Boardman writes: "The politics of American imperialism are alive and well in Vermont, where elected officials are defending the military-industrial war-making machine against voters who reject ruling class priorities."
Opponents of the F-35 fighter jet slated for deployment to the Vermont Air National Guard base in South Burlington hold a news conference in Burlington. (photo: Glenn Russell/Free Press)
Vermont Congressional Delegation Opposes Vermont Voters
29 March 18
What happens when the lives of citizens get in the way of political egos?
he politics of American imperialism are alive and well in Vermont, where elected officials are defending the military-industrial war-making machine against voters who reject ruling class priorities. At the symbolic center of this democratic confrontation is the notorious F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the world�s most expensive weapons system, designed to kill in many ways, including a nuclear first strike. And the few times Vermonters have had the chance to vote, they�ve voted against basing this loud, health-harming, housing-destroying offensive war machine in the state�s most densely populated area. Now it�s coming to a head in a people versus career politicians face-off.
At a Town Meeting on March 6, Burlington voters chose, by a 55% majority, to ask the Air Force to base the F-35 in some other state. On March 26, the Burlington City Council, by a 9-3 vote, forwarded that request to Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson to �replace the planned basing of the F-35 with a basing of a low-noise-level plane with a proven high safety record�.� For whatever reason, the council request left out the rest of the ballot resolution�s request: �� proven high safety record appropriate for a densely populated area� (perhaps because that densely populated area is NOT Burlington). The City Council asked Secretary Wilson to respond by May 1.
Vermont�s quisling Congressional delegation � Democratic senator Patrick Leahy, Independent senator Bernie Sanders, and Democratic congressman Peter Welch � made what looks like a cheap shot effort to influence the council vote at the last minute. Late on the afternoon of March 26, Vermont�s �representatives� issued a joint statement saying they stood by their years of pushing for the F-35 basing at the Burlington Airport, which is in South Burlington (which has no voice in the decision).
Unable to justify their decision, the Vermont delegation stonewalls
Consistent with the delegation�s past behavior, their pro-F-35 statement addressed none of the substantive issues, and none of the three would answer questions from the media. The imperious attitude of these three is also consistent with the rest of Vermont�s bi-partisan leadership for the past decade. They have all behaved with imperial detachment, refusing to ask sensible questions, refusing to listen to opponents in any field (medical, educational, social, even military). They continue to act as if this were an imperial polity, in which they announce their decision, refuse to explain it or justify it, but expect everyone else to accept it. For Vermont, this anti-democratic policy-making has worked surprisingly effectively for a surprisingly long time.
And it�s not over yet. Before the city council resolution can go to the Air Force, Burlington mayor Miro Weinberger has to sign off on it, and the notoriously weaselly Democrat continues to ponder what, if anything, he will do in accord with the clear wish of his voters. Although the F-35 issue is many years old, Weinberger hasn�t indicated what new concerns could possibly be troubling him. He has till April 16 to sign or veto the resolution. In the event of a veto, the city council�s 9-3 vote would be enough for an override, if the votes hold.
As Mayor, Weinberger is at the crossroads of powerful contending forces. As a Democrat, he is among those talked about as a possible successor to Senators Welch and Sanders as they age out of office. How he goes on the F-35 could alienate either the Vermont electorate or the Democratic establishment and its military-industrial base, especially the vocal and endlessly self-serving Vermont Air National Guard. The mayor also owes his office partly to the power brokers of real estate and development in Burlington (that overlap with the Leahy circle).
Say it ain�t so, Bernie!
For Bernie Sanders to be aligned with forces he has railed against on the campaign trail is especially odd. When Sanders was Mayor of Burlington in the 1980s the city was affectionately known as �the People�s Republic of Burlington.� That was exaggeration for effect, but also reflected a basic human decency of the time and place. Now, as one Burlington voter put it at an F-35 hearing: �People have had enough of putting the interests of rich white dudes over average citizens.�
Sanders, whose record on issues of war and military has never been strong, is up for re-election this year (with no apparent opposition). He recently led a futile effort to get the Senate to pay attention to US participation in the US-Saudi genocidal war on Yemen, though he didn�t frame it that strongly. Why he has been so timid and quiet about the F-35 for all these years is a mystery. Like Leahy, Sanders voted for the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF), the legislation that still serves as the legal basis for all the wars the US is waging today. Only Rep. Barbara Lee, a Democrat from Oakland, California, voted against that AUMF.
Like Sanders, Peter Welch is also up for re-election with a $2.1 million campaign fund already (he was unopposed in 2014). He hasn�t had serious opposition since 2006. This year Welch has two primary campaign opponents who have raised less than $30,000 between them. But Welch is also in the supposed line-of-succession for Vermont�s Senate seats, even though at 71 he is only slightly younger than Leahy, 77, and Sanders, 76. Welch�s official website says nothing whatsoever about the F-35, but he does have a 2013 story about his favoring regulation of private unmanned drones as a danger and a nuisance. Residents of South Burlington and Winooski might appreciate the irony of his unconcern for danger and nuisance that the F-35 will inflict on them.
All three members of Vermont�s Congressional delegation seem strangely unable or unwilling to challenge the political intimidation of the Vermont Air National Guard (VTANG). Their worshipful public adoration of VTANG is out of all proportion to any real-world accomplishments. VTANG, for reasons never satisfactorily explained, has fetishized the F-35, attempting to render it beyond criticism. But the Air Force never wanted to base the F-35 in South Burlington in the first place. Only the obsessive insistence of Leahy and guard leaders has brought it this close, and that requires considerable lying and disinformation along the way.
What did VTANG know and when did VTANG know it?
The city council�s March 26 resolution illustrates the dishonesty of the process that has surrounded the F-35 for years. The city council appends questions to its resolution that would not be questions at the end of a process that has any integrity. After years of supposed conscientious investigation by the Air Force and others, the city council still has no reliable information about how loud the F-35 is. The city council doesn�t know if there is an alternative mission for VTANG because VTANG says there�s not, but the Air Force has told the court there is (and common sense allows the obvious inference that the Air Force can make a new mission for VTANG any time it chooses). The city council doesn�t know what flying time the F-35 will have, what fuel it uses, or how dangerous its material components are to the environment. The city council is ignorant because the supporters of the F-35 have deliberately avoided objective, truthful answers to the hard questions. That�s the way it is in a corrupt system.
Have any of the responsible officials involved in the decision-making done due diligence on the F-35 over the past five years? Available evidence suggests not. They would rather force their totemic F-35 onto a community with no voice and take their chances with the consequences. Such political shuck and jive as the Vermont Congressional delegation, VTANG, the Pentagon, and others continue to peddle would be criminal negligence in any conscientious civil society.
William M. Boardman has over 40 years experience in theatre, radio, TV, print journalism, and non-fiction, including 20 years in the Vermont judiciary. He has received honors from Writers Guild of America, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Vermont Life magazine, and an Emmy Award nomination from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
|
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
General guidelines: Avoid personal attacks on other forum members; Avoid remarks that are ethnically derogatory; Do not advocate violence, or any illegal activity.
Remember that making the world better begins with responsible action.
- The RSN Team
All right, technically not peasants, since peasants were, and are, agricultural or pastoral, not urban. But close enough.
The American Spring will start when there are thousands of really, really pissed off people at the Capital all at the same time raising some serious hell against the Lunatics, and idiots absolutely nothing is ever, ever going to happen to these totally bought and paid for by the richest 50 people in the world that are becoming more and more powerful with each passing rigged election thanks to the stupid people.
So, scream, yell, chant, stomp your feet, and beat your drums so the media can show it on the evening news, while all of those who can actually do anything about it are home counting their donation money and laughing all the way to the bank.
" So what?" I'm sick of worrying about the Middle Class. These are the doctors, lawyers, dentists and vets who pad our bills, refuse services if you don't go along to get along with whatever nonsense they have in mind. I should worry that they can't invest with Wall Street? Oh, boo-hoo!
And what about the working classes? No one gives a whit about them. What about the people living below the poverty level? What about the people who don't trust these "Middle Class" investors so don't go to them and are suffering with a choice between no dental care or some corporate crazy dentist???
Don't talk to me about the Middle Classes; they're doing just fine if all they have to worry about are their investments and their portfolio. As far as I am concerned, the Middle Classes (who don't lift a finger for anyone but themselves,) can stuff it. And the sooner they get into financial trouble, the sooner this country is going to wise up and get rid of anything that remotely looks like supply side, trickle down screw over!
Nothing is more annoying to me than all these politicians (especially Obama) who keep whining about the "poor" middle class. We need to convince Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders to start a new party, one that promises to look out for the really poor and those who are now working part time or for minimum wages, and folks over 50 who lost their jobs in the last Great REcession and can't even get an interview for a new job.
--- Thank you, Shorey13. How come you get it and ten other people who marked me down didn't? I guess it's because you are an informed consumer.
I think the Middle Class is a pseudo event these days. Two reasons the politicians go on and on about the Middle Class are (1) So they don't have to talk about the poverty they are intentionally visiting upon the poor with their "austerity" program, and (2) they want to keep the Middle Class with them as tacit lackeys who will vote for them and send them campaign contributions.
The fact that ten people out of eleven don't get it tells me we are in SERIOUS trouble. People just refuse to let go of the fairy tale.
--- This is precisely what I mean. People are in denial that we have the "Middle Class" who are the bottom of the upper class, and then we have a very large base who comprise the poor that the politicians don't even talk about because in this fascist state, the poor are a commodity; cheap labor, and you can't make money off of cheap labor if you have to consider they need a liveable wage to live on.
--- You are still talking about earners. What about people on SSI? What about retirees (all of the Boomers) on less that 5K a year? What about all of the jobless on (or who have gone through) unemployment benefits? What about our Native American people?
To only look at the earners is like George W. Bush not putting all the war debt into the deficit; it's fuzzy math.
Hopefully, before the speculative bubble blows out, sending us into chaos, we can move even a corrupt and stupified Congress into action, beginning with Glass Steagall.
This is a fight which must be fought!
--- Alan Grayson is thinking of running for Marco Rubio's Senate seat. If he wins, then we'd have Warren, Sanders and Grayson on key committees in the Senate and maybe we can get some traction toward ending the strangle hold money has over the Congress and the country. I hope people will get behind Grayson for this important seat. (I live in FL and would LOVE to see a Progressive win.)
Some elements elevated to be Zombie Handymen,
The bulk propelled into the abyss,
Clutching fearfully at lost privilege.
We have a Pres who does not have the term Working Class in his vocabulary,
Though they be the great majority. The most progressive among the Party of the Loyal Servants of Power, Ms. Thornton and Mr. Sanders, spew the Middle Class lament as well. The Middle Class Society never was and has little bearing on todays class realities.
It is workers who are being more and more exploited and oppressed, with large and increasing numbers forced into the bloated underclass of immiserated peoples.
if banks were professional fiduciaries, they would regulate themselves. since they choose not to do so, they are stuck with regs and regulators other professionals deem standard safety checks
rather than hissy fit, banks who dislike regs or following them should propose other regs that fit the purpose
banks are the bart simpsons of our lousy jobs economy - they didn't do it, nobody saw them do it, we can't prove nothin'
banks are "under assault by regulators" only because their inability to self-regulate demands it
if banks were professional fiduciaries, they would regulate themselves. since they choose not to do so, they are stuck with regs and regulators other professionals deem standard safety checks
rather than hissy fit, banks who dislike regs or following them should propose other regs that fit the purpose
banks are the bart simpsons of our lousy jobs economy - they didn't do it, nobody saw them do it, we can't prove nothin'
banks are "under assault by regulators" only because their inability to self-regulate demands it