The timing was juuuuust a bit unfortunate. Unseemly, you might say.

At the same hour that the House Democratic caucus was shooting down a last-ditch effort to restore the motel voucher program to the new state budget, the Vermont Democratic Party was celebrating itself at the annual Curtis-Hoff Awards event.

Celebrating itself as a beacon of “hope.”

Not for the 2,500-plus Vermonters about to be unhoused thanks to Democratic officeholders who couldn’t be bothered to find the money to keep the program going. Forgive those voucher clients for failing to appreciate the “better and brighter Vermont” that cannot make provision for its most vulnerable.

The contrast is sickening. What happened under the Golden Dome was an absolute betrayal of the values celebrated at Curtis-Hoff. For shame, Vermont Democratic Party.

In an additional dose of extra-bitter irony, one of the Dems’ special guests was Nebraska Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, who filibustered for nine weeks to block a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors. Just speculating here, but how would Democratic leadership view a Vermont representative who brought the Legislature to a screeching halt in a bid to keep the voucher program going?

That representative would have been acting on principle, on a determination to be a voice for the voiceless and prevent the government from taking harmful action, just the same as Sen. Cavanaugh.

I have a feeling that Vermont House leadership didn’t exactly offer encouragement to the 17 Cavanaughs who refused to go along with an inhumane budget.

The contrast reflects badly on a lot of fine, accomplished people. Peter Welch, Becca Balint, and Bernie Freakin’ Sanders were all there soaking up the applause. Cavanaugh deserves all the honor she receives, as does fellow guest of honor Virginia Delegate Danica Roem. The three Curtis-Hoff award winners have served their party well.

It’s a shame, really it is, that the Calendar Gods conspired against Vermont Democrats. It’s so unfair that their evening of circular self-congratulation happened to fall on the final day of the legislative session, when the last faint hopes of the homeless were being smothered by caucus leadership’s cushy pillow of unconcern.

Sorry, Democrats, but if you want to celebrate yourselves as the bringer of hope and the author of “a better and brighter Vermont,” then you’ll have to try harder to live up to your own ideals. Otherwise, your real-world actions are going to stink up your celebrations like a dead skunk in the punchbowl.