In JRR Tolkien's famous trilogy The Lord of the Rings, the evil lord of Mordor, Sauron, is on the verge of imposing a dark totalitarianism on mankind when two humble hobbits creep through the back door to his kingdom and drop the great Ring of Power into the fires of Mount Doom, destroying Sauron and his evil.  The dismayed lord's Great Eye turns, panicked, toward the rear attack that ensures his failure.

Such is the case with the Vermont Democrat primary wins of extremist progressives Becca Balint and David Zuckerman.

The evil of extremist progressivism is a cancer in the Green Mountain State, touting a "theoretical" eugenics "movement" similar to that which seeded Nazi supremacism.  Today's "progressive" ideologies are built upon race-based determinism: "all racial disparities are caused by white supremacy."  This is an equivalent if reversed fallacy to "all black and brown people are inferior."  It is the same dogma, wrapped in newborn "social justice" clothing: "all white people are systemically superior."

This resurrected progressive doggerel has added gender, gender orientation, and climate change to racism as hate-mantras, weaponized into a dehumanizing campaign to compel absolute obeisance to the new Dark Realm.  Resisters suffer vicious attacks and hate speech in the name of "ending hate speech" and "eliminating subconscious white prejudices."  Who decides what is hate speech?  Why, the New Left of Sauron, of course.  The prog orcs will rule the world with overt racism: "the cure to past discrimination is future discrimination."  Progressives actually say that, with an uncritical Eye.

Lieutenant governor candidate Dave Zuckerman's August 20 post-primary election email to his supporters is titled "Believe it or not, Republicans still win in Vermont."  He histrionically warns Democrats to support him in his quest to impose one ideological Ring to rule them all:

We expect the status quo to focus their resources on the Lt. Governor's race as it holds the key to future changes in the balance of power in Vermont. The reality is that in this election, voters will be given a choice between politics as usual and bold leadership that will fight for economic, climate, and social justice for ALL Vermonters.

The entire world is portrayed as one of two sides: one evil, the other visionary and utopian.  All issues boil down to "justice, eugenics-style."

Many traditional Democrats reeling from the progressive hijacking of the U.S. House primary from Democrat moderate Molly Gray in favor of quacky Becca Balint are not quick to embrace one-party rule of their state and nation.  They see the stranglehold this virulent new ideology has demanded in every area of Vermont life as proof that it is always better to have at least two voices at the policy table.  It is laughable that Mr. Zuckerman purports to have the interests of "ALL Vermonters" in mind.  Nothing could be more evidently untrue.

Ironically, the far-out left portrays conservatives in this same light.  A recent article titled "One-party rule is now the credo of Trump and his followers" is subtitled "An illiberal democracy, similar to Viktor Orbán's Hungary, is increasingly the model for Republicans."  (Republicans might say, "I know you are but what am I?")  The author trumpets the never-ending evil of Trump:

From the looks of things, the Republican party's fealty to democracy appears tenuous at best, no longer willing to accept the finality of the ballot box or the courts.

Yet Democrats widely claimed that Trump's 2016 election was fraudulent, and Republicans are understandably anxious that left-wing "ends justify all evil means" extremism dehumanizes conservatives.  There's a new president in town, who with his minion Kamala Saruman dispenses one-party-only proclamations to dehumanize all that is Red, is avoiding policy discussions ("Pay no attention to that incompetent, inflation-seeding, race-baiting man behind the curtain").

In past election emails, Mr. Zuckerman has avoided the words "inflation," "gasoline prices," and "food scarcity."  These pressing issues are swept aside in favor of grand delusions to "displace the status quo," but Dave Zuckerman and the New Progressivism are the status quo in Vermont.  The far left seeks to tear down democracy by erasing free speech protections, gun rights, equal protection guarantees, the Electoral College, and other tried-and-true American institutions.  They seek to eliminate the Supreme Court, fling open the nation's borders, and eliminate protections against voter fraud.  Sensible GOP objections are derided as a "tenuous fealty to democracy."

This "One Party to Rule Them All" ideology does not arise from Americans who respect constitutional foundations — it is embraced by climate justice warriors, social justice warriors, "anti-racist" agitators.  It is embraced by Dave Zuckerman and Becca Balint, dark priests who claim that parents who question school porn, transgender pronouns and hormones, and other ideological attacks on their children are "bigots" who want to "ban the word gay."

According to Overlord Zuck and Sister Balint, Vermont is white supremacist, and all white people hate black people.  Gay and transgender people are being killed by heterosexuals.  Women cannot be defined (a new imaginary gender lexicon is evolving daily — gender itself is amorphous).  Meanwhile, Vermonters of both sexes and all races and ages are facing spiking inflation in their housing, heating, food, and health care costs seeded by reckless utopian dreams.  Progs don't do math — it's racist.

Vermont is the canary in this coalmine, and the bird is hypoxic.

Here is Tolkien's hope: progressives are so enamored of their New Religion of Hate that they are oblivious to the failed policy issues they've seeded.  Balint et al. screech dishonestly of fabricated social ills, ignoring the economic struggles of their would-be constituents.  They have destroyed Vermont's pensions and schools, eviscerating the economy to bloat bureaucracy.

The economy-destroying, racist, child-abusing ideology that is the status quo in Vermont must change.  Humble Vermont hobbits now include demonized Republicans, thinking independents, and shocked blue-dog Democrats.  They will use their 2022 votes to cast the horrid progressive Ring of Doctrinal Enslavement into its own hellish fires.

Come, gentle hobbits, and join the fray.  Sauron and friends are looking the other way, oblivious to the true battlefield.  The regular "folk" are rising up to hold them accountable to math, the Constitution, parental rights, Economics 101, and common sense — the things the progressive agenda has destroyed.  Many Vermont Democrats see the true threat to their livelihoods, mental health, and democracy and support moderate Republicans and Dems alike.

As in Tolkien's instructive tale, the overconfident Evil Eye doesn't even see it coming, so hell-bent on conquest has it become.

John Klar is a farmer and former tax attorney with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and a candidate for Vermont state Senate.

Image: Famartin via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped).