WATERBURY, VT – Surveying the Green Mountain State in the height of summer, it's easy to see why visitors flock here. The mountains are incredibly beautiful in every direction. And it's cooler than a lot of other places right now.
The sixth smallest state (and second to Wyoming as least populated) is squeaky clean, with small, colorfully decorated businesses dotting the byways. Very little here is cookie cutter, which makes you wonder why its residents keep electing leftists who would put everything under government control and squeeze the life out of it. There are lots of nice people here who would get squashed.
We made a stop at the Ben & Jerry's ice cream factory, which is studded with primary colors and cows. Now owned by megacorporation Unilever, Ben & Jerry's has managed to keep its radical board and politics intact as part of the merger. This is reflected in the brief film during the tour and on souvenir rainbow T-shirts. I did not see any mention of how the company recently got caught dissing Israel, but did not expect to.
Our guide was a pretty, young woman whose tag informed us that her pronouns were "he/they." She explained the process and gave out samples. She was coolly efficient and a little edgy. Families, including a long-haired teen boy (I think) whose shorts had rainbow flags down each side, slurped down the samples.
I know. Why even go to this mecca of radical leftism? Because it's there and I wanted to see what they're up to. It had nothing to do with the Cherry Garcia.
"Vermont keeps electing left-wing Democrats and outright socialists like Bernie Sanders who would put them all out of business and turn them into government employees if they could. I don't understand that." (Columnist Robert Knight, in an interview with AFN)
Looking for a restaurant a week ago Tuesday, I entered the Zenbarn in Waterbury and right into a crowd in front of a Vermont Democratic Party banner. It had been a primary election day. An employee told me they were listening to the state treasurer candidate and had closed the restaurant. It looked downright all-American.
But I know what they're up to. They're the hands and feet of the national party that is destroying America in so many ways. I almost yelled "Make America Great Again" before leaving, just for fun, but thought better of it. Social justice warriors are not big on humor.
Unlike Donald Trump, whose Florida home was raided for nine hours by the FBI the night before, these folks probably don't worry about government goons violating their private property. Nothing ever happens to Democrats, even when caught red-handed. For details, see the Bidens, the Clintons and Obama's FBI.
In a local newspaper, Democrat candidates for state and local offices had ads trying to out-radical each other. You'd think Black Lives Matter was vitally important here in this second whitest state in the country after Maine.
It's one thing to see "I Support Black Lives Matter" signs in a college town like Burlington, where students are brainwashed daily by Marxist professors. It's another to see BLM signs in rural villages. But there they were, often accompanied by rainbow flags. Still, many more houses sported American flags, with a smattering of Ukraine flags.
I seriously doubt whether many pro-BLM Vermonters know the organization was founded by three, now-rich Marxist grifters whose expressed goals were to eliminate nuclear families and impose socialism on America. Or maybe they do. Bernie Sanders reigned as mayor of Burlington before his eight terms in the U.S. House and is now in his third U.S. Senate term.
Another reason we came to Vermont is because it is my ancestral home. My great grandfather ran a woolen mill in Ludlow. In a house that is now a restaurant, my grandfather grew up and it's where my father lived for the first seven years of his life. Back then, Vermont was rock-ribbed Republican and ultra-thrifty Vermonter President Calvin Coolidge was revered.
Now, things are different. On a country road I saw a sign saying, "Reproductive rights are human rights." Let that sink in. In November, Vermonters will vote on Proposal 5, which would amend the state Constitution to guarantee the "right to personal reproductive autonomy." It's a response to the Supreme Court's Dobbs ruling overturning Roe.
What might sound reasonable is quite evil. It would legalize late-term abortions up to the moment of birth, remove conscience protection for healthcare workers who oppose abortion and eliminate parental rights regarding children's sexual and gender choices, making kids fair game for perverts. The Catholic diocese is leading the resistance.
All around the country, there is a sense that if we don't push back now, our country will be lost. Parents have been waking up to the indoctrination of their children into Critical Race Theory, LGBTQ activism and the Left's "hate America" mindset. It caused a political earthquake in Virginia in 2021 and is helping to push Hispanics in South Texas into the GOP.
Driving around Vermont, which seems so blissfully calm right now, I wondered whether that revolution would ever reach here.
As I said, there are lots of American flags flying, which gives me hope.
This article originally appeared here.
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