Vermonters, many of your elected officials ignore the United States and Vermont Constitutions to achieve their goals. The desirability of policy goals NEVER outweighs the vital importance of preserving our laws and Constitutional foundations.
We have seen this in the COVID-19 outbreak. While I initially supported Governor Scott’s advisories and efforts to protect citizens, in time he increasingly stepped over this boundary and instituted “Executive Orders” that are simply not within his Constitutional powers. And despite my complaints (and those of many others), he just ups the ante -- closing churches when numerous courts have ruled this unconstitutional; refusing to recognize the selling of firearms as an essential service (and preservation of rights) even as the federal government has explicitly acknowledged this liberty; telling municipalities they can compel Vermonters to wear masks.
While Vermonters have struggled with this novel extension of government power in the Governor, we are witness to another leap in government control in our Legislature. Progressive legislators seek to enact the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) and other environmental laws while our attention is focused on disease and economic survival. As the political landscape has dramatically shifted since these were drafted, legislators SHOULD take a new pulse from constituents about these proposals, but they are on an ideological mission to “save the planet” even if it means destroying Vermont and Vermonters.
Please notice how much the GWSA is like the COVID regulations. It will give the entire state bureaucratic apparatus essentially unlimited power to control our lives in the name of reducing carbon -- if agencies or courts determine to ban snowmobiles or ATV’s, those regulations can be enacted without voter input, or legislative involvement. This massive conveyance of power to the administrative branches of government is unprecedented, and blatantly unconstitutional -- yet this is EXACTLY what the progressives in Montpelier are trying to achieve in the midst of this crisis.
Let us not permit these thefts of our rights to be accomplished under the cloak of crisis. The GWSA is itself a virus -- a huge power grab, and effort by government in Vermont to control every aspect of our future without having to bother to listen to voter opinion or participate in a democratic legislative process.
The GWSA greatly exceeds appropriate restraints on government power. It’s advocates believe their purpose justifies this extreme abandonment of our legal heritage -- that the ends justify the means: that to save the planet they must sacrifice YOUR freedoms.
Please don’t let this happen! Warn others about this sneaky effort to enslave us while we are locked up under unconstitutional restraints. This bill (H. 688) already passed the House. Contact your Senator and tell them you are watching this Bill, and their vote. Ask your Senator how they can agree to discard the Constitutional rights of constituents in good conscience; how they can defend such broad and unspecified powers for government agencies and judges.
When coronavirus is behind us, this ideological infection remains -- neither political party should ever seek to remove Constitutional safeguards. Once they do this, the Rule of Law in America -- and Vermont -- will crumble. The Constitution is not up for sale to corporate interests, nonprofits, or bureaucrats.
Vermont must have an inoculation against government overreach -- voters must make the Constitution the bedrock of our state, not the whims of a bully supermajority. Remember in November -- if the GWSA is passed, it must be promptly repealed in 2021.
Call, and write, your Senators! Stop the disease in the Vermont State House!! Call for active opposition to H 688! Pushing this Bill now is an abuse of process, and an abuse of citizens’ rights, at the very time we are supposed to be able to trust our legislators. These people are using coronavirus to enslave us and throw away our heritage and freedoms. Speak up!!