If there was any doubt about whether soon-to-be-ex-senator Sam Douglass was unfit to hold public office, he removed it with his self-indulgent, clueless resignation statement — newsdumped on Friday afternoon, no less, without ever speaking to a single reporter.

If anything, it was even worse than the non-apology “apology” he issued the day before.

It was longer, that’s for damn sure. It rambles on mawkishly for a page and a half, single spaced. VTDigger has embedded the whole thing in its story on Douglass’ departure, so you can go read it there if you want to. I don’t have the stomach for it.

The heart of the matter is his assertion that he is resigning “to keep my family safe.” So he thinks he’s the real victim, I guess?

There is a passing acknowledgment that his single statement speculating about the bathing habits of an Indian-American woman caused offense, but no hint that he realizes it was wrong and offensive on its face. He does not address the entire miasma of Young Republican bigotry that he happily wallowed in for month after month. Neither does he mention the vile antisemitism expressed by his wife’s comment about “the Jew” being inherently dishonest. From Hitler’s mouth to her ears.

Douglass seems surprised that the tsunami of casual hatred expressed by him and his friends would cause people to react with violent rhetoric of their own. Nobody deserves to have their physical safety threatened, the Douglass family included, but all he’s getting is a taste of the very medicine that was routinely dished out on those text threads published in POLITICO. You know what they say about sauce for the goose, don’t you?

I mean, look. Trump’s unconstitutional, racist immigration crackdown has forced millions of people to live in fear. And according to a new study, 57% of LGBTQ+ Americans — and a whopping 84% of transgender and nonbinary Americans — have been “forced to make major changes to protect themselves… This includes considering or actually moving to a different state, considering or actually finding a different job, attempting to update legal name or gender markers on identity documents, and crossing state lines to receive medical care.”

This is part of the very real human harm done by Republican actions and rhetoric. So don’t expect me to feel the least bit sorry for Sam Douglass. Maybe now he’ll realize how hate speech — of the kind that’s common practice in conservative circles these days — affects the targets of that hatred.

His departure allows Gov. Phil Scott to appoint a successor to serve the remainder of his term, a successor who will almost certainly stand a better chance of keeping the seat in Republican hands than would a morally wounded Douglass. That was his real offense against the party: Not that he was part of a group that trafficked in hate speech, but that the story became public and threatened to tarnish the political brand.

Good riddance. Now let’s go to work on all the other hateful figures in Vermont Republican circles. Are people who have openly revealed their bigotry still welcome in party circles? Are people with truly scary fringe beliefs still active participants in Republican legislative caucuses?

I think you know the answer to those questions. There’s still a lot of work to do if we really want to restore civility to our politics.