End of the Progressive Era in the Queen City

In 1977, my family moved to Shelburne, Vermont. Shelburne was a couple towns south of Burlington, the states largest city which today only boasts a population of about 40,000 people. It was 12 years before at-large House member Jim Jeffords would be elected to the Senate and 24 years before he quit the Republican party. Pat Leahy had only been in the Senate for two years. It was a year before Howard Dean would become a resident of the state. The city of Burlington was run by a Democratic machine led by Mayor Gordon Paquette. 


For years before the Dornells arrived in Vermont, there was a third party fixture in statewide politics who had run for several offices in Vermont as the Liberty Union party candidate. He was Brooklyn transplant Bernie Sanders. Sanders gave politics a rest in the late 70s after a series of what must have been symbolic runs (his support never left the single digits). Then in 1981 Sanders re-emerged as a candidate in the race for Burlington mayor. 


Sanders brought attention on himself as an avowed Socialist. While some may have dismissed him as some hippy dip traitor, enough Burlington voters got his message of the importance of an open and accountable government that worked for the citizens. Sanders' 10 vote victory ushered in the dominance of the Progressive Party in "the Peoples' Republic of Burlington." With the exception of the Mayorship of Peter Brownell from 1993-1995, Burlington has had a progressive mayor since Bernie Sanders until now. On Super Tuesday, Miro Weinberger, a Democrat was voted mayor of Burlington in a race with no Progressive Party candidate.


Weinberger inherits a city that within the past 20 years, has topped numerous lists that denote a high quality of life. It's not that this was all the doing of Sanders and the Progressives, but in its progressive era, Burlington went from an aging college town to a vibrant city of national renown. It was an antithesis of the government-addled business unfriendly stereotype some prejudiced dopes insist on holding of progressive towns - kind of like San Francisco, only nicer, cleaner, and smaller. 


I wish nothing but the best for Miro Weinberger and I have no bizarre fantasies that he, not being a member of the Progressive Party would want to do anything to sell Burlington up the lake. The things that made Burlington so livable, sustainable and all that green jazz is now a part of its DNA to the point where it may not need a Progressive Party mayor to keep it going. Hopefully.  


As for Bernie, the Liberty Union candidate once stuck in single digits has become an elder statesman. The passion with which he argues for social and economic justice as a U.S. senator is more fiery than I remember it from his days as mayor. But the Brooklyn accent is still the same.