Vermont politics moves slightly towards world average
Friday, July 4, 2008 at 2:00AM What I’m about to relate is microscopic in its significance compared to the violence and destruction that goes on elsewhere in the world. Somehow, the fact that here in Vermont we are living such a sheltered life makes this kind of petty idiocy all the more discouraging.
Montpelier, Vermont’s capital, had its Independence Day parade today, on the 3rd. I stood on State Street watching the floats, bands, and politicians go by. At one point our governor, Jim Douglas, walked by with a crowd of supporters in matching t-shirts. About thirty seconds later a scrawny guy in a Santa Claus outfit trotted by in the opposite direction and was almost immediately tackled by several men in Douglas t-shirts. They were obviously angry and set about twisting his arms behind him, crunching his face into the sidewalk, standing on his legs, and generally making life uncomfortable for him.
There was a general cry of “What did he do?’ and “Why are you beating up Santa?” The answer came back, “He assaulted the governor.” Whoa. Whackjob in Santa suit punches governor during parade. Surreal and disturbing.
I left them to their one-sided wrestling match and walked up the street a little ways. I saw a couple talking about something, and the looks on their faces told me that their subject was the incident. “What happened with Santa and Douglas?” I asked. “Squirted him in the face with a can of whipped cream. Totally covered him. Funny as hell.”
(Update, for what it's worth: It was actually a pie. See the WCAX article in the comments.)
I turned back to where the scrum had just occurred, but Santa and the Douglas guys had disappeared. (I later heard that the police had arrested and cuffed the prankster.)
I stood there for a long moment trying to reconcile a face full of Reddi-Whip with the angry bone crunching I had just witnessed. Ok, it was a childish prank, and certainly not the most brilliant move ever made, but the response was unnecessary and out of proportion. Santa was no longer anywhere near the governor. Aside from his dignity, the governor was uninjured. He was farther up the street, waving and smiling. The Douglas boyos, under the pretense of a citizen’s arrest, had bypassed the legal system and administered some extra-judicial punishment.
If you are tempted to say, “Well, the moron had it coming,” remember the symmetry of the law. If a few self-appointed enforcers are allowed to beat him up, then they can do the same to you for some other real or imagined insult. It’s the way they do politics in Zimbabwe.
The prankster’s motivation remains a mystery to me (Update: See the comment - Vt. Yankee decommissioning), although when I related the story to friends, the majority expressed dismay that they had missed the squirting. More than one person said that pie would have been more traditional and appropriate. Ultimately, the act was inarticulate and useless.
The motivation of the Douglas crowd was more obvious. The governor (and candidate for reelection) had suffered an injury to his dignity. Dignity is the control of one’s perception by other people, and image control is the key to political success. As Drew Westen wrote about in his excellent book “The Political Brain”, people first react emotionally to any kind of attack on their preferred candidate, and then follow up with irrationality. In this case, also with violence.
Prank protest and thug response. I hope this isn’t a trend.
Reader Comments (2)
I went to the WCAX to see what they had to say about it. Here's what I found. Seems there was a specific reason for Santa to do what he did.
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Santa Pies Governor at Parade
"Well somebody came out of the crowd in Montpelier and greeted me with a platter of cream of some kind and took right off," explained Gov. Jim Douglas, R-Vermont.
The governor wasn't injured but he was a little messy when he was pied as he marched on State Street in Montpelier's Fourth of July parade Thursday night.
Asked if started him, Douglas replied, "Well it did, but no harm done and I just wiped it off and kept going."
The governor's state police bodyguard started to give chase, but quickly returned to the governor to protect him in case there were other attackers.
Barre City Mayor Thom Lauzon-- who had been marching near the governor-- chased the pie-chucking Santa into the crowd.
"I ran up to him and grabbed him by the throat trying to get him down. I told him to get down. At that point he threw an elbow trying to shake me off. He said, 'you're hurting me.' He threw an elbow, hit me in the face with his elbow, and at that point I got upset. So I kicked him in the back of the leg and proceeded to squeeze the back of his neck and then pushed him down," explained Lauzon.
The mayor says Montpelier police arrived moments later and arrested the Santa who was now being held down by four people.
"As they were picking him up he screamed something about $600 million, but I don't know what he was referring to," said Lauzon.
Police say Santa is Matthew Manning, 22, of Northfield. And he was clutching a fistful of leaflets blasting the governor for vetoing a bill that would have forced Vermont Yankee to set aside millions in advance to decommission the nuke power plant in 2012.
Manning was cited to appear in court on charges of simple assault and disorderly conduct. As for his apparent motive for pieing the governor-- the bill to force Vermont Yankee to pay in advance for decommissioning was sponsored by Gaye Symington, Douglas' Democratic opponent for governor. We called and asked what she thinks about Manning's tactics-- and she had no comment.
As for whether the incident raises questions about the governor's security, State Police in charge of the Governor's security detail were not available for comment today. The governor told us he's always concerned about security, but he feels there has to be a reasonable balance allowing him to interact with the public.
Brian Joyce - WCAX News
Just great. Someone makes the issue of VT Yankee look like a belief held by the nutty and bizarre.
It was a stupid stunt that hurts the issue more than helps because it makes Douglas look like a victim. It would have been better to unfurl a huge banner from the Pavilion Building or something like that. Then a picture of the banner would have made it into the paper and raised consciousness about VT Yankee. However, all this did was generate sympathy for Douglas.
Stupid move by St. Nick.