By Friday, the U.S. House had failed after more than a dozen votes to elect a speaker, stymied by a small faction of ultraconservatives for whom government dysfunction is a goal, not a problem.
His strategy remains: Politics that harnesses the energies of the younger generation and listens to people in all parts of the country.
The 52-year-old war correspondent has covered conflicts in Chechnya, Syria and Georgia for the world’s most prominent news outlets. As Russia invaded Ukraine this year, he made the wrenching decision to leave his homeland — and ended up in Rutland County.
Leahy’s observations shed light, not only on one man’s career, but on the nation’s turbulent journey from the final days of the Vietnam War to the parlous present, which finds democracy under assault abroad and at home.
Our grandchildren will look toward us one day and wonder what we did in response.
Many of the storytellers have spent years in Vermont, but they are living apart from their families because they want to help them, sending money back home that will allow parents to buy a house or otherwise improve their lot.
There was a quality of desperation to the complaints about civil unions, and lately, the same quality of desperation is evident in the language of those seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“Politics is an art, shaped by a knowledge and understanding of its traditions. Where such understanding is lacking, our path becomes dysfunctional and dangerous.”
Leahy has always been kind to me, arousing the suspicion of the newsman wary of politicians trying to be too chummy. But over the years I’ve seen that he is the genuine article, and if he has won me over, so be it.
David Holmes also has a related project: Defining the attributes of the Vermont character.
