A new Chief Mate signs on board the Titanic

Hey, remember a few weeks after the November election, when VTGOP chair “Angry Jack” Lindley talked about starting a youth movement in his party full of old angry white guys?

Vermont Republican Party Chairman Jack Lindley, admitting he wasn’t the hippest guy, said the GOP plans to get more hip. He said they are looking for an intern who can help the party appeal to younger people. “We need to be relevant to young people in the state,” he said.

I dunno if A.J. has found his magic intern yet, but he has found himself a Vice Chair to help carry the load:

St. Johnsbury attorney Deborah Bucknam was unanimously elected as vice chair of the Vermont Republican Party at the Vermont Republican State Committee Meeting on Saturday, February 23, 2013.

Deborah Bucknam. Well, she’s a woman; that’s a start. But is she the person who can spark a Republican youth movement and plot a course toward a new, relevant, and winning future.

Er, not so much.

For those unfamiliar, Bucknam is an attorney based in Saint Johnsbury. I couldn’t find her age (ladies don’t tell) but she has 11 grandchildren and her husband is 69 years old. No youth movement there.

She’s been active in Caledonia County Republican circles for a decade or so, and “helped her husband Charlie Bucknam run his campaign for State Senate in 2010.”

Charlie finished a distant fourth in a race for two Senate seats. Pretty damn thin resume for a top state party official.  

After the jump: a trail of dogma, and a Facebook scrubbing.

The VTGOP news release also credits her with founding a women’s group called POWW. Don’t know what it stands for; if you Google POWW you’ll find two pro-wrestling promotions, but no mention of a women’s group in the Kingdom. Somehow I doubt that she had anything to do with Powerful Women of Wrestling. (Yeah, I know that should be PWOW, but creative license.)

Well, if she’s not youthful, perhaps she has a forward-looking perspective that can make the VTGOP more relevant to an electorate that’s clearly rejected the archconservative, family values, pseudo-Ayn Randian dogma of the current Republican Party.

Er, sorry, no.  

The Bucknam Brood (Charlie, Deborah, their two daughters and sons-in law) run a group blog called Bayley Hazen Blog. It’s chock full of Tea Party/Rand Paul ideology. For instance, its explanation for the Republicans’ embarrassing defeat in 2012? The public school system has indoctrinated the American sheeple to believe that America is evil, that God is dead, and that they should rely on government to provide their every need. The site’s “Blog List” includes the usual suspects: the Ethan Allen Institute, True North Reports, Yes Vermont Yankee, and the late lamented Vermont Tiger.

In sum, Deborah Bucknam is a far-right conservative who will bring nothing new to the VTGOP — not even a bit of cosmetic “rebranding” — because she’s just another one of the Ethan Allen/Ayn Rand/Fox News/Rush Limbaugh true believers who is absolutely convinced of the rightness of her cause, and who (if the Bucknam Blog is anything to judge by) has no idea how to communicate with anyone outside of their ideological bubble.

p,s, Earlier today I scanned Bucknam’s Facebook page and found some rather incendiary entries. Nothing as bad as Darcie Johnston’s tasteless antigay, anti-Vermont slur, but some hard-right opinionating, some Benghazi truther bullshit, a bit of George W. nostalgia, and a lot of ranting about the liberal media.

Well, sometime in the last few hours, after her appointment was announced, somebody got busy and scrubbed the most outrageous entries from her Facebook page. She still clearly reveals her ideological colors, but there’s nothing really offensive anymore. I guess the party learned something from Darcie’s embarrassment.  

8 thoughts on “A new Chief Mate signs on board the Titanic

  1. Yeah, but they still waited until long after the announcement was made.  If they really had their act together they would have done that yesterday, before the announcement…

    Thank goodness the VTGOP are so incompetent.

  2. People who believe what Ms. Bucknam has written in her blog are reactionaries. There is nothing “conservative” about such extremist views.  

  3. Well, how ’bout an unborn fetus to attract the young to the Vermont Republican Party?  Can’t get any younger or hipper than that.  Unless…are there any Gay Black Female Rap Singers in Vermont?  Who support the legalization of recreational pot?  Shit, this gives me an idea for a joke Doyle Poll–10 questions on how Vermont Republicans can turn on the young by their ‘coolness’:

    #1–Do you think Vermont Republican Legislators should shave their heads, pierce their noses, and get tattoos that read “I blame Society for my Alienation.”

    #2–Would you come to a Vermont Republican Naked Be-In in Groton State Park this summer?  If so, please write in your preferred Vermont Republican Hip-Hop band, and what drug casseroles you can bring.

    #3–Do you think an All-Republican State Senior Prom would be cool, and would you be willing to help collect buckets of pig’s blood for it?

    #4–At your last keg party, was joining the Vermont Republican Party the main topic of conversation after “What the shit…What the fuck…Fuckin’ A…Pass the E…and…’peee-uuuke!”

    etc.

    Maybe I’ll do that.

    Or, you folks can join me, and we’ll all make together a fun Doyle Poll for March 5.

    Hey, it just occurred to me…Attracting the young?  Aren’t there pedophile laws in Vermont?  Are these fuckers going to be hanging out at the junior high schoolyards?

  4. development on the rightwing radar screen, I’m actually quite pleased to see that they simply have no clue & therefore rendered harmless. They won’t be going anywhere too soon. After trying a supposedly hip black dude for RNC chief which was a disaster, plus W & the outsourcing of presidency to the old guard really f’ked things up for everyone. This seemingly trickled down to the state & even local level as the “R” brand is now recognized as toxic for good reason.  

    This development is unsurprising but serves to highlight their clueless clumsiness as they stumble around in the dark. Tied to a short leash all they can really do in VT is bark loudly.  

  5. the Party of Lemmings will not be deterred in their fateful march to the sea.

    Faster boys; the tides coming in.

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