Editor’s note: This commentary is by John Klar, a Vermont grass-fed beef and sheep farmer, and an attorney and pastor who lives in Irasburg.
[I]n “The Wizard of Oz,” when Dorothy & Co. return to the great wizard to obtain their promised rewards (which he lacks), the little dog Toto scurries off and pulls back a curtain where a little man is revealed, pulling levers and speaking into a microphone: “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” he intones. But too late – the gig is up.
This type of attention-shifting is fully underway in Vermont and our nation. And when politicians don’t want us to peer behind that curtain and ask the tough questions, they try to shift topic or raise some fear-mongering alternative to distract us. This is what I call “Watch the birdie” politics — like a cameraman distracting a child during a photo shoot so the subject will not think about what is going on.
We have a bit of a crisis unfolding in Vermont. Our state is limited by the realities of the economy, while our government has in recent years overspent, overtaxed and wasted (Vermont Health Connect) our financial resources. As the Democrats seek to maintain their dominance in Montpelier, they discover that they have no laurels upon which to perch – Vermont residents are tired of struggling while our Neros fiddle, and the Democrats have squandered their “leadership” by, frankly, failing all Vermonters.
The one thing Democrats do not want discussed come November is fiscal accountability. Vermonters are still feeling the sting of recent fee and tax increases: Democrats have little to no credibility proposing a fiscal solution to our current plight. I mean, really – do they even believe themselves?
So if you are a Democratic candidate, what do you do? Maybe you accept lots of out-of-state money to shift the debate to guns and abortions, neither of which is a real issue for struggling Vermonters, but both of which give candidates two things – easy money and a hot-button issue to create that “little birdie” to distract voters from that pesky budget thing. Democrats are holding a losing hand on fiscal responsibility – so they seek to garner a new hand of cards.
It is not working. As Sue Minter employs soaring rhetoric to passionately protect Vermont women’s rights to abortion procedures, it almost sounds like those rights are under some kind of threat. But they aren’t. There are no bills contemplated to impinge this right – and no hope here for such bills if procured. She might as well tell us how she is going to protect us from invading hoards of Martians – nice person to have in power if that ever happens; but what exactly does she propose for our budget and financial problems in the interim?
I urge Vermonters to watch the camera instead of the distracting little birdies that the Democrats seek to use to draw us into needless conflict.
David Zuckerman seeks our trust as lieutenant governor, but he and Sue Minter seek to elevate disputes about the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right to bear arms in their political platforms, so as to displace issues of fiscal competence. Mr. Zuckerman calls for background checks so that we Vermonters may no longer engage in private guns sales – as if we lived in Orlando. As I have written previously, Mr. Zuckerman also doesn’t have any reservations about incarcerating farmers who fail to file an informational return reporting how many animals they have sold for meat (“What if Lawyers Became Hairdressers?,” VTDigger, May 6, 2016). But while he thoughtlessly assaults our civil rights, shouldn’t we watch the concurrent assault on our public coffers and our future financial health? Unlike private gun sales, government spending is a hugely important issue for our state right now.
I have never felt that the economy should be our sole concern at the voting booth. But as Bill Clinton famously (and accurately) said, “It’s the economy, stupid!” We Vermonters are not enduring an attack on women’s rights. As to guns, we are buying more of them to defend ourselves against insane serial killers, pedophiles and drug-crazed thieves – as I say, we are not Orlando. But we are concerned about our economic situation, and Democrats have completely lost credibility on this issue. These diversion tactics seem to signal that they know it.
Why would Zuckerman and Minter stake their political fortunes on non-pressing and distractive issues? Well, there’s the easy money from out-of-state interests, but then there is the other reason – they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying to change the subject. For lose they will, if they do not distract voters from the realities of our bloated budget.
I urge Vermonters to watch the camera instead of the distracting little birdies that the Democrats seek to use to draw us into needless conflict. Maybe they will try next to divide us over race, and raise histrionic calls to ban confederate flags. Don’t fall for such transparent gimmicks – pull back the curtain, and tell them: “I’m not worried about women’s rights to have an abortion or to defend themselves in their home against intruders – those rights are secure in Vermont. No, I’m worried about how women are going to pay their hospital bills, or afford to buy a new handgun, when they are so heavily burdened by the runaway budget you just foisted upon us a few months ago – what about that?!!” No more wizardry.
