These gleeful-eyed socialites had ultimately adult, start companies, and purchase homes. As the Progressive Party replaced New Left extreme activities like the Liberty Union, politicians changed into a rational approach. Sanders’s past comrades in the Liberty Union would go on to renounce him in 1999 as a “bomber”, “imperialist” and” offer- out” over his intended support of Nato’s treatment in Yugoslavia. At one place, they also occupied his Burlington legislative office. But it was n’t enough to stop the rise of Vermont’s new Progressive nobility.
I leave Burlington and travel to Hinesburg, a little farming community. When I arrive, Vermont’s Progressive Lieutenant Governor, David Zuckerman, picks me up in a summary auto he uses for planting natural birds, animals and CBD. Zuckerman has known Sanders since the Nineties, and the two are cut from the same fabric: like Sanders, Zuckerman is a Vermont expat hailing from the Boston suburbs, a liberal, but even a rational, straight- talking cultural democrat. In his opposition to necessary government vaccination, among other things, you can see flickers of Vermont’s older New Left liberal ethos. Additionally, it is thought that he might one day succeed Sanders as a lawmaker from Vermont.
For now, Zuckerman believes Vermont’s communities have n’t yet been ruined by polarisation. ” Persons are polite to their mates”, he tells me. ” It’s also a benefit, because you might go off the street in the middle of the night in a storm. Everyone’s going to help — it , does n’t matter what bumper stickers are on your car. Compared to the rest of the state, it’s a powerful ethic”. Zuckerman acknowledges that this political pact between Vermonters is no longer as powerful as it was a long time ago.
Maybe this comparative cooperation is attributed to the state of local politicians in New England. Respect for nearby politics unifies the state where national elections scuttle it. Town Meeting Day, an annual gathering of townspeople to question and vote on local problems, is where I am. It’s a custom in New England that dates back to the colonial era: for 24 hours, regular voters turn into legislators and examine the area finances. These smaller, rural group meetings have “empowered us to demand integrity in our relationship with leaders”, says Susan Clark, a writer on Vermont politics and co- author of Slow Democracy: Rediscovering Community, Bringing Decision Making Up Home.
At the meeting, Vermonters ‘ stubbornness and eccentricity are on full display. Citizens cast their ballots on everything from pavements to fire trucks. Why do we need four snow ploughs and seven police, asks one woman repeatedly. We can fit in five police officers and two ploughs. The officials who are leading the discussion offer arguments for the numbers, but the woman vehemently declines to give her account. The meeting chair muddles around and converses with residents about Donald Trump and the dangers of the upcoming presidential election in the midst of the voting process.
With retirees and young police officers stopping to chat with or criticize Zuckerman about small-town and global issues, the gap between politicians and the citizenry feels smaller here than elsewhere. Here, political conversation is often infused with wider American anxieties about class, power and economics. The cultural war is never going to be over.
By contrast, Town Meeting Day in Burlington is a lethargic affair. A dozen picketers huddled together against the rain and the odd road sign are present. The people I stop in the street are apathetic, shrugging me off while muttering” they’re all the same, are n’t they”? Hinesburg’s political energy appears to have waned in the city. It seems to me that every Progressive Party activist I talk to seems unconcerned; only four years ago, their candidate was poised to win the White House.
