The radical socialists pictured above are members of Rutland Forward, a group whose motto is “We Believe in Making a Rutland for Everyone.”
Wow. That kind of thing will not go over well in Vermont’s fortress of commonsense, blue-collar conserva—
Wait, what? All the Rutland Forward candidates were winners in Tuesday’s election?
Yep. Not only that, but Rutland Forward’s two candidates for school board finished first and second.
And not only that, but city voters overwhelmingly approved not one, not two, but three infrastructure bond issues. How shockingly generous of them.
I’m not saying that Rutland Forward is the Progressive Party South. They don’t espouse any really controversial positions. They talk about meat-and-potatoes stuff like infrastructure, downtown development and even crime. But they do want to leave behind culture-war debates like the Rutland High mascot issue and opposition to a plan to locate Syrian refugee families in the city. In context, “Forward” is a subtle negation of the forces that would drag Rutland backward — or prevent it from becoming, you know, “a Rutland for everyone.”
That’s not just me saying so. It’s reflected in the angry post-election muttering of defeated incumbent Thomas DePoy.
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The Vermont Political Observer. 