by Kevin Ellis
So …
Donald Trump wins the presidency by a decisive margin in a country with 4 percent unemployment, inflation under control and people’s stocks and 401ks doing really well. Crazy right?
What is more surprising? A Republican governor in a Democratic state, who stands against everything Trump espouses and who voted for his opponent, wins the governorship for a fifth time with 73 percent of the vote.
And that governor leads a tidal wave of populist backlash against a Democratic Supermajority through a combination of quiet leadership and intimate understanding of the citizens he represents.
Example 1 – Phil Scott held his election night party in a central Vermont warehouse owned by the Associated General Contractors of Vermont. Not a hotel ballroom in Burlington. The Democrats held their party at the Higher Ground music venue in South Burlington.
Example 2 – Phil Scott hammered away at a message of affordability. Vermonters cannot afford a house, can’t find an apartment and can’t afford child care, not to mention the double digit property tax increase that recently hit them. Phil Scott got that problem not because he reads the policy papers from the Joint Fiscal Office. He understands it because he has lived it.
We know the story by now. Grew up in Barre, toggled between regular high school and the technical school. A gearhead. A tinkerer. A race car driver who would rather sit on an excavator than sit in a policy meeting. Phil Scott is the people who voted against the Democrats because of their property taxes.
Phil Scott is NOT the Vermont Natural Resources Council or VPIRG. He understands climate change, homelessness and the changing society. But he also comes from a culture that voted for Trump. It is a world of workers, not non-profits and foundations.
I haven’t asked Scott this. But I suspect one thing that really burns him – and that is partly responsible for the Democrats’ defeat this election – is the so-called Affordable Heat Act, or Clean Heat Standard. That bill seeks to move us away from fossil fuels to clean energy by using a carbon tax to do it. It is good policy. But what killed Democrats was their effort to disguise the carbon tax as something else that would not raise heating bills. Too cute by half.
Phil Sott got that and voters go it. The Democrats overrode the governor veto – among many others – because they thought they were right. And over the next 20 year period, they are right. But voters wouldn’t stand for it. And Phil Scott understands Vermont voters.
It is Phil Scott’s Vermont now. He is the most popular governor in Vermont history and now the most popular governor in America!
He can sustain his vetoes. And the Democratic legislature now has to work with him and his staff to get anything done.
This dominant role will challenge the governor to be less passive and propose an agenda for affordability that the legislature can pass. In the past, the governor likes to see what hand the legislature plays before committing. But now he is in charge. His moderate tendencies will be challenged now because the times demand bold action to help Vermonters afford to live here.
The question now is what policy agenda the governor will propose come January.
As I said – Vermonters can’t buy a house. Even if they can afford it, they can’t find one. A neighbor of mine pays $36,000 a year for child care for two children.
There are a host of unanswered questions out there waiting for the governor and the legislature to solve. Vermont remains a state with a 1950s infrastructure in a modern world.
We have 14 community hospitals, 17 electric utilities, lots and lots of school districts and schools that voters can no longer afford. A national consultant recently issued a report after studying our health care system that said UVM Medical Center is bloated and that small hospitals must stop doing expensive procedures.
Instead of convening a roundtable to discuss the report and act accordingly, the hospitals fought back and said community health was at stake. The governor was quiet. So was the legislature.
These aren’t easy problems to solve. But we have answers and the talent to solve them.
Now that the legislature is back in balance and the governor has a firm mandate to make the state more affordable, let’s see if they can come together and make it happen.
Now more than ever, Phil Scott has a mandate to do just that.
Kevin Ellis
is the host of VT Viewpoint – WDEV Radio. Kevinkellis.com
