Echo chamber?
Toolbox
Published: October 28, 2007
Gov. James Douglas has completed what he called his Set the Agenda Tour, during which he traveled the state to listen to Vermonters and give them a chance to help him set the agenda for the coming legislative session.
Getting out and listening to Vermonters is a good thing for a governor, but as the governor puts forward an agenda drawn from what he has heard on his listening tour, he leaves us with some questions.
One, to whom was he listening?
Two, does leadership consist merely of responding to what people tell him?
Three, was he listening for what he wanted to hear?
Anyone who takes a tour of Vermont's diners and other gathering places will inevitably hear a wide range of views on a whole range of issues. From Douglas' listening tour, he concluded that the most important concern of most Vermonters was their tax burden.
But what else did Douglas hear? He heard about the cost of health care and the lack of affordable housing. If he was actually touring Vermont, he must also have heard about a range of environmental concerns, including global warming.
Douglas acknowledges that global warming is an important issue, but he dismisses it by saying it is not the foremost concern of most Vermonters.
Douglas purposely narrowed the focus of his tour. He said he wanted to hear about the "day-to-day challenges confronting Vermont's families and small businesses." These are the nitty-gritty issues of education, health care and taxation, all of them important issues. Addressing them is essential. But does leadership stop at our "day-to-day challenges"?
Most Vermonters, he concluded, are not talking about global warming, but certainly, a good many of them are. Doesn't Douglas have a responsibility to look beyond the immediate horizon to the large issues that threaten our way of life but which may not be on the radar screen of most people?
Critics of the Democrats in the Legislature have said lawmakers wasted too much time last session on issues, such as global warming, that were beyond the scope of their responsibilities. Douglas has joined that chorus of criticism, and his Set the Agenda Tour has furnished him with ammunition to continue the criticism through the selective listening that gives a patina of democratic legitimacy to his political priorities.
By dwelling excessively on the burden of taxation, Douglas narrows the range of political debate while earning the favor of those who cannot see beyond their own personal financial exigencies. It is important that the state refrain from creating untenable burdens on the state's taxpayers, but dwelling on the burdens shifts the focus away from other challenges facing the state.
The crisis of climate change touches on all those issues of affordability that Douglas says he wants to address. An aggressive policy to address global warming would create jobs and would save money on energy for Vermont families and small businesses.
On health care Douglas' narrow focus on taxes has prevented him from exercising the leadership needed to marshal support for necessary changes. He says he regrets the fees imposed on businesses that do not offer health insurance. Instead of playing to anti-tax resentments, a governor exercising true leadership would try to show that to solve our health care crisis everyone must be involved, including those businesses.
A governor can go on tour and find support for almost anything. His Set the Agenda Tour was partly responsible statesmanship and partly gimmick. Douglas needs to hear what Vermonters think, but not just those Vermonters who agree with him. He needs to lead on issues that Vermonters are only now beginning to grapple with.
There are many priorities awaiting the next Legislature, including the need to create affordable housing without gutting Act 250, to address our crumbling transportation infrastructure, to continue efforts at health care reform, to promote job creation, to expand opportunities in higher education, and to show leadership in addressing the global crisis of climate change. Using the public's natural and inevitable aversion to taxation as a way to shut down debate on these important issues is a political ploy and does not represent true leadership.
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