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Law School Debate
If thereis widespread political apathy in Vermont as the Nov. 7 election approaches, you wouldn't know it in South Royalton Tuesday evening. Two levels of the Chase Center at Vermont Law School were standing room only at the start of a political debate among six candidates running for U. S. Senate. All would like to fill the opening created by the retirement of U. S. Sen. James M. Jeffords, the Senate's only Independent. The crowd of more than 200 Tuesday night included many students and adults, as well as a high-school age contingent. A few dozen wore bright red Bernie Sanders shirts, and many others sported stickers supporting Rich Tarrant, the Republican in the race. However, the supporters refrained from chants or other demonstrations, which have been common at previous events. They may have been restrained by the sight of three Windsor County deputy sheriffs and Royalton Police Chief Bob Hull. The law enforcement officers saw duty later in the evening as one of the six candidates, Peter Diamondstone, was cited for disorderly conduct (see other story). Organized by the Student Bar Association, it was moderated by its president, Joseph Griffo. Griffo generally kept a tight rein on proceedings, seeing to it that the microphones were turned off when speakers exceeded their alloted times. The debate also produced none of the flashes of anger between Sanders and Tarrant that had shown up in a recent television debate. Most of the histrionics fell to the other four candidates (see other story). Questions were posed first to the entire panel by VLS Profs. Gil Kujovitch and Stephen Dycus. Then students questioned specific candidates. Sanders and Tarrant disagreed strongly about how effective each would be in Congress. Tarrant cited a non-profit organization that called Sanders one of Congress's least effective members. Sanders responded that Tarrant, just by his party affiliation, would strengthen the Republican control in the Senate. That issue came to the fore during a discussion of global warning. Both agreed that Congress must stop ignoring the problem. "The idea that we are driving cars with worse gas mileage than 20 years ago is beyond comprehension," Sanders said. Global warming is a "huge, huge problem coming down on us," Tarrant agreed. But while Sanders said that Republican control meant that nothing could be accomplished, Tarrant held out the hope that he could help persuade the leadership to take a different tack. "We have to talk to each other to get this solved," he said. "We can’t start with a fight. This is a big problem. Global warming is about my grandkids." Much Agreement In much of the debate Sanders and Tarrant agreed as much as they disagreed, perhaps to the surprise of the audience, which had witnessed ill-tempered political advertisements from each. On the new Military Commissions Act outlining new standards for questioning prisoners, Sanders noted he had voted "no." Tarrant said he had concerns about the bill as well, noting he sympathized with an amendment proposed by Sen. Leahy which had been defeated. "My concern is that something as important as this went down on party lines," he added. On the new developments in North Korea, both said that more diplomacy, not military action, is the correct response. Sanders noted that because of the Iraq war, however, "Our moral leadership is shot." On a question about funding higher education, Tarrant took the opportunity to beat the drum for Vermont Technical College. Although private college costs are "out of control," he said, "for $7800 you can get a great education at Vermont Tech. There ought to be a branch of VTC offered to all high school students through the Internet," he proposed. Sanders, for his part, found it "insane that kids graduate from school 20, 30, 50,000 dollars in debt and thousands more don’t go because of the price." Sanders called all of the Bush tax cuts "absurd" while Tarrant distinguished between the income tax cut (bad idea) and the cut in taxes for dividends and capital gains (good idea, which has raised money for the treasury). Both disagreed with the move to end the federal estate tax, though Sanders used stronger language, calling the proposal "immoral, obscene." Other Remarks Other remarks during the evening were as follows: We should pull out (of Iraq) and put more money into good intelligence—Tarrant The solution to Social Security is to lift the cap (on eligible contributions). The problem (would be) over. This is the most important program in American history—Sanders There is no Social Security Trust Fund. In 2017 we will need new taxes.—Tarrant. It is beyond comprehension why six miles outside of our capital of Montpelier you can’t get cell phone service.—Sanders We are not on the cusp of losing millions more high tech, computer jobs. We’ve got to get a handle on outsourcing.— Sanders Sanctions (as in Iraq or North Korea) haven’t worked. They hurt the people, but not the rulers—Tarrant |
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