Dear Editor,
When I spoke face to face with Bruce Lisman and suggested that Vermont needed to go on offense, so to speak, to expand our economy, instead of taking incremental defensive measures, I saw that he was really listening. In fact, growth of new businesses was never far from his thoughts in our lengthy conversation.
We mused together how Vermont’s 20th century weaknesses are her 21st century strengths: rural small towns and being unsuited for the demands of large manufacturing industry are perfect for digital startups whose ingenuity can span the globe instantly. What should prevent our beautiful outdoor lifestyle state from becoming a seat of entrepreneurial genius attracting the best and the brightest?
Well, the answer to that rhetorical question is the government getting out of the way, reducing regulations on businesses, lowering taxes, and rolling out the biggest and brightest welcome mat in the East, saying “Vermont is open for business.” No longer can the reflexively profit-hating fringe hide behind the falsity that all businesses are exploitative and polluting in a world where a five-year-old digital company with 54 people can be bought by Facebook for $19 billion. Why can’t that happen here?
This fresh approach would indeed give breadth and scope to the “New Direction for Vermont” promised by Bruce Lisman. I believe he aims to deliver on the promise of leapfrogging the stale obligatory bi-annual gubernatorial promises by breaking with the heavy hand of ever-expanding governmental intrusion and unshackling the native genius for which the digital age affords mega-amplification, to the benefit of all citizens.
While Lisman’s opponent is a good and decent man, I believe that a “New Direction” is exactly what we need. On the one hand, we have all too tangible proof of the failures of the past; on the other, we have unprecedented opportunity to break out of the economic mediocrity which is causing an exodus of youth and talent from our state.
Bruce Lisman for Governor! Respectfully submitted,
Lawrence Zupan, Manchester
