This month’s Republican wave deposited some worthy members who can bring a socially moderate, fiscally conservative perspective to the Statehouse with some measure of dignity and open-mindedness. Not that I agree with them politically, but they should not be dismissed as extremists or nay-sayers. (Lookin’ at you, incoming Senate Minority Leader Scott Beck.)

But others who floated in on the tide will bring some truly out-there positions to Montpelier. There have always been a few of these folks, but too few to feel comfortable about spreading their wings and exposing their views. They have limited their participation to grumbles and grimaces and often departed after a term or two because they couldn’t stand being in a tiny minority. Or because the voters got wind of their views. (Lookin’ at you, one-term state rep Samantha Lefebvre.)

In the new biennium, there might just be a critical mass that will give them license to fly their freak flags. I can give you five names of far-right figures previously featured in my posts about “stealth conservatives” who won their elections and will take office come January. There are another eight on my suspect list who campaigned on the standard-issue “affordability & common sense” Phil Scott word cloud but showed signs of dog-whistling. I haven’t had a chance to dig into their histories. Yet.

The five extremists previously exposed:

• Senator-elect Samuel Douglass, who thinks Fox News is too woke, has a positive view of Newsmax, and believes 80% of American media are left-leaning. And who has said that Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal constituted “justice.”
• Representative-elect Rob North, who ardently opposes reproductive rights and belongs to a church that bars women from leadership positions (he should get along just fine with Jill Krowinski, eh?). He’s also an area leader of The Gideons who has boasted about helping the homeless — by giving them Bibles.
• Rep-elect Mike Tagliavia, an anti-masker who thinks Covid-19 is nothing to worry about.
• Rep-elect Brenda Steady, a political ally of proven extremist Allison Duquette.
• Rep-elect Mike Boutin who, as a member of the Barre City Council, opposed the flyhing of a Black Lives Matter flag and voted against the sale of an empty Main Street building to the LGBTQ+-friendly proprietors of the Fox Market.

I’ll also mention rep-elect Tom Charlton, who blew the dog whistles pretty loudly in a pre-election interview with The Chester Telegraph. When asked about climate change, he immediately pivoted to infrastructure improvements and espoused environmental protection as a goal “regardless of convictions on global warming,” which is a pretty clear signal of climate denialism. He also completely ducked a question about reproductive rights and called for “tighter scrutiny of the voting process,” which is a red flag for election trutherism.

I will try to get to the other seven in due time. But since I started writing about “stealth conservatives” a couple of cycles ago, these people have gotten more judicious in their public statements. They’re being careful about hewing to the Phil Scott template and keeping their dog whistles in their pockets.

Will they be able to resist temptation in floor debates or committee hearings when discussing bills on the Democratic agenda? I doubt it. Especially since there will be enough of them to egg each other on. You may be able to find them occupying a back table in the Statehouse cafeteria, muttering (or loudly complaining) to each other about Godless Socialism.