TOWN AND GOWN

A LOOK AT THE ELECTION

It's quite a spell since town and gown in the Hanover-Norwich area last mingled — or tangled if you will — in the polling booths, but you will have to admit that this last election was a very special one and it has taken a hell of a while to get over it. In fact we are not fully recovered yet. There are some battle scars still visible and though we still have faith in the therapy of time it is by no means an absolute faith.

I remember in Lou's Restaurant an old Vermonter who left his breakfast half-eaten rather than sit with a fellow Vermonter with whom he had had sharp differences. I remarked that I knew there had been trouble some thirty years before but I had thought that over the long years my Vermont friend had forgiven the culprit. "So I had," was his prompt reply, "but not to the extent of eating breakfast with him."

This story, plus memories of how things used to be, reminds me of the Vermonter visiting in Texas some 25 years ago. He attended a meeting of a men's club and the Texan chairman, knowing of his presence as a guest, thought he would have some fun. "Will all those who are Democrats please stand up." Everyone stood but the lone Vermonter. "If by chance there's a stray Republican here would he mind standing up?" The Vermonter stood and everybody laughed. "Would you mind telling us, my friend, how it is you happen to be a Republican?" "I'd be glad to," said the Vermonter. "Two reasons only. First, I come from Vermont and second, my father was Republican before me." "That," said the Texan, "is a very poor reason for being a Republican. Suppose your father had been a horse-thief?" "In that case," said the good Vermonter, "I reckon I'd been a Democrat."

Well in this last political set-to there certainly turned out to be plenty of folks of irregular ancestry, and this on both sides of the Connecticut. Of course even the pollsters could see it coming but few anticipated the violence of the storm. "This is a real choice," said a Main Street merchant, "and don't you kid yourself. Folks are going to take it." And they did - only their choice wasn't his choice. A nice old Vermonter said to me, "Yep, them intellectuals round here are having a field day, but you just wait 'til election day. You'll see the real Vermonters come out of the hills." And come they did, but many of them didn't vote for Goldwater. New Hampshire went for L.B.J, some 9 to 5 and rock-ribbed Vermont by just about 2 to 1. Some folks couldn't believe their ears, or their eyes, but an old fellow from Thetford commented, "By God, Old Abe was right. You can't fool all the people all the time."

The "choice not an echo" theme certainly pulled them out with a vengeance. There hadn't been such a turnout in years, and town vied with gown in responding. In Hanover 87.39% of all voters on the check list exercised the privilege of the ballot and Norwich wasn't far behind with 86.04%. Norwich went for Johnson 591 to 236 and in Hanover the switch was even greater with 540 votes for Barry and 1812 for L.B.J.

It wasn't too shocking to find New Hampshire in the Democratic column for she had been there before, but for Vermont the band should have played "The World Turned Upside Down," as it did at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. Since the Green Mountain State gave her electoral vote to the first Republican candidate in 1856 - General Fremont of California - Vermont had remained consistently Republican until 1964 brought this shocking deviation. The papers reminded us of F.D.R.'s landslide in 1936 - carrying every state except Maine and Vermont - and this reminds me of a story from that time. On the morning after the election the newspaper men in New York were interviewing Jim Farley, who had managed the Roosevelt campaign, and asking why he hadn't delivered those eight votes to the Chief; more particularly the three from Vermont. Jim is reported to have replied, "I don't really know, boys. I've given considerable thought to Vermont and the only solution I can see is to make it into a national park." And now it seems such a radical step may not be necessary after all!

And this reminds us that they sure were active in these parts. The Republican organization went through most of the motions, put ads in the papers, and had a few rallies but somehow didn't seem to have much heart for the fight and their emphasis was fairly consistently on state and local candidates. This was particularly marked on the Vermont side of the river where locally only two Gold-water stickers were reported and Gold-water's position much more discussed by Democrats than Republicans. Instinctively the Democrats in both states smelled an opportunity to put the heat on and "All the way with L.B.J." was heard on every hand. The Republicans in Hanover didn't even have headquarters - though there had been one for Rockefeller at the time of the primaries - but the Democrats had a gay-bannered car conspicuous on Main Street during the last week of the campaign.

But it's all over now save the bickering. The Republicans are still disturbed as to how to face the future — as to what to do and who should do it. The topic is good for endless fireside debate and when that theme is worked over to everybody's dissatisfaction you can always revert to post mortems. How much better would Nelson have fared — or Scranton or Nixon? And how really pure a lily is Lyndon Johnson, with his "Great Society"? And why not a law to limit the whole business to six weeks? Or wouldn't it be the fair thing to get rid of the electoral college procedure? Despite the tremendous popular and electoral vote for L.B.J. we must remember that the two-party system is still with us, and should be. There are still some representatives of both town and gown who are like the good Republican clergyman who rashly decided to visit a Democratic meeting. When invited to offer an opening prayer he requested to be excused, saying, "If you don't mind, gentlemen, I'd rather the good Lord didn't know I was here."

This observer of the Town and Gown syndrome, running uncontested for the Norwich seat in the Vermont legislature, was easily elected, and this even though the Vermont Constitution of 1777, as repeated in the Constitutions of 1786 and 1793, requires that each member of the House of Representatives shall be a person "most noted for wisdom and virtue." Strangely enough no such exalted standard is specified for members of the Senate. But the next General Assembly which convenes in Montpelier on January 6 is being dubbed the "suicide assembly" because by federal court order all it can do is to adopt plans for reapportionment. We must then dismiss ourselves and stand for reelection from such new districts as the plan for reapportionment provides. After we have had time to get acclimated and down to work on this controversial subject you may expect some inside look on the legislative syndrome.