Common Sense Radio: Lessons of History for Today’s Public Policy Issues with Former Governor Jim Douglas
Monday, October 19, 2026, on Common Sense Radio with Bill Sayre, weekdays, 11 o’clock till Noon.
Former Governor Jim Douglas joins Bill to discuss the lessons of history, economics, politics, and culture — to understand and address current public policy issues, and to prepare for future issues that are likely to arise.
Potential Questions and Issues
What is different about the French student protests this year, compared with those of earlier years? Is it more than students — e.g., if the complaint was about the quality of education, how does burning down schools help? Have other factions joined the protests this year — hard Left factions that want to protest the cost and quality of social services, landlords, and capitalism. How is the burden of debt and interest payments remenischent of spending by Louis XVI, whose deficit spending was, in part, to fund the American Revolution?
What role do immigration issues play in the political tensions in France?
How are we to interpret the President’s Executive Order waiving Russian Sanctions? Does this violate the Lindsey Graham new law/. What does this tell us about Executive Orders? Long Range Drones. The absence of Defensive Missiles, i.e., Patriot missiles. Diesel Fuel and Home Heating Oil, and effect on Midterm Elections.
What should we know about the proposal for Alberta to secede from the Canadian union, and the factors behind it? How does this compare with the American Confederacy of 1861? Is it more like the proposal for Killington to secede from Vermont?
For history, what should we learn from the Presidential election of 1824, and how it was resolved? What is the parallel with the special provision in the Vermont Constitution?
Consider the Red and Blue colored Counties in a National Map? Does it suggest a tension between rural and urban cultures? A trend from rural to urban underway in America for 200 years. But does it back even more centuries — for example in the Roman Republic, the French, the English. Do we even notice it to some extent in the location of campaign signs in Vermont, every two years? Rural lands, as compared with urban areas.
Similarly for Money in Politics. Part of balancing economic and political freedoms. Frustrating and disappointing for both sides of the tension. The old question of the correlation between campaign contributions and the positions advocated by a Candidate. Also, are there ways that left side organizations and advocates — unions for example, or popular entertainers — can use their membership for phone calling, or music concerts that double as political campaign rallies.
Is there enough uncertainty over the U.S. Senate elections that we could have a massive swing like in 1980, for example? What are some of the US Senate races that are closer than might have been suspected earlier this year? Maine, Michigan, Texas, Iowa, Ohio, Minnesota, New Hampshire. But also now Kansas and Nebraska.
What are the longer term implications of government advertisements for Presidential actions and policies, paid for by the Government?
What should we think about Polymarket prediction markets? Why might they be more accurate that polls?
What factors should we consider in whether, how, and to what extent, limitations should be imposed on the future of Artificial Intelligence?
And likewise factors to consider in evaluating the benefits and burdens of Data Centers?
Will the reductions in staffing at the UVM Medical Center, and at Dartmouth Hitchcock, affect quality as well as cost of Vermont’s health care, and health insurance?
What is Proposition 3? Do you think Proposition 3 may have consequences of which voters are largely unaware? Was it given proper evaluation in the Senate? What was the effect of a supermajority in the Senate? Likely could prohibits right-to-work legislation, and other legislation that would limit practices that unfairly promote unionization? As well as forcing an employee to join a union, and/or pay union dues, as a condition of employment. What has been the experience of Illinois, the only other State to adopt a Constitutional Amendment of this kind? What will be the effect of Vermont’s attractiveness to manufacturers considering whether or not to expand in Vermont, or to locate in Vermont?
What have we learned about the causes of the high cost in Vermont of health care and Vermont health insurance. And the implications for policy? What reforms proposed in the Governor’s Executive Order may be helpful? Higher deductibles. Health Savings Accounts. Association Plans.
How about expanding the opportunity for small employers, and even individuals, to participate in Flexible Spending Account, in which a large range of employee benefits would qualify for the same tax treatment as is the case for benefits provided at larger companies?
What should we consider about the apparent appeal Socialism to our young people, in particular? Idealism vs. Reality. Seeing the world as you might hope it would be, rather than as it is. Paying taxes. Questions for young people — do you want, eventually, to own your own home? Should someone who doesn’t work as hard as you in school, get the same grade as you? What happens to incentives to work hard, to save, and to invest. A government big enough to give you everything you want, also will big enough to take everything you have. What can we learn from history? And what can we learn from the experience of other nations?
Why is it important to have balance in the composition of our Legislature and of our State government? How has it affected legislation on taxes, land use regulation, energy, education, health care, and housing?
Why it is importanct for government, like families and businesses to live within its means, and to keep tax rates competitive. And to growing government revenue not by raising tax rates, but by growing the economy.
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