Vermont Progressive Party
The Vermont Progressive Party, formerly the Progressive Coalition and Independent Coalition, is a political party in the United States that is active in Vermont. It is the third-largest political party in Vermont behind the Democratic and Republican parties. As of 2023, the party has one member in the Vermont Senate and five members in the Vermont House of Representatives, as well as several more affiliated legislators who caucus with the Democratic Party.[7][8]
Vermont Progressive Party
John Christopher Brimmer
Marielle Blais
Will Anderson
1980 Independent Coalition
1983 Progressive Coalition
1999-2000 Vermont Progressive Party
Franklin County Independent Coalition
Citizens Party
Liberty Union Party
Progressive Youth Caucus
14 (May 2024)[6]
The last time a third-party had members elected to the state legislature in Vermont since James Lawson of the Socialist Party of America in 1917.[9]
History[edit]
Background[edit]
William H. Meyer, a member of the Democratic Party, was elected to the United States House of Representatives from Vermont's at-large congressional district after defeating Republican nominee Harold J. Arthur in the 1958 election. Meyer's victory was the first time since the 1853 election that the Republicans had lost a statewide election in Vermont. Meyer was the most left-wing member of Congress from 1937 to 2002, according to Keith T. Poole. He lost reelection in the 1960 election against Republican nominee Robert Stafford.[10][11][12]
Meyer formed the Liberty Union Party at a meeting in his home with Peter Diamondstone, Dennis Morrisseau, and twenty other people on June 27, 1970.[13][14] Martha Abbott, a future chair of the Vermont Progressive Party, was one of the members of the Liberty Union Party's founding meeting.[15] Bernie Sanders joined the party in 1971, and was selected to serve as the party's candidate for a Senatorial special election at his first meeting.[16] During his time in the party Sanders also ran for United States Senate in the 1974 election and for Governor in the 1972 and 1976 elecitons.[17][18][19] Sanders left the party on October 11, 1977.[20]
Platform[edit]
The Progressive Party encompasses a progressive platform. The party's main focus has historically been advocacy for a single-payer health care system, which has recently made great strides with the implementation of Green Mountain Care, a health care program that was pushed by Democratic Governor Peter Shumlin due to pressure from the Progressive Party. Other major policy platforms are renewable energy programs and a phase-out of nuclear energy, public transportation proposals including one for a high-speed rail system, criminal justice reforms directed at reducing the state's prison population and better protecting convicts' rights, the creation of programs to end homelessness in the state, ending the War on Drugs and repealing No Child Left Behind and ending the focus on standardized testing in the school system. The party also has an anti-war stance, advocating for Vermont's national guard to be restricted from engaging in war zones outside the United States, an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and opposition to all preemptive wars, strikes, or other offensive or interventionist military actions. The party is very supportive of LGBT rights and members of the party were involved in the legalization of same-sex marriage in the state.
Economically, the party also calls for converting the minimum wage to a living wage and having it tied to inflation rates, having the economy focus on small and local businesses, empowerment of worker cooperatives and publicly owned companies as democratic alternatives to multi-national corporations and to decentralize the economy, for the strengthening of state law to protect the right to unionize, for implementing a progressive income tax and repealing the Capital Gains Tax Exemption and residential education property tax, and for all trade to be subject to international standards on human rights. The party is also critical of privatization.[72]