Moving the Political Debate Leftward 
By Robert Maynard

With Vermont House Speaker Gaye Symington’s entry into the Governor’s race, we now have a three candidate race. At first glance, from a liberal’s point of view, the candidacy of Progressive Anthony Polina would appear to be little more than that of a spoiler. Surely his campaign will split the liberal vote and ensure a victory for Douglas. Is Polina doing this simply for the sake of his own ego, or does his campaign serve the purpose of the left’s agenda in Vermont?

I am inclined to take the position that his campaign will serve the purpose of keeping the political debate here in Vermont moving leftward. As John McClaughry points out in an article in this week’s True North web edition entitled "Something for Vermonters to be Proud Of", the agenda of the left here in Vermont seems to have stalled in the face of economic realities. In spite of winning veto proof majorities in both chambers of Vermont’s legislature, very few items on the left’s wish list got through. Vermont has reached a point where it just can not afford to pay for any more of the utopian dreams of its political left. There is a HUGE opportunity here for Vermont’s political right to take advantage of this situation and call not merely for slowing the rate at which we are moving in a "Government Knows Best" direction, but to actually reverse course and move in a direction of a limited government and a freed up private sector.

Polina appears to be aware of the facts that most people want to consider themselves as political centrists AND that the center is determined by the poles. Those on either side of the political divide who are willing to take a slightly radical position and keep pushing it are the ones who shape the political debate, providing that they do not come off as foaming at the mouth. This is what the Progressives have been doing here in Vermont for years. Even when they suffer short term political losses, they keep moving the political debate to the left.

The only challenge to this process was the short lived outburst of the "Take Back Vermont" movement and the Ruth Dwyer campaigns of 1998 and 2000. Other than that, the opposition to the left’s agenda has pretty much been one of "let’s slow down a bit, we can not afford to go that fast". Lacking an alternative vision, the GOP moves leftward too as the center moves leftward. Polina’s candidacy appears to be aimed at making sure that this process continues.

Where on the right are those who have enough of a long term vision to put a priority on moving the political debate to the right? We really need to build a conservative movement that can look beyond the immediate political fortunes of the Republican Party. That does not necessarily mean a third party. In fact, the history of such efforts would argue against it. Vermont needs a conservative movement that puts a priority on promoting the ideas of individual liberty and strong family based communities. The movement should treat the effort like a campaign which is constantly in place rather than merely appearing during election cycles. When elections do come along, we could plug like minded candidates into an ongoing campaign of ideas and values. That is how the progressives operate. Absent such an effort, we will forever move leftward. The cycle goes like this: A few brave radicals will articulate a set of ideas that are a little out of the mainstream. In doing so they will pick up support in some areas. Mainstream politicians will offer a slightly less radical version and the public will side with the "moderates". This cycle continues until the radical position becomes accepted as mainstream. At this point the cycle starts all over again with an even more radical idea.

Without someone willing to establish an opposing pole on the right, the left is really unopposed when it comes to setting the direction of the political debate. The only opposition is on how fast we want to move in the direction they propose. It is time to propose a new direction.
 

Robert Maynard is the Editor of the True North website.