If you’re not sure which way to vote in November, we’ve provided plenty of proof that Democrats destroy everything they touch. But if you need another example, local business leaders in Burlington, Vermont, wrote a letter to Gov. Phil Scott. It seems they’re unhappy with what voting for progressives has done for them.
Burlington is, of course, the city where Bernie Sanders was mayor before his ascension as the commie in the US Senate. The city has been run down by Democrats for years, a problem accelerated as being openly progressive (socialist/Marxist) has resulted in policies to match.
They defunded the police in 2020/2021 and engaged in a slippery-slope tax, sanctuary, and policy decline that has led to this moment. One you too can enjoy, if you believe anything a Democrat tells you instead of the truth: what you will get is higher crime, higher taxes, a government that protects criminals and punishes the law-abiding, more poverty, homelessness, and this.
In a letter to Scott, the nine-member commission described downtown Burlington as “essentially in a state of emergency” and said business owners, employees and property owners are reporting that “time is running out.”
The commission thanked Scott for deploying Vermont State Police troopers to Burlington but said more state action is needed.
“Immediate, substantive and collaborative action must be taken as soon as possible,” the commissioners wrote.
Burlington’s problem is Burlington’s fault. While forcing Troopers to patrol the city presents an improved show of force, Burlington is still Burlington. They can’t staff local PD because, as I wrote in 2024,
“No one wants to work there,” would be my guess. The city’s leaders don’t have their backs and are more likely to toss them under the bus to justify their bad decisions. The police are not to blame for rising crime and poor response; that’s on Burlington’s politicians and the people who elect them.
Burlington has had to pay Troopers overtime to patrol since they defunded their own police force as a show of progressive solidarity with the Marxists at BLM in the name of career criminal George Floyd. The city has, on more than one occasion, lacked the resources to investigate murders.
Elections have consequences, and now the local “business leaders” who asked for this are writing to their small ‘r’ Republican governor to beg him for help. The Church Street Marketplace Commission, the authors of the missive, claim that if the rest of Vermont doesn’t pony up even more money and resources it doesn’t have because of Democrats, businesses will close, and that’s bad for Vermont.
The commission also argued that Burlington’s problems have statewide economic consequences, citing Chittenden County’s contribution to state tax revenues and Burlington’s role in Vermont tourism.
“A crisis in Burlington is a crisis for the State,” the letter said.
The crisis is voters who, year after year, voted for Democrats and then (at least in Burlington) progressives who promised them someone else would pay. Whatever it was, they’d be on easy street at someone else’s expense. Burlington, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, New York City, Boston-pick a place where Democrats have run it for years, and the picture is the same.
You end up paying, and not just in higher taxes. There’s only one template on the left, and it works the same way from sea to so-called “rising” sea. An increasingly expensive, crime-riddled failure whose cost is inevitably borne by the people who can least afford it.
That’s what you get when you vote for Democrats. Every. Single. Time.
