Every once in a while, I read a remark by some leading Vermont Republican (which is no large distinction) to the effect that “The voters should elect more Republicans because of the dangers of one-party rule.” The latest whiner is House (Extremely Small) Minority Leader Don Turner, in the Sunday Freeploid:

“What I am selling is Vermont needs a little bit better balance,” Turner said. “I want to bring more Republicans to Montpelier so there is debate.”

Yep, he wants affirmative action. We should elect more Republicans, not because they have better candidates or have done anything to merit our support, but to create some artificial “balance” in the Statehouse. I do hope Mr. Turner would make the same argument in reverse for Republican-heavy states like Texas or Utah. I hope, but I doubt.

He sure as hell wouldn’t have called for partisan balance during the century or so that Vermont suffered under the yoke of one-party rule by the Republicans.

Give me enough time with the Google, and I could find an almost identical statement from just about every top Republican in the state. But I’ll cite just one more.

 This is from the VTGOP’s own website, quoting Mike Bertrand during the brief time when he was the party’s Executive Director. (The time between his appointment in the fall and his resignation in the winter after the party failed to pay his salary.*)

*Speaking of which, according to the Freeploid, the VTGOP currently has no paid staff. Still hurtin’ for cash, I guess. Which is a really bad sign in a campaign year. Especially one that finds most Republican and conservative organizations flush with greenbacks.

“We have got to return some sense of balance to Montpelier,” said Bertrand.  “The simple truth is that Vermonters want elected leaders to act in the best interests of all Vermonters, and to develop sound policy solutions to our shared problems.  One party rule is not what Vermont needs at this critical time.”

Well, Mike, the thing about elections is that they reflect the will of the voters. At least, so we hear whenever the Republicans win one. I agree with you that Vermonters want leaders to act in their best interests and develop sound policy solutions. But Vermonters freely chose to elect a whole bunch of Democrats in pursuit of those ends, and decisively turned their backs on your party. They did so, not because of imaginary ACORN shenanigans or brainwashing by the allegedly liberal media, but because they overwhelmingly preferred liberal ideas and Democratic candidates. There was a battle of ideas, bucko, and you lost it. Bigtime.

If you want to end one-party rule in Montpelier, the task is simple: come up with candidates and ideas that appeal to Vermonters. The VTGOP used to be good at that: Bob Stafford, Dick Snelling, Jim Jeffords, Jim Douglas. These days, its only political figure with anything like broad appeal is Phil Scott.

What do those past and present figures have in common?  Relative moderation. Or, in Douglas’ case, the carefully-maintained image of moderation. If the VTGOP hopes to diminish, or even end, the Democrats’ dominance of state government, they need more candidates like Bob Stafford or Jim Jeffords or Phil Scott. And they need to turn back to the more moderate Republicanism of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. You know — back when they used to win a lot of elections.

Instead, they’ve turned themselves into a carbon copy of the national party, whose far-right conservatism puts it way outside the Vermont mainstream. The result in 2010 — a year of epically-proportioned Republican landslides, and a year when the VTGOP hoped to bask in the fading glow of the Douglas years — was an embarrassing defeat that handed the Dems the governorship and veto-proof Legislative majorities. They follow up that incredible pratfall with a pathetic 2012 performance that included the financially-induced resignation of their executive director, the failure to even contest enough House and Senate races to come close to a majority, and a statewide ticket full of has-beens and never-wases. And Phil Scott.

Then they put the cherry on top of this turd sundae by inviting Maine Governor Paul LePage to raise money for Randy Brock — whereupon LePage immediately makes an ass of himself and creates a nightmarish news cycle or two for the VTGOP. And now they’re inviting Allen West??? Good God, what are they thinking? Or smoking?

And they have the sheer gall to complain about one-party rule, and plead with Vermonters to elect a few more Republicans for the sake of “balance.” Well, sorry, guys, but it’d be against your stated principles to consider you a minority group and grant you some affirmative-action hires. Get out there and earn it, you slackers!