that friendly smile possibly very sharp teeth…so when does love become blissful ignorance. It’s not my job to hand out smiley face stickers to make ppl happy. Truth is often bitter and brutal – not for the fainthearted, we can disagree w/o being disagreeable…which is the foundation of love imho. I have courteously made very critical comments re the staus of our state, nation etc etc and many topics discussed here when prompted – to some it’s an eyeopener but food for thought.

    The game being played is zero-sum trench warfare – it’s those who oppose conservatism that have made those rules taking advantage of the live-and-let-live, stategically placing the goalposts to their advantage then moving them when they are about to lose the game – not much choice but to play the cards we’re dealt.

    Our nation was founded by those who were uncompromising in resisting tyranny and went to war that we would not be subjects to a crown but citizens of a republic including democratic ideals, recipients of the foundations of freedom, human rights, life and liberty.

  7. I think Phil Scott is a nice guy and well liked. However, he made a huge mistake, in that he honestly believes that if he comes to the middle, somes to the left side on some issues…..that with his showing of “goodwill” he would be able to get things done. Phil’s whole game plan is to “make nice” with teh super majority liberal legislature and they will then come to teh MIDDLE with Phil! How blind can you be Phil? The Progressives have a SUPER majority in the legislature. Any and all, “work with me” please are thrown down the toilet by them. It is their way or the highway and nothing Phil can do about it! SO WHAT is the point of always trying to “make nice” with them! They just spit on you! Recall that Jim Jeffords DID THE SAME MISTAKE. Remember? Jim announced way back then he was LEAVING the Republican party and he would now be an Independant, and caucus with the democrats. His ONE vote in Senate switched the senat to DEMOCRAT control! To get Jeffords to swicth parties, Sen. Kennedy promised ALL KINDS of great things for Jeffords and VT and Jeffords pet projcets…which were farm bills and education funding…. Kennedy promised Jefford the moon, if he woudl switch. what happened? Kennedy and the Dems stabbed Jeffords in the back and later gave him nothing in return.. “Kumbaya Jeffords” got conned, scammed and neutered. It is the same thing with Phil Scot. His wish is “comprise” for the good of the State., so he bends over backwards to please Progressives!. .but they have a super majority! They will stab Phil in the back, and THEN stab him in the front…just like they stabbed Jim Jefford in the back. As nice and caring as Phil Scott is (really)…it is time for him to go. If Vermont is going “down”, we might as well have a street fighter to tell the Legislature what will come (very bad times, fiscally)… as it all unfolds.

  8. There is no doubt that this guy is a dyed-in-the-wool socialist. He even propagates the false accusations against President Trump. But for his crime of advocating & the killing of babies even up to birth, he should be impeached, tarred & feathered, and run out of Vermont. #ImpeachScott!

  9. I’ve often wondered why the Vermont governor’s term of office is only 2 years. My thinking being it takes a good 6 or 7 months to get thoroughly grounded in the job and get a firm handle on who the real players are and how best to deal with them. However, this time around, I’m quite pleased that after 2 years of the current governor’s tenure, HAPPY DAY!!!! We’ve got an election on the horizon.

  10. Apathy is the conservatives’ greatest opponent. With all the anger and disillusion towards Scott last year one would have thought the anti-Scott vote would be seen on primary day. No, it’s easier to complain than act. I admit I wasn’t the ideal candidate and didn’t have the financing but my platform was clearly a conservative one which would restore fiscal sanity and create a business and people friendly agenda that reasonable people could get behind.
    Even Scott himself was surprised by the lack of a political backlash against his decisions.
    As long as apathy rules our side then the progressives will have free reign.
    BTW Alex calling John Rodgers a blue dog Democrat is like calling Bernie a moderate Democrat. The only thing Rodgers agrees with us on is second amendment rights.

    • Keith you would have been a much better Governor. Even if all you did was Veto stupid stuff, our state would have been so much better off. You would have surely done more than that. I’ve also seen how you and many of my other friends were treated and supported by others in position of power, it was not pretty.

    • Mr. Stern you are spot on about the apathy. If half of the people who have complained about elected officials actually voted this would change. It has to change if we want things to get better for the working class.

    • Ship sailed following party choice of Comrade Phil. Ship doesn’t have to sail again. Could always run again challenging Scott. Or go Indie Mr Stern…we quite lierally have nothing to lose…I’m all in and pretty sure i’ve got plenty of company 🙂

  11. The only way Montpelier will change is you need to get the ” Progressive Cancer ” out of politics.

    The cancer starts with the Infection from Chittenden County and it’s barrage of progressive
    leaning flatlanders.

    Just follow the legislative bills proposed by these inept fools, most are highly educated but when
    it comes to common sense or Vermont values …….. nowhere to be found !!

    Start cleaning the Statehouse

    S

  12. Scott will be our Governor
    Zuckerman will be our Lt Governor

    It will only change if Scott retires. Vt history has proven this since 1978. Based upon his national press for saying ” nice things” about our president it appears he wants another term as he’s chumming the waters for NOw Prssc love.

    Do,I like this? Nope. But that is the landscape. So what can we do?

    There’s lots to be done. We can build a strong base. We can work together to get some others in office. As a minority we can rock the supermajority by calling the out by witnessing their true fruits.
    They don’t care for the poor, not in the least, but they’ll create generational poverty and get stinking rich doing it. Their walk is the opposite of their talk. Easily brought down by their own actions, we only need to expose them, by putting up bills that help the poor become wealthy and independent and then watch the super majority vote it down, exposing their true hearts for all Vermonters to see.

    It would be so,much fun, and it’s the perfect time to do,it.

  13. Moved my family and engineering business out of the state that my family has lived for generations because it became clear that there really was no opposition party to the socialist/progressive/democrat party in Vermont.

    Two terms serving in the Vermont Senate, with Phil Scott and several other “Republicans” that had no interest in saving Vermont from the assault on everything American by the leftists, and the decisive loss (only winning the county I represented in the Senate) in a “Republican” primary for Congress against an ultra big-government, pro-abortion opponent made it abundantly clear that Vermont just going to get worse and the best way I could help was to take our economic activity elsewhere so at least we were no longer part of propping the unworkable ideas of the left.

    We could not have made a better decision.

    • This says it all Mr. Shepard – every Scott Republican should have this engraved on their headboard and read it every night before they go to sleep because now they are sleeping on their responsibilities.

    • We’re right behind you Mark. I only hope our absence is filled by two or three more state-dependent families with mental health and drug abuse issues.
      We’ve had enough.

  14. Forgot to mention in another thread Scott Milne…as politically inexperienced and unconventional as he was…came close to unseating a “Dem” gov by merely falling into the 5th floor…if state Pravda sattelites had reported the insider polls…we would have seen that Mr Milne was in stiking distance
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Vermont_gubernatorial_election
    which would have caused a stampede to the polls..and why our deeply dishonest corrupt press and media outlets – ‘nonprofits’ included – stayed silent.

    This made clear what we are up against in VT – our democracy dying in the darkness of a corrupt media – and the parallel on a national and global scale except there is now a ton of conservative media nationally.

    As sane normal ppl nationally and globally as well as here in VT fight for the freedom which in fact belongs to each one of us against the tyranny of mob rule and unhinged fascists whose only goal is grabbing the reins and levers of power to enslave us all and our families.

    Recounting Milnes near victory inspires hope…if he could nearly unseat a *sitting* Dem governor…Comrade Phil despite Koch-cash is also at risk.

  15. ” Polls show he is supported inversely to his party affiliation: 56% of Democrats approve of him versus 15% of Republicans. If ever there was a RINO (Republican In Name Only) beaver governor Phil Scott is that creature.”

    He is a RINO’s RINO,he should just be done with it and join his fellow travelers of the Marxist totalitarian left.

    Didn’t vote for the proven liar last time around and will never vote for him again in any office,if he is the best the supposed republican party of Vermont can come up with,then the republican party of Vermont is defunct.

    • It shows he knows the ground in which he plays, not necessarily a deep,thinker, but if he gets in the paper for saying nasty things about President Trump he locks I’m his majority with democrats and many independents and some Republicans too.

      Since 1978 the only time we changed governors was when somebody retired. Their have been no victories for out right conservatives who can’t keep from triggering a massive portion of our clearly indoctrinated populace.

      Where should we put our efforts? Where will we be able to make change? Swimming down steam is easier than upstream. A conservative can win the hearts of most Vermonters with a kind heart and tongue, they needn’t give up any values they only need to love their neighbor, not trigger them.

  16. Wow … Well said! I only pray this could actually happen but after so many disappointments I’m skeptical. Conservatives have been pushed aside for too damn long . Vermont was a great place to live because of the tough old yankee farmers, loggers, and just plain down to earth people who populated our state back before it was the hip place to live..it’s now being torn apart by this new wave of “fruits and nuts” who think they can “teach us” how we really need to live. PLEASE every conservative out there vote and drain this swamp!

  17. All I will add at this time is to say that if Republicans, Libertarians, non-left leaning independents, and even true blue-dog Dems (like John Rodgers) *don’t* make a serious mark in 2020, then VT is lost until some major demographic shift may occur in the far future (15-20 years anyway) — or perhaps permanently. 2020 is it. Make or break.

  18. Voted Republican for 40 years. Hurts to say this but The Vermont GOP long ago perfected the science and art of eating its own young. We have been consistent at shooting the entire effort to counter the Left … right in the ass.

    Thank God the Dems are as good at squandering opportunity as we are. Which is to say it could be far worse (though tough to imagine)

    I know too many GOP Vermonters that… in their sincere and passionate and well intended effort to achieve office…stand on select principles, cant get even close to actually getting elected, (that’s the first order of business, remember?) and pound their chests at cocktail parties about policies they cannot even begin to advance

    Its not working, people.

    Find me a GOP candidate for Gov that can actually get elected and i will vote for him…but until then …Phil Scott is at least at the party.

    you can’t dance if you can’t get to the prom in the first place

    I admire the conservatives that still exist here…what few we are…. Their passion touches me deeply, however the futility of their tactics is tough to watch

    Keep to the current approach and we will have a “Bernie Drone” as Governor…and the irony is that the Left will thank us for doing all the work to make it happen

    • Well said, well said.

      You know the Now Prssc group is planning for Scott’s retirement.

      They’ll run Zuckerman and win at that point, Zuckermans got a great paying job at the moment, so it makes no sense to rock the apple cart. He’ll easily win a re-election unless a Vermont super power steps down from the majors to run against him, Douglas, Milne.

      Instead of building a strong coalition, supporting some minor candidates and winning ANYTHING, chances are they will run many, with no money or support, spend all the time fighting for a conservative to primary Scott, spending all the resources on this too and losing even more seats in Montpelier!

      We already know what the majority are going to run on this election. The minority has the same game plan and response, so they’ll experience even more losses.

    • Better to focus on the VT House and Senate. That is where policies are made. However, working people have a huge disadvantage in that people who work in the competitive marketplace cannot afford to spend 5-6 months sitting in legislative committees trying to figure out how best to take all they can from Vermonters so they can better spread out the “wealth” and create a “fair” world. The long sessions are precisely why I could not run again after 4 very financially painful years. I see only one path to change things and that is with a full slate of House and Senate candidates that run on a promise to serve about 2 months the first term of the biennium by focusing on the budget and not adding more programs, but rather start rolling some back as needed to meet the budget, which should be a 2 year budget. Then the second year of the biennium should be about 2 weeks long – just long enough to make any needed budget adjustments if budget expectations are not met. Then head home. Run on that, focus on letting people run their own lives and you will find there will be a ton more people who could run and these folks will be much better suited. “If you want to get something done, ask someone who is too busy to do it” While there are tons of problems in Vermont, none will be fixed until busy people that actually accomplish things can serve. So for that reason I believe the long sessions are Vermont’s #1 problem.

      We are now in Virginia, which is a much larger state and with much more complex issues. The first year the session ends in mid March. The second year in mid February. Why does Vermont have 5-6 month long sessions? Here is why: To keep working people out, so the left can use Vermont to push national political and social change keep control of Vermont. They care nothing about Vermont and it shows.

      After I stopped running for office I put some data together and made a website called VermontersHouse. After no real interest I let it go, but I stored the content here for interested folks. http://www.markshepard.us/vermontershouse/index.htm

  19. Count me in! As a life long, native Vermonter I have waited many years to have someone put my same thoughts to paper for everyone to see. John Klar just did it. There are many of us out here in this state who are ready to put an end to the social engineering from flatlander elites who have no connection to this state other than their ideology, their quest to tell others how to live, their ego and for their regressive virtue signaling. This is a wake up call and a well written one that anyone can understand. This isn’t about some party that your father and mother belonged to. It is time to look at the damage done and repair it at the voting booth. Tar and features come to mind!

  20. The only quality worse than ineptness in a politician is deceitfulness. Unfortunately this governor possesses both.

  21. Wow – this gentlemen, along with others recently, are waving a red flag warning us that the smallest party in the State of Vermont is fractured. It will take time, commitment, and cohesion before the Republican Party can regain sensible stewardship of the great state Vermont used to be.
    The first order of business is to remove Gov. Scott from office and any association with the party. He very definitely is a RHINO of the first order. It is a shame, because he had the support of so many conservatives, as they believed he would guard their common sense interests.

  22. Phil ” Rino ” Scott, time to let him go………As he has already gone to the other side !!

    What a shame, I thought he could stand on his own to feet, I was wrong.

  23. I’m with you John. We really need to drain the swamp here in Montpelier and take our State back.
    It’s going to be a tough road but we need to start in 2020. It’s time to stand up as real Vermonters.

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