This article, by Tommy Gardner, was first published Oct. 22 in the Stowe Reporter.
Lamoille County Sen. Rich Westman was one of a handful of Vermont lawmakers who received an anonymous postcard last week demanding the arrest of House Speaker Mitzi Johnson “and her associates.”
The moderate Cambridge Republican said it’s just the latest threat that lawmakers have faced in recent years and another example of declining civility and an inability of people to talk to one another. Some people threaten you from the shadows, he said, while some accost you openly in public when you’re running errands.
“In general, there are a lot of angry people around,” Westman said.
The Capitol Police Department is investigating the source of the anonymous postcard, which was sent on Oct. 4 and accuses the House speaker of “criminal neglect and unfaithfulness” and for “refusing to accept inputs on public matters.”
Capitol Police Chief Matthew Romei said the postcard bears similarity to calls by right-wing activists for a “trial” of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for violating the Constitution when she took emergency action to shut down the economy to stem the coronavirus pandemic.
Romei said there is no imminent threat to members of the Legislature. “They called for the arrest of people, and it’s language we’ve seen before, but given current events it was worth us taking a gander into,” he told VTDigger Oct. 11.
Lawmakers frequent targets
Westman said it appears whoever sent the postcards took the time to mail them from the post office in the same town the recipient lives or represents.
“Whoever it is, they have more free time than I do,” he said.
Rep. Diane Lanpher, D-Vergennes, also received the postcard, which she turned over to Capitol police, according to an Oct. 11 Facebook post. In another post five days later, she said authorities had narrowed down suspects to a male Vermonter whose “previous mailings have had similarities that made a clearer connection.”
Lanpher also said he continues to write daily to her through the mail, but now expands his arrest request to include making false reports to law enforcement about him.
“These types of threats can no longer be ignored,” Lanpher wrote in her Oct. 11 post. “They need to be exposed, especially given the increased actions like those recently in Michigan. It is important to report any type of threat that you hear or receive.”
Rep. Matt Birong, also a Vergennes Democrat, told reporters he’s received numerous threatening phone calls at the café he owns. One of the callers said he wanted to put a bullet through Birong’s head.
Rep. Felisha Leffler, R-Enosburg, reported to police hearing a gunshot outside her window early in the morning last week, just days after she received one of the postcards.
Westman said he often receives vitriolic messages, whether from direct constituents or Vermonters in general. He points to R. Marcus West as an example. West, a Barre resident, made waves in 2017 in central Vermont with a self-published 650-page “testimony” that levies claims against all manner of people, from a Virginia doctor, to Donald Trump, to numerous Vermont state and municipal officials.
Westman said West “blankets the whole Legislature, constantly telling us what we do wrong.” That included a mean-spirited email to Leffler that referred to the gunshot she reported.
“One of the paragraphs said her only problem was her conscience is so guilty, she only thinks she was hearing things,” Westman said.
Some local lawmakers said that, while they didn’t get a postcard, they also see it as part of a dangerous trend.
Rep. Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, called it “very disturbing” and “absolutely unacceptable behavior. We can disagree on issues, but violent rhetoric and threats have no place in political discourse and a civil society,” Scheuermann said.
Rep. Avram Patt, D-Worcester, said some people send legislators messages “that can be abusive, use racist, anti-Semitic or other offensive terminology.”
“The people who do stuff like this are careful to walk the line between truly offensive and harassing language, and overt threats,” he said, noting the postcards did not contain an actual threat by the sender. “With that said, and with what’s happening in so many places, it would unfortunately not be a surprise if things escalated further, perhaps as a result of more organized extremist hate groups.”
Rep. Dave Yacovone, D-Morristown called it “a sign of the times, I am afraid. I attribute much of this kind of action to the divisiveness that our president has created in our country. He has done little, if anything, to calm people or to unite us. If anything, this fosters the anger that so many feel.”
Trash talking
Westman said he recently went with a friend to the Cambridge transfer station to dispose of trash and he was accosted by a constituent who “came right up to me and told me everything I’ve done wrong.” He said afterward the friend joked that Westman ought to wear a wig and dark sunglasses when he leaves the farmhouse.
“You can’t just stand in the parking lot at the transfer station with 25 people trying to back their cars in, on a Saturday, and have any kind of conversation,” Westman said. “It doesn’t make it all that comfortable.”
Westman has been in state government for nearly four decades — he was one of the youngest representatives ever elected to the Vermont House in 1982, the year he graduated from college. He said this is the worst political climate he’s weathered, worse than the civil union battles 20 years ago.
He said it used to be people would argue with you on a raft of issues, and you might disagree on some things but find common ground on others. Now, people tend to rally around single issues and have little time for anything else, or anyone else who doesn’t see their point of view, he said.
“Instead of having a measured view on a variety of issues, they latch onto one,” he said. “It used to be you voted for someone with good judgment.”
He said lawmakers receive surveys from various special interest groups — whether it’s about the environment, gun control, civil rights, education or whatever — before the legislative session even begins, asking them how they plan to vote. Westman said he and others prefer to actually go to Montpelier and hear testimony and learn about an issue before voting on it.
“What the hell do we even go to Montpelier for and take testimony? Why don’t I just mail my vote in ahead of time and be done?” he scoffed. “I’m not sure I’m always right. It does me good to sit there.”
He blames, in no particular order, the national political rhetoric, the prevalent “no rules” world of social media, and the transient nature of Vermonters.
“We ought to be able to have mannerly conversations, but somewhere in our society, manners have gone out the window,” he said. “Social media has no manners.”
That sort of intolerance for other viewpoints has seeped from the computer and smartphone into the real world, where it snows and rains and cows need milking, kids need picking up from school, groceries need buying, and trash needs to be taken out.
Westman said neighbors just don’t know each other anymore.
“Our communities are different than they were 30 years ago,” he said. “When you plan on living in a community all your life and know you’re going to have the same neighbors for the rest of your life, you’re more careful about what you say to your neighbors.”
