One also finds that acute attitudes derived from daily life rarely affect Vermont voters' political preferences. One young married lady, for example, launched into a passionate condemnation of the people she had seen who went to Europe and felt that they were superior to Europeans. "We have no right to do that," she said, "it's as though I insulted my neighbor because her garden is different than mine." But believing this vehemently, she couldn't accept the fact that Meyer feels exactly the same way. She, too, was voting for Stafford.
The confusion that most voters feel about Meyer's honesty versus his radical attitude, about the necessity of progressivism versus desirability of retaining the status que, is reflected in the Democratic Party organization even more than in the Republican. Several leading Democrats have their doubts about Meyer (although there is a hard core of Meyer workers, like those who work through the Rut land headquarters, who are with him all the way.
"If the state organization had kept working since 1958," said one Meyer supporter, "we would have swamped the Republicans. But they got scared of Bill Meyer, and there was no unity. Now the election's going to be close; I have no doubt that we're going to win, but it's going to be close."
Some Democrats are afraid of Meyer because of their own political interests. If he wins this election, they seem to feel, their place in the party will be shaky; the traditional party machinery will break down. If the voters re-elect Meyer, the party will probably nominate more Democrats with progressive beliefs, leaving little room for the old-line moderates.
Other Democrats are afraid of Meyer's ideas and find them difficult to defend. One factory owner from Bennington, important figure in the State, was certain that Meyer should have tempered his arguments to appeal to different voter groups. "Whenever I start talking about Bill Meyer," he observed, "I get into fights, sometimes even first fights. I wish he'd made more of an effort to get the veteran's vote--Armistice Day is too late--by toning down his ideas on the draft and on war."
Meyer has heard these comments on his policy time after time in the last few years, an outsider feels; he is reiterated his ideas again and again and now has little to discuss with new party workers except the prospects the election itself. The opportunity conversing with Vermont voters have not been sufficiently exposed to ideas seems far more attractive to than the necessity of talking with professional Vermont politicians. In Will Meyer be re-elected? In 1951 won on a fluke, running against a Should he win, though, Vermont's