John Freitag: Democratic activist feeling the need for change

Editor’s note: This commentary is by John Freitag. Besides chairing the Strafford Democratic Town Committee for over 20 years, Freitag has held many elected and appointed positions in Strafford. He is currently serving as chair of the Selectboard and moderator of the Universalist Society of Strafford.

[I] spent some 40 years slugging in the trenches for Democrats in Vermont. In the 1970s this was not an easy task as rural Vermont was pretty uniformly Republican. A good example of the challenge involved took place in the latter part of that decade. The Republican candidate for governor had recently spoken at Barrett Hall in South Strafford. I was town chair of the Democrats and went to the caretaker of the hall, Elizabeth Harrington, to see about arranging a time for the Democratic candidate to speak. “Well, I will have to speak to the trustees about this,” was her rather indignant reply to my request. “Lib,” I said. “This is the Democratic Party, not the Communist Party, it will be OK.” In her mind, as in many older Vermonters of the time, the two were pretty much the same.

Things changed over the years. In 1984, our Town Committee organized a town-wide canvas and get-out-the-vote effort on behalf of Walter Mondale. Members of the Town Committee, Ned and Vi Coffin, expanded these voter identification efforts first in Orange County and later statewide when Vi became state Democratic chair. In 1989, the Town Democratic Committee started a Town House lecture series to benefit the party, and over the next 10 years (thanks to the connections of Ned and Vi) such notables as John Kenneth Galbraith, Robert Reich, Arthur Miller, Tom Wicker and William Sloane Coffin graced the stage of our 1799 Town House. By the mid 1990s, Strafford had become and remains a strong reliable Democratic voting community.

Fast forward to 2016. While I have been extremely pleased with the expansion of individual rights spearheaded by Democrats in regards to gay marriage and death with dignity legislation, I have become increasingly distressed with a shift toward centralized decision-making that ignores the strength and value of our local communities. Three examples of well-intentioned but fatally flawed and poorly implemented policies are Vermont Health Connect, Act 46 and energy legislation.

Vermont Health Connect is a continuing disaster. A prime example of incompetence and unwillingness to recognize and address a mistaken policy.

Act 46 is a one-size-fits-all approach to educational governance which in both its structure and the rigidity of its implementation is causing unneeded strife and divisions in many towns. It will not save money and ultimately weaken the educational experience of many children as well as the fabric of a good number of our communities where its provisions are simply not practicable.

Energy legislation which exempted large commercial projects from the careful review process of Act 250 and provided lucrative incentives for industrial-sized wind and solar projects has led to the thoughtless type of development so many of both parties have worked to prevent.

It would be wise to use the next two years to reflect on what has been wrought and to make needed adjustments to ensure the Vermont quality of life we all cherish. Voting for candidates not by party but for individuals who are willing to take a more thoughtful approach to legislation and to temper the shift to more power and control by state government may well be the best thing to do this year, even for those of us who have been involved deeply in partisan politics.

In some ways the state election dilemma faced by long-term Democrats like myself in not voting for some of their party’s candidates is reflected to an even greater extent by Vermont Republicans as they consider their votes for national office. We live in interesting times indeed.