Tag Archives: Buy Local

Graff: ‘Local’ angry old man = Trump

local/regional

After Garrett Graff’s 2016 kerfuffle over not meeting residency requirements brought to a crashing end his plans on running for Vermont lieutenant governor, I’d have thought he’d be more aware of what local means. Born in Vermont but residing outside the state for the immediate-past 10 years, Graff left his job at politico.com and had moved back to the state in 2016 with plans to run for the second-highest elected office in the state. Sadly for him, a candidate for lieutenant governor has to have lived in Vermont for the four years before the election “without interruption of residency”- a requirement he did not meet.

Now I happen to notice he tweeted the following this Sunday in response to one of Donald Trump’s earlier tweets about immigration law and order: Local angry old man continues to lack third-grade understanding of US Constitution, or even basic creed engraved on US Statue of Liberty….

bye local

If Vermont approval polls are correct it is likely that a majority of residents would agree with Graff’s quip and his point about Trump’s understanding of the US Constitution.  But I’m not sure that — if asked to — I could find any Vermont resident who would consider Donald Trump a local angry old man. Vermont is just not where he’s coming from.

Lt. Gov. Phil Scott: “I thought there was a sort of stigma,”

Uncategorized, , ,

Phil Scott is a clever one …and he says some of his best friends are hippies.

Lt. Gov.Scott who is running in the Republican gubernatorial primary has dredged up a sticker he had made up about four years ago. The sticker reads: “Lt. Gov. Phil Scott asks you to buy local! It’s not just for hippies anymore!” he says it is aimed at promoting the buy local movement to everyone.

Scott “sported’ a sticker during a recent statehouse interview with The Burlington Free Press and he explained:

[…] four years ago, he visited farmers markets throughout the state to meet people. While Scott saw these hubs of local food and artisan crafts as quintessential Vermont, others saw a place only for hippies.

“I thought there was a sort of stigma,” Scott said.

While he’s not one of them, Scott said he has many “proud hippie friends” who also wear his stickers and get a good laugh out of the tie-dye versions.

Huh? “Sort of a stigma” Oh well, good ol’ Phil is just having a good ol’ laugh. Kind of like when, after Hurricane Irene he “joked” that;  those he saw doing clean-up work were mostly Republicans. And you know at least he didn’t stick something like Take back Vermont, buy local on his bumper for his primary campaign.nobestniks

Candidate Scott doesn’t mention, but he might have recalled that Governor Douglas started an initiative (shortly after the buy local movement took hold) at the Agency of Agriculture in 2003 to buy local food for state institutions. Douglas did face criticism for taking a little too much credit (as was his habit) for the start of the  buy local movement. But Jim Douglas didn’t feel any hippie stigma.Governor Douglas was just co-opting an issue as any good politician might and in doing so  hope to scoop up supporters (votes) in an inclusive way.

But Jezzum,Phil ! Come to think of it Jim Douglas is just a flatlander from way back.