Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Terry Doran, a former journalist who lives in Montpelier.
What does it say about that state of our nation that it takes two Comedy Central personalities to define with precision our current political ethos? “Rally to Restore Sanity” is Jon Stewart’s contribution and “March to Keep the Fear Alive” is Stephen Colbert’s. Both are marches on Washington, D.C., on Oct. 30.
And Vermont? What is the state of the State of Vermont? We have a gubernatorial campaign that on the one side, the Republicans, strives to keep the fear alive and on the other side, the Democrats, begs for sanity.
The Republican fear-weapons are taxes and crime, as if the rest of us secretly pray for higher taxes and more crime.
The Republican fear-weapons are taxes and crime, as if the rest of us secretly pray for higher taxes and more crime. What we secretly pray for are taxes going for the right public services and a modest increase in political sanity.
The “we” of course are us, all of us, at least those of us not running for elected office or directing a you-lose-we-win campaign, those of us who in the best of times are content to see ourselves as part of a community with shared interests and destinies. But these are not the best of times.
Peter Shumlin whom I support for governor, has put forward a couple of policies that he thinks will benefit the community of Vermonters. Is he right in thinking this? Perhaps not. But before dismissing his thinking we need to understand his thinking.
He has put forth two policies, among others, that have captured the attention of his opponent’s campaign. First, a thoroughgoing reform of health care to manage costs. Second, an altered approach to the prison system’s incarceration rate. Both have been attacked by his GOP opponent’s campaign. The basis of the attacks is fear.
Having heard the GOP candidate, Brian Dubie, in debate, it is easy to doubt that these are in fact his ideas about how fearful Shumlin’s ideas are. He seems to be a decent guy trapped in a political firefight beyond his competence. He brandishes a list of dangerous prisoners that would be released under Shumlin’s prison policy. The list doesn’t exist (think McCarthyism). He asserts huge tax increases for health care reform ($1 billion and climbing) absent evidence (another list that doesn’t exist).
Mr. Dubie has become a creature of Washington, D.C.’s fear politics, the kind of politics that have been largely – thank heavens – missing from Vermont. Well, not entirely. Health care reform is a problem of staggering proportions, it’s truly scary, and as far back as the early 1990s the word “tax” was used to stampede legislators and the public.
What Peter Shumlin proposes is a set of policies, just as Brian Dubie has in mind policies. Policy of course means a guiding idea, a set of principles. It is not the thing itself. For example, when Mr. Dubie says he wants to lower taxes to create more jobs he has no proof or evidence that that will happen. It doesn’t mean it won’t happen; it simply means he hopes it will happen and it stands as a guiding idea for him.
When Mr. Shumlin says he thinks changing the lock-up rate of non-violent offenders and instead relying on far less costly support programs would save the state money (he figures $40 million) he is relying on good information but the outcome isn’t a certainty. When Mr. Dubie’s campaign ads say that Mr. Shumlin’s policy would criminalize our towns, it sounds scary and it would be if there were evidence to support that, but there isn’t. When Mr. Shumlin says reforming how we pay for health care could save us – the state and its citizens – possibly a quarter of a billion dollars that isn’t a certainty, but based on the evidence he has good reason to say so.
Attack ads are not evidence. They are attempts at thought control.
Attack ads are not evidence. They are attempts at thought control. If you are willing to surrender your own thinking, reason, logic and experience to someone else’s fear and questionable sanity then attacks ads are your thing. The origin of these in Vermont’s gubernatorial campaign are from the GOP side. But their origin is not Vermont. They are outside-the-state-thinking, win-at-all-costs thinking.
A win-at-all-costs is not what Vermont needs. It needs the right thinking, the application of principles and acceptable guiding ideas. We are not electing a dictator. A dictator announces what is going to be done on the public scale and that’s that. Rather, we are choosing among guiding principles. These will guide Vermont’s administrative and law-making process to the extent they can.
Of course there are differences among guiding ideas. As there should be. That’s pretty much a definition of democracy. Policies are but the start of how things might be done. No one knows for sure how these will turn out. But fear, scare tactics and malicious exaggeration is not the way to begin our thinking.
