Gov. Phil Scott has many admirable traits, as well as many politically advantageous ones. But the hackles rise whenever he accuses his opponents of playing politics. He did it again at his press briefing on August 24, shortly after House Speaker Jill Krowinski and Senate President Pro Tem Becca Balint called for stronger action against Covid-19.
“I think it’s unfortunate to play politics at this point in time,” he said in response to a question about the Democratic leaders’ statements. “I think one of the reasons our pandemic response has been the best in the nation is that we never politicized our response, as other states and other ambitious leaders have done throughout the country.”
“Other ambitious leaders,” eh? Got any particular House or Senate leaders in mind there?
It’s bullshit, in a word. He casts himself as the sole champion of pure reason in a grubby little world of political hackery. In fact, Scott has been a politician far longer than Krowinski or Balint. Longer than the two of them combined. Legislating and policymaking are inherently political enterprises. If you’re in that sandbox, you are playing politics.
His definition of “playing politics” appears to be “disagreeing with me.” If you’re on board with his Covid policy, you’re dutifully following the science and the data. If you differ, well, you’re being (ugh) political.
So tell me, are the 91 Health Department employees who just wrote a letter expressing their “deep concern” over the state’s “lack of adequate COVID-19 prevention guidance” playing politics? Are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has called for universal masking in school buildings and recommended masking in all indoor spaces regardless of vaccination status? Is the American Academy of Pediatricians, which calls for school mask mandates and vaccination of all eligible persons? Is the World Health Organization, which recommends not only universal indoor masking but avoiding indoor spaces, especially crowded ones, whenever possible?
That’s a hell of a lot of non-politicians who, by Scott’s definition, are playing politics.
I wish he’d cut the “playing politics” innuendo. It’s unnecessary. It’s the very definition of political.
What’s wrong with a simple “Reasonable people may disagree, but I believe my policy is right”?
The Vermont Political Observer. 
Gov. Phil Scott is the consummate politician. His “principled stands” are soft and mushy. He always has his finger stuck up into the wind to see which way it is blowing. This is the man who voted for Biden and then, instead of keeping quiet about it and simply adhering to his “principles” by doing it in the privacy of the voting booth, he just HAD to tell all Vermont Republicans he had done so and rub their noses in it. Bad judgment, Phil. What do you think of your idol NOW?? Keeping kinda quiet about Biden, aren’t you? As a Republican, I am appalled and dismayed at Phil Scott “politics”. He has proven to me that his judgment is sorely lacking, like most fence-straddling politicians these days.