Look at Glenn Beck (I never said this would be easy.) I’m not sure what he was attempting with his rally at the Lincoln Memorial Saturday, but it seems he has ambitions beyond being on Fox News forever. I try to put myself in his shoes. Here’s a guy who used to be a disc jockey and now he’s got a tee vee show, a radio show and his own “university” (however much damage his institution does to our understanding of that word). I’m sure there are people out there telling him he’s a prophet, naming children after him and so forth. It would be hard for me not to get a bit messianic if I was subject to all that and I think my grasp on reality is more tenacious than Mr. Beck’s.

Look across America. The current wave of Islamophobia has given an escape valve to the huge pressure of racism that has run beneath the surface of our continent since Mr. Columbus first made landfall. In Tennessee, western New York, Washington state and Connecticut racists are attacking (respectively) a mosque, a Sufi mosque (Sufis are like the Quakers of Islam, as mild and gentle a people as you’ll find anywhere), a Sikh (who is not a Muslim: what next – attacks on Buddhists?) and a hookah bar (one featuring belly dancers, no less – not exactly Sharia law, dude).

Now look at Vermont. Like Alaska, we had a contested result in our primary last Tuesday. Three Democratic candidates for governor were within two percentage points of each other when the counting was done. The second-place finisher, Doug Racine, called for a recount, as is his right.

Meanwhile, Mr. Racine has joined the first-place finisher, Peter Shumlin and third-place finisher Deb Markowitz in joint press conferences and campaign appearances to express the unity of their positions and to ask voters to support whichever of them ultimately becomes the party’s candidate.

Back in 2002, when then-governor Howard Dean declined to run for re-election, Mr. Racine was lieutenant governor and candidate presumptive. Mr. Shumlin (then and now) Senate majority leader, had hoped to run in 2002, but stepped aside for the good of the party. He ran for Lite Gov instead. Both he and Mr. Racine lost to the current incumbents Gov. Jim Douglas and Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, both Republicans.

Perhaps Mr. Racine should have returned Mr. Shumlin’s 2002 favor and stood aside for the good of the party. For whatever reasons, he chose not to, as was his right. Now the three former rivals campaign together. Two Democratic candidates that finished fourth and fifth last week also pledge their support to the eventual nominee. (Disclosure: I supported Mr. Racine in the primary.)

As for Mr. Dubie, now the Republican candidate for governor, I’ve met him and like him. I believe him to be a sincere man who wants what he thinks is best for Vermont. I disagree with almost all his positions, but that’s politics. (I’ve poked fun at Mr. Dubie, as recently as last week’s post. That’s politics, too.)

I do not like Mr. Dubie’s mentor, Gov. Douglas. I think he has brought an insidiously insincere style of Republican politics to Vermont. I think the people around Mr. Dubie want him to take up Mr. Douglas’s ways. I think they think it’s Mr. Dubie’s best chance of becoming governor.

The general election is still 61 days away. I’m encouraged by the civility and focus on issues and positions we’ve seen so far in Vermont’s 2010 election cycle. I wish the contrast with the rest of the country were not so great. I wish national journalists would pay more attention to the way we conduct ourselves.

There’s a Vermont bumper sticker that reads: “A small state can lead the nation.” Indeed, we must.

© Mark Floegel, 2010

What we had was a five-way contest for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Our four-term (two-year terms) Republican governor is declining to run for re-election and anyone with ambition and a “D” after their name saw this as their opportunity. (Our congressional delegation consists of two Ds and a lefty I, none of whom is over 90, so no one expects those seats to open soon.)

A five-way primary campaign and everyone was so… nice. Perhaps it was a Canadian contagion; we are a border state. The rivers flow north, the manners head south. Debate after forum, the five limned policy differences so precise one had to be a wonk to appreciate the nuances. (“Oh and before I finish, I’d like to thank my fellow candidates for the great campaigns they’re running…”)

So, of course the national media didn’t pay attention. Where’s the conflict? Who’d care about that race? Vermonters, apparently. Despite moving the date of the primary from September to August for the first time (“Everyone’ll be on vacation!”), voter turnout exceeded all predictions. About 70,000 ballots cast. (“Seventy thousand? I had more people than that in my high school!” I know, I know, but it’s Vermont. We’re tiny.)

Election night served up a three-way tie, with the margin of less than 700 votes between first (Peter Shumlin) and third place (Deb Markowitz) finishers (less than 200 votes between the top two – Mr. Shumlin and Doug Racine). The lead among the top three shifted throughout the evening, allowing each victory party to boogie down, at least for a while.

Two days later, everyone’s still nice. The second and third place finishers have not conceded and are waiting until the vote is made official (probably early next week) before deciding to ask for a recount (as is their right). But it’s good, all five candidates appeared at a unity rally Wednesday, hugging and mugging for the cameras and although there were speeches plenty, none of the candidates took the mike. Political pantomime. When’s the last time you saw that?

The supposed beneficiary of all this neck-and-necking is the Republican candidate Brian Dubie, who’s been Lite Guv for the past eight years and unseen in public throughout the primary season. Although invited to participate in several of the debates with his Dem counterparts, he’s passed on every opportunity. He was to finally meet the Democratic nominee in debate tonight, but now that’s been postponed until 26 September. (Democrats in some form of disarray, Republicans hiding from the public and press – we have that in common with tea-party states.)

As Jimmy Breslin said of the ’62 Mets bullpen, I think he’s afraid to come out. I think the only way our Lite Gov could make his profile lower would be by transferring his residency to another state. The rare glimpse the public gets of his goings-on is when his campaign treasurer is forced to file a fiscal disclosure form, revealing Mr. Dubie is socking away gangs of cash. (He is, after all, Republican.) He was for a while running ads on the New York Times web site saying that Vermont is in 47th place among states friendly to business.

Not to harsh your mellow Brian, but

a) isn’t that what every Republican says about his or her state? (“We HAVE to stop being so mean to business! They paid for this ad!”)

b) ummm, you and your GOP overlord have been running state government for the last eight years. If things are that bad, ain’t it your fault?

c) as one of the Dems, I think it was Doug Racine, pointed out, the states Republicans think are “good for business” exploit their workers and trash their environments. There’s a reason we don’t live in Alabama and it’s not maple syrup. (Well, partially.)

So anyhow (cutting off the digression and getting back to the main point): conventional political wisdom is wrong. Vermont proves American politics don’t need name-calling, mud-slinging or outlandish costumes to engage voters. Multiple-candidate primaries don’t turn people off (although they may confuse them). The decline of decorum in American politics is not the fault of tee vee, it’s the fault of cynical political operators.

The bottom line is good news – we can act like adults if we choose to.

© Mark Floegel, 2010

The president and first lady are making a habit – a very public habit – of reserving one night a week for a date. Marriage maintenance is important for couples who’ve been together a while, especially if they have kids and the day job demands plenty of attention and energy.

So, it’s great to see the first couple going out to eat or catching a Broadway play. (Some of the Obamas’ opponents have sniped that the Broadway excursion cost the taxpayers money. They’re right. It did. What did those many long weekends in Crawford cost? Why didn’t those same people mention that?)

So I think it’s great the example-setters-in-chief are seen holding hands and making time for each other. On these warm, early-summer nights, it’s nice for Adrienne and I to take an evening stroll along the lakeside, maybe stop for a creamee. (That’s Vermont vernacular for soft-serve ice cream.)

I mentioned the Obamas’ example on one of these strolls, but I didn’t get the reaction I was hoping for. “Obama date night?” Adrienne said. “You think this is Obama date night? This is not Obama date night. This is….this is Joe Biden date night.”

Ouch.

Hey, I don’t have access to Gulfstream jets or a ranch in Texas. We all do what we can with the budget at hand. (Thus, creamees.) Still, no one wants to feel like a second-class citizen.

Gay and lesbian Americans feel like second-class citizens because, well, because they are. Lesbians and gays approach first-class citizenship here in Vermont and a handful of other states, but as far as the federal government goes, fugheddaboutit.

When Mr. Obama was running for president, he criticized the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA), which defines marriage as occurring between a man and a woman. On the other hand, he’s said he thinks marriage should be between a man and a woman. (What’s the difference between saying you believe it and criticizing the law that says it? Ask law professor Barack Obama. Maybe it depends on how you define the word “was.”)

Two weeks ago today the Obama Justice Department filed a brief in federal court supporting DoMA. Perhaps there’s some room to give Mr. Obama benefit of the doubt here. Like it or not, DoMA is federal law. The executive branch does have a duty to defend legitimately passed laws, no matter how wrong-headed they may be.

The language of the brief, however, compared same-sex marriage to incest. Incest, really? Really. This is the kind of language one might expect from Rick Santorum, not Barack Obama. How does that happen? Of course, Mr. Obama didn’t write the brief himself, nor did Attorney General Eric Holder. But people who work for them did and, yes, it all does flow from the top.

Speaking of Joe Biden date nights, the vice president is hosting a Democratic fundraiser in Washington tonight in which the party will be attempting to squeeze funds from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) community. Talk about bad timing.

Vermont Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin was to be honored at the dinner for his role in passing our same-sex marriage bill. After the 11 June Justice Department brief, he wrote the Dems to say he’s not coming. “By defending DOMA and making reference to horribly inaccurate and deeply hurtful stereotypes about gay and lesbian Americans,” he wrote, “the Administration has chosen discriminate against a minority group that we all have a responsibility to be more courageous in defending.”

Sen. Shumlin is not alone in passing on the dinner and Mr. Biden may well be close to alone tonight as he dines with the crickets. Unfortunately, rights for gay and lesbian Americans is not the only area where the Obama administration too closely resembles the Bush administration. There are civil liberties, global warming, government secrecy, global warming, bank regulation and global warming.

Hey, Mr. Obama! This is not about winning or losing the chess game with the Republicans and triangulating and blah, blah, blah. These issues are important to the lives of Americans today and more important tomorrow. Last November’s was a “change” election, remember? Straighten up. Fly right.

© Mark Floegel, 2009