This is a screenshot from the ballot in Berkshire, Vermont, a small, rural community in Franklin County near the Canadian border. There are a total of six candidates listed for six openings for Justice of the Peace so, absenting a vigorous write-in campaign, all six are going to win.

And that’s a damn shame for the good folks of Berkshire, because the last name on the list should be familiar for some unpleasant reasons. Republican nominee Ryan Roy has a past that would make him appear uniquely unqualified for any position that involves “justice” or “peace.”

*UPDATE. Roy appears on the Secretary of State’s 2023-24 list of Justices of the Peace for Berkshire, so apparently he’s running for… re-election? I’m seeking confirmation of 2022 election results. If he’s a sitting J.P., this is even worse.

Roy has received extensive coverage in the press for, among other things, being identified as a member of the neo-Nazi Patriot Front and having been an active participant in the infamous 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Here he is holding a torch and lookin’ big mad in a Vice News documentary about the rally.

Yeah, well, okay then. Justice of the Peace, got it.

Many questions spring to mind. How did this guy get a major party nomination, even for such a relatively obscure office? Are his three ticketmates aware of his beliefs? Are they not disturbed? Was there not a peep of protest within the community? What about the town Republican committee, which approved the nomination? Or state Rep. Lisa Hango, a Berkshire resident? Or the Franklin County Republican Committee, arguably the most Phil Scottish of all 14 county committees? And how will prominent Vermont Republicans, up to and including the governor, answer for Roy’s identification with their party?

As we await answers, or ass-covering, on those questions and more, let’s fill in the background for those just joining us.

Roy first came to the attention of our press via that Vice News documentary. The video includes chilling footage of Roy and his fellows angrily shouting slogans like “Blood and Soil” and “Jews Will Not Replace Us.” Shortly afterward, he was fired from a kitchen job at a South Burlington pizzeria for his participation in the Charlottesville rally. At the time, he told the Burlington Free Press that “I would advocate for racial separation and racial nationalism” and called for a return to the days when immigration from anywhere besides northern Europe was strictly controlled or even prohibited.

Oh, and in an interview with Seven Days editor Sasha Goldstein, Roy expressed concern that he’d be misquoted because Goldstein is Jewish and, you know, Jews lie all the time. Or as he put it, “that tends to be what your ethnic group does.”

And in case you wonder if he’s changed since 2017, well, think again. In August of this year, Roy pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge related to “Unite the Right,” apparently to get it over and done with because there’s no hint of repentance. In fact, he insists he “did nothing wrong.” And Seven Days reported that his beliefs are unchanged: “Roy said only white descendants of Europe should be considered Americans.”

By his own words, he’s still the same guy who shouted racist slogans while carrying a torch in a notorious hate rally. If he’s elected, Roy would serve on Berkshire’s Board of Civil Authority, which oversees town elections, and consider property tax appeals, and solemnize marriages. He could even serve as a magistrate if selected by the courts, but it is to be devoutly hoped that no court would take such an action.

The oath of office includes the promise to “do equal right and justice to all persons.” If this was a logical universe, Roy ought to spontaneously combust while repeating those words. As it is, the best we can hope for is an outburst of damning press coverage and perhaps a quiet resignation. Otherwise, well, this hatemonger will be a responsible public official in our B.L.S. No one outside of Berkshire will be directly complicit, but we will all have to wear it.