Misconceptions about the war of 1812. They think that it was all about the starspangled banner and the british attack on washington and that it was not very important like a hiccup in history. There had been a long struggle with the british over trades and rights. The british wanted basically to take us back. Its much more important in the way its taught in school. We began our special feature unpredicted bill mayors and Jeff Danziger on their book the full monty, vermont in the age of trump. About a month before trump was elected i had open heart surgery, and so i was not in great shape and i was in even worse shape when this election happened and i thought what a wretched birthday present that was. So i think like a lot of people who did not vote for him, i was pretty depressed for a month or six weeks, and gradually we, with most things, you start to get over them but it still wrangled on me and i just didnt want to sit and be frustrated all the time so started to think what can i do . I couldnt go to the march in washington because my heart was still in pretty bad shape. So i started to think well, what can i do as an individual besides write a check to the aclu or vilma gibbons organization 350. Org . And i thought well, i have written some humor in my life and so i talked to jeff who had illustrated several of my other books, and immediately he said thats a good idea, another book before dementia sets in is something to do. Then he says ill tell you what the title should be and he said it should be the full vermonty. Bill wanted to put out a book because vermont is i think, i think voted for Hillary Clinton in greater numbers than any other state. Remember, its a small state so it doesnt amount to that much, but the numbers were impressive. So we wanted to put together a book with people in the state answered the question what do we do now with trump in charge. Trump is obviously in my view against most of the values and characteristics that we have. As for trumps stances on issues that are particularly important to vermonters i i wod say probably the environment first and foremost i think is his love feast with the coal industry, his appointment of people who are determined to reverse as many of the obama Environmental Programs as possible. I think really sticks in peoples craw, and they think, they just feel, i mean, here is Bill Mckibben founded 350. Org who lives in vermont and is very popular, very popular among the Environmental Community in vermont. And he has, not he alone but certainly hes been the forefront of sensitizing vermonters to the threats of global warming. And vermont, as i say, has just had a long history of Environmental Protection that people see trump as actively reversing that trend, that move. And they look upon this as a thing of, i wont say evil, but a thing of great damage to the state, the nation, in the world. One thing that i did for the book was a series of cartoons showing how donald trump, who i would say has probably never done any physical work in his life, what he would do if he were transposed up here where you have to be able to get your car out of the ditch, you have to be able to change her own tires, you have to be able to fix your own plumbing. And if youre a farmer have to do all the various jobs around the farm. So i had a series of drawings worries trying to figure out, you know, wheres the chauffeur for the tractor. I was very surprised when trump was elected. I didnt think that was going to happen, and i still think that the issue here is of the Electoral College which somebody has got to do something about. And also the computerization of polling which allows people to alter the message very, very specifically when they determine that people in general are not reacting properly to it. But it also illustrated, and this is true in vermont, that the states have kind of a second judgment to make on what the National Government is going to do, whether its health care or education, or as it used to be, religion, segregation. Many people dont realize how different the states are within the United States. They think as americans, thats the end, its not true. Im not a very happy person. I look very happy nobody think we are. I think the world has gone developed. How does vermont move forward . Well, we are, you know, maybe the second least populist state. We have three electoral votes. We have three, i think, very thoughtful, engaged, passionate members of our congressional delegation, but they are still only three out of 400, 535. And so we, you know, Everyone Wants to think, well, you know, as vermont goes so goes the nation. We dont. We are still a part of it but i think if we can continue to serve our own people and our delegation can work with other similar minded people in congress, we will do the best we can. I mean, no one is going to look to vermont and say youre going to lead us, you are going to lead us into the next era. But on the other hand, you look and see what bernie did in this last election, and i think its quite possible that he will run again. And with a different field. He certainly has staked out a position to be the central figure, at least central advocate for a singlepayer health system. And hes been absolutely consistent in his condemnation of income inequality in the country. So when we say we are little but we are loud, here is, bernie has a following far greater than i i would thought that he would in the course of that election. So you know, as Bill Mckibben said, he said vermont is always, he said it always thought above its weight, boxed above its weight pic and i think it has, but its not boxing on a level of pennsylvania or new york or california. You know, im modestly optimistic i guess. You have to be. You cant just go into a funk and simple to check out, im going to go fish for the rest of my life. So i dont know thats kind of, i dont know, not a wishywashy answer, but a hopeful, a hopeful answer. Understanding aboard the ethan allen take a tour of Lake Champlain that is situated between the state of vermont and new york. Up next we speak with author Willard Sterne Randall on his book the war of 1812. A lot of people have misconceptions about the war of 1812. They think that it was all about the starspangled banner and the british attack on washington, and that it was not very important, like a hiccup in history. And it really wasnt just the war of 1812 if it was the of the American Revolution that had been going on since july 4, 1776, but had been a long struggle with the british over trades and rights. The british wanted basically to take us back. So its much more important than the way its taught in school. The treaty that ended the American Revolution were, the treaty of paris, had a couple of things each side was supposed to do and nevis i did. Americans were supposed to pay their debts to the english before the war at interest, and to the british, were supposed to leave their forts on the great lakes, on the canadian border, and it didnt because we were not paying the bill. So what the british basically did was cut off all of our trade. We actually, our business went down by but 80 in one year when they did that. The object of the war for americans was to take canada, which blew my mind when i started thinking into this, just take candid. We had the louisiana purchase, thats only 11 million acres, but most thought they would take candid way. Thomas jefferson said to take canada would only be an beer matter of marching. How naive they were. The indians would be organized by wonderful strategist named tecumseh and he put together an alliance of 10,000 warriors. And when the americans kept pushing him and taking his land away, he went over to the british side. The british supporting the indians was a way to keep americans from spreading farther west, deeper into what we call the midwest or it was still called the northwest because nobody had been to the northwest yet. And tecumseh, the indian leader, was tired of the settlers just coming, pushing, pushing or being by the American Army wherever the settlers went the army gave him a little bit of money and took way millions of acres of land. The british were worried basically out that only about us going farther west and becoming more powerful, but they were concern that we would take the first trade which is what everybody had been fighting for. So the british saw a chance to have the indians do the fighting for them and then supplied them with the first that people in england couldnt live without furs. Before the actual fighting begin president jefferson tried to make america neutral by cutting off all trade with the british, with the french, with the dutch, with anyone, and make americans grow things or manufacture things themselves. He imposed something called the embargo, the embargo of 1808, which made it illegal for american ships to go anywhere or other ships to come here. At that point almost all of our business was with europe were islands in the caribbean. And so you had a complete collapse in one year, 80 of all trade went away. You had sailors in soup lines in portland, maine, and in boston and in new york. When his term as president ended, so did that embargo. People were so fed up. The two things that really sparked the war of 1812 finally after this long time, one, the indians, the threat, the fear of the indians on the frontier and the guns that there were getting from the english. But the other one or most of the people, most of the people in the United States lived a long seacoast towns, and they depended on going to see. The british were fighting the french in huge naval battles all over the world and they kept running short of sailors. So they would stop american ships, stop in new york harbor, fire i can and tell each boat stopped, come along, pick out krugman by saying you are really english and youre really english and youre not really american. The british did not honor this new thing called naturalizing citizens. The american sailors, many of them, had been in the english navy and a lot of the english sailors had literally jumped ship. You could buy a passport or citizen the papers for a dollar. So in a few years time the british came on our ships and seized nearly 10,000 of our sailors. It was called impressment. If you were impressed you were taken, he became a part of the royal navy. You could not without you could not escape without being hanged as a deserted. You would be shipped to the meditating to really cruise on ships. These are 10,000 families who are never going to see the head or the brother of the family again. This combination of the two, the fear of the indians and the outrageous practices of the british, they were also blockading our seaports. Every time they stop a ship, they discovered things in the cargo that they said well, really thats illegal, we will seize it. And if they did that they took the whole ship, sales it up to canada, sold it at auction and shared the loop with the captain and crew. We were in an outrageous position. Even though madison succeeded jefferson, james madison, he knew we were terribly ill prepared, he decided to attack. Its one of the most daring things any president has done. Hes the only president whos ever gone into battle with his troops to protect washington. He was not really good at it but he was very courageous. What the army looked like at the time of the embargo, the whole American Army was 3000 men. If you compared that with the british army at the time, they had 250,000 men. Talking about our navy, we had 20 ships, only six big enough to be called warships. The british had 900. So it was a ridiculous lopsided proportion between them. So we really didnt have much of a military coup we didnt have a draft. The states did not want to provide troops. The state wouldnt go from one state into another one in wartime, and he certainly wouldnt cross the border to canada. In other words, we were woefully unprepared for the war. What we now call democrats were jefferson and madison and the democrats, it would mostly southerners and frontiersmen. They wanted a war. But if youre from new england or from new york annual basis is my by ship with your, you are against it. So the country almost split, with almost had at the civil wr without the country on the side of the british. Fortunately, both sides got exhausted, so both sides were ready finally to end this. What was the outcome of the war is one of those misconceptions about how it happened, et cetera. The outcome was nobody one. The diplomatic term was status quo antebellum, though back to where things were before the war. The only people who one where the canadians, because for the first time the english and french canadians, canadians got together and fought against a common enemy, us, and defended their country from the americans who wanted to take it all over. The only real losers were the indians. The british had back to them and armed them, and they get done most of the fighting on a new york canadian border, especially are against Andrew Jackson in alabama in the south. They had the heaviest casualties. But in the peace talks to settle the war, the indians were abandoned by the british. It just wasnt important enough. A drop it out of their demands. And so when it was all over, its as if it didnt happen in a way except youve got destroyed cities and towns, thousands of dead, thousands of ships captured on both sides, but when it was all over, the peace negotiators in ghent in belgium for the americans went right to london inside at trade treaty and the event are most favored nation client ever since. In the long run of history it doesnt make sense, but had we really lost, had the british one by invading down this lake, canada, or by invading up the mississippi from new orleans or invading the chesapeake as they try tried to do, the United States couldnt have survived. The United States we call it the war of 1812. Weve had so many. In england they call it the second war of american independence. Which it wasnt. It was still the same revolution. In canada they think of it as their birthday, the beginning. They celebrate it. They had a huge bicentennial when we had almost nothing in 20122013, 2014. They had a huge bicentennial. Everybody dressed up in the old british uniforms and they celebrated the birth of canada. Thats how they see it. So to them the canadians won and the americans lost. When you are all through, none of that is true. Its the war of 1812, at the end of the American Revolution. If people read my book i want them to see how complicated that whole time was, that there were not easy victories in saratoga or at yorktown. I titled it unshackling america because we were still tied up with england, still depend on them and they had that given a bit there holding us economic prisoners. And im saying that the war of 1812 truly into the medical revolution because that was it finally. From that time on we were respected, i think most of all because the british didnt beat us. We had beaten them twice. Napoleon couldnt beat them, but we did. We need that kind of complication to understand what a long process that is when you get into revolutionary wars. Im standing on the campus of the university of vermont where up next we are shown some of the items from their collection. We collect the papers of vermonts congressional delegation as well as a number of other Public Policy figures and organizations, but the congressional delegation with our particularly strong 20th century vermont members of congress who tend to have as many other small states long tenures in congress. So for example, george aiken served in the senate from 19411974. When he retired Patrick Leahy was elected in 197480 served in he served in that seat ever since. So we have had two senators since 1941 in that seat. Towards the end of his term, george aiken was republican, moderate republican and was guided known for having these regular breakfasts with the leader of the democrat in the senate lunchroom, had a strong relationship with the white house through the nixon years. And he kept a diary in his later years of being senator the last few years, these weekly entries he would enter, this particular one is really an interesting firsthand account at a very significant historical event. Its for the week ending august 10, 1974, he talks about him being in zone in putney vermont where he says what a week with lpa which was his wife and admission assistant lois, and i write in putney on friday. There was one to come up big enough to pick. By monday there were 30, a bushel string beans, early potatoes and carrots already for the harvest. So george aiken being interested in agriculture always been interested in gardening and wildflowers throughout his life, starts this important diary entry for an important week in u. S. Political events with consummation of where his garden is at, burying the lead as they say. When you get to page six of this entry he finally gets to the big news of the week so the big news of the week, of course the big sensation was the resignation of Richard M Nixon as president of the United States. Although i causally oppose resignation on his part preferring the impeachment process if you were found guilty of the charges made against him, my position collapsed on monday when he admitted that statements had been making for the last two years were not true and that he was aware of the watergate breakin scandal soon after it occurred. It was a bit obvious that you try to cover up the evidence and protect the guilty parties. When he made this confession, his support in the congress rapidly dissolved, until by thursday he decided it was best for the country if you reside. Thursday night he called about 15 members of each house of congress including myself down to the white house to state his position. At 9 00 that night he went on the air to deal his story to the public. It was an extremely sorry and emotional occasion with many tears being shared include those of the president himself who is difficulty in starting, stating his story to us in what finally culminated in his leaving the cabinet room and a emotional and cheerful condition. One of our other congressional collections is the papers of robert or bob stafford who was in the house of representatives in the 1960s, and then with the passing of Winston Prouty in the early 1970s, he becomes vermonts other senator in addition to senator aiken. Stafford as well as aiken before them and were in austin and other members of vermonts congressional delegation were republicans right up through jim jeffords, were usually of the moderate northeast wing of the republican party, and this can be seen in stafford case with his membership in and actually his role at the founding of the wednesday group in the house of representatives in the early 1960s. The wednesday Group Continued on inhouse and later in the senate for many years. There is no aversion the house known as the two state group but he was generally considered to be a group of modern senators. Some familiar names here even to modernday followers of u. S. Congressional, thad cochran, ted stephens, former senator from alaska, mitch mcconnell, richard lugar, a variety of centers from across the country and some that you wouldnt think of necessarily as moderate members of the republican party. Unlike many of the other prominent 21st, well, vermont political figures in vermont were mainly republicans, moderate republicans up until the 1960s when the democrats started to gain office. Bernie sanders is kind of cut from a somewhat different cloth, came to the state of vermont around the same time as many kind of back to the land movement, moved to vermont, joined con comment and start nw initiatives and vermont. Sanders came in the mid60s, lived in the country for a little while but eventually settled in burlington and became active in local political activist groups and local politics, ran for governor and other statewide offices a number of times through the 1970s before ultimately winning the office of mayor of burlington in 1981, winning by a very slim majority. I think it was ten votes that he beat the incumbent democratic mayor by and launched bernie into this wild journey hes had ever since then. He served as mayor in burlington for eight years, until 1989, and we have his mayoral papers that are open to the public that shed light on a number of topics. One of the things youll see throughout the papers that many folks saw as they were researching sanders and his political positions over time is many of the same issues were important to him in the 1980s and in the 1970s as they are now. And many of the issues that have come a long with his intention to run not as a member of any party but to run as an independent have been there all along as well. Here we have a letter from 1988, a supporter in manchester vermont to a support him when he ran for governor in 1986, and in 1980 sanders was considering a run for the use house of representatives, which he ultimately did decide to run for, and lost by a slim majority to a republican peter smith. This individual had written to sanders expressing his concern that he is going to flip the boat. He says peter, peter welch, and i agree on a number of issues but it is not i could tuesday by any means our views are the same. Mayor of the city burlington i fought against virtually every established special Interest Group to benefit the people of burlington and the state of vermont. I have done things as mayor that very few mayors in the United States have attempted to do. I would be proud to contrast my leadership record as mayor burlington with his record in the legislature. Lastly, there are 434 democrats and republicans in the congress. Maybe its time for one independent progressive. My election in vermont would be of national significance, the first time that independent progressive congressman has been elected to congress. He did not win in 1980 but he did when two years later in 1990 which launched him into a 16 year career in the house which then in 2007 he became a member of the senate and has just continued to move forward in his political career running obvious it for president of the United States last year on many, i came in the same issues he was championing back as mayor in the 1980s. One of of those issues was healthcare, and here we have a document from september of 1987, a statement by the mayor in montpelier, vermont, where the first paragraph really reads like something he couldve said a week ago when he unrolled his medicare for all legislation. So simply substituting the vermonters are citizens of the United States. So first paragraphs of the issue that were going to discuss today is perhaps the single most important issue facing low and moderate income vermonters, and that is the crisis in the affordability and accessibility of health care in vermont. On the one in its remarkable that bernie has been kind to saying the same messages about health care, about economic inequality all these years, and on the other, its almost a little disheartening that he continues to have to say these same things here weve made progress on somebody we i i thk continue to face some similar challenges in solving some of these issues that hes been raising all of these years. Where onboard the spirit of ethan allen Lake Champlain in for burlington, vermont, where c spencer cspans on more about the literary scene. Next we speak with Garrett Graff on his book. Raven rock was the mountain bunker built rabbinic and 40s and 1950s that wouldve served as the center point of the u. S. Governments response for nuclear war. Its a hollowed out mountain, inside raven Rock Mountain in waynesboro pennsylvania that holds a small city capable of supporting several thousand people for two to four weeks at a time. And what event the epicenter of use pentagon and the u. S. Military during the cold war. Its a facility that as old as it is is still very much in existence today and as were still here for staff 24 hours a day, 306565 days a year raven rock was more than 100 of these bunkers spread across every corner of the United States. The big ones being raven rock, them out whether in virginia with the president and the cabinet wouldve gone. The norad facility in colorado springs, then also dozens of other facilities spread across the United States in places like maynard massachusetts, denton texas, bethel washington, as well as dozens of other facilities spread around washington most known as the relocation, pennsylvania, virginia, West Virginia and into north carolina. The goal was to have thousands of senior government leaders and government managers be able to buy quick to these bunkers in just 1530 minutes worth of notice and ensure there would be a corps u. S. Government that was able to survive whatever the incoming attack was the only sets of these plans which are known as continuity of government date back to truman and eisenhower years. A really they were kept updated right to the cuban missile crisis, johnson, nixon and jimmy carter and Ronald Reagan pour billions of dollars into these plans during their administrations. He couldve held anywhere from a couple hundred people took couple thousand people. And they were primarily for senior government officials, cabinet leaders, congressional leaders, but then part of what was weird about this was many u. S. Companies build their own relocation bunkers. Many of the sicilians were at t communication facilities. Other top u. S. Companies dont relocation bunkers in such places like iron mountain, and so this was a network of these facilities that wouldve held perhaps as many as ten or 12,000 people across the United States at the peak. These bunkers were funded out of primarily what was known at the time as the black budget, the classified intelligence and National Security advisor. The u. S. Public really have no sense of the scale of the spending during the cold war, even most members of congress didnt understand where this money was going and they certainly had no sense of the sheer scale of these facilities. Not just on the ground. Not just under the ground but there were secret ships at sea that couldve held the president , the uss wright and the uss northampton floating command post, loading white house is. There were special secret airplanes, the president ial doomsday plane, the Looking Glass command post that was a u. S. Air force plane, one of which was kept in the sky 24 hours a day from 19621992. These facilities, these planes, these ships, even mobile tractortrailer convoys that couldve set out across the United States to run nuclear war from wherever the country ended up, these facilities sort of existed just off the radar throughout the cold war. Most americans have no understanding that they were there. We think of the president as just the person that we elect on the first tuesday after the first monday in november every four years. During the cold war one of the things we saw was the transformation from one person into something that we now know as the office of the presidency, that ensures that the presidency is never actually vacant. And so you have not just the line of succession that were familiar with, the president , Vice President , speaker of the house, and all the cabinet officials, each of those cabinet officials have their own line of succession. 15, 20 people long. When you talk about the office of the presidency, you talk in modern terms of something that can encompass perhaps as many as 300 people already to step up and lead the United States in the event of the worstcase scenario. But these plans are also very closely held secret. The people working in adjacent offices might not even understand who was involved and who wasnt. I tell the story in the book of when director aaron sorkin was doing the research for what became the west wing and the american president , and he was talking to George Stephanopoulo stephanopoulos, and george showed in his evacuation past and a look like this little bus pass that he carried in his wallet but it was sort of his nuclear war get out of jail free card. When aaron sorkin and incorporate this into a west wing episode that some people might remember where the deputy chief of staff gets one of these cards from the National Security council, deedee myers who was e White House Press secretary and was on the set when youre working on this west wing episode pulled aaron sorkin aside and said i think this is all a bunch of baloney because we dont actually have these cards in the white house. He realizes weight, deedee myers never knew that she was never going to be saved during nuclear war and that her office may George Stephanopoulos was, effectively none of these plans included the civilian populations. Thats part of whats interesting about this arc through the cold war. In those early years of the big operation alert drills in the 1950s, even up to the cuban missile crisis those hope and expectation that you would be able to save large chunks of the civilian population because it have enough warning, that you are looking at atomic bombs rather than hydrogen bombs. After looking at bombers, not missiles. And so you would have six, eight, ten, 12 hours of warning before nuclear war happened. But then as missiles arrived and weapons got more powerful, as a got more plentiful, basically the u. S. Governments ambitions shrunk until they are just what they are today, which is hiding out a small number of government officials in mountains and letting the rest of us thin for ourselves. Parts of these planes came up during many crises like the cuban missile crisis, even parts of these plans were used during the gasoline shortages of Richard Nixons years. But the only time we really solve these activated in emergency was on 9 11 when your many of these facilities that had been quietly mothballed during the 1990s reactivated, reopened. You saw congressional leaders exactly by helicopter from the white house, from the lawn of capitol hill up to Mount Weather in virginia. And, in fact, Vice President cheney, other top officials when he disappeared into the undisclosed location after 9 11 it was very often these bunkers like raven rock that were sort of found a new use after 9 11. Unfortunately, what we learned on 9 11 was none of these plans are going to work as intended. Lucky for the country that in many ways the leadership of the United States was not successfully targeted on 9 11 because it turns out that these continuity of government plans would not have been able to safely evacuate the leadership in the time that they needed on september 11. And so that was a big part of the lesson of 9 11. Even things as basic as president bush aboard air force one on 9 11 did not have access to cable news. And so as air force one flying around the country they were just picking up little snippets of local tv broadcasts that the past over major cities, and that for much of september 11, president bush was less informed than the average american sitting at home watching cnn. So since 9 11 the u. S. Government has bored literally billions of new dollars into these plants. The ability facilities, modernize some of the old ones like raven rock. Just the summer raven rock is getting a new communication line right to the heart of waynesboro, pennsylvania. And these plans, we help today, would be better suited for a surprise attack in the way we saw it occur on 9 11. And in some ways what we saw was also a philosophical shift where we saw the Us Government shift away from the idea of evacuation and more toward this embracing the idea of devolution. What the u. S. Government now does is these bunkers are running 24 hours a day, 306 oh days a year and theres always a team inside ready to assume control of the country in case a surprise attack happens in washington. I think part of the story of raven rock is both recognizing just how serious the cold war really was. I think we often today forget how tense these moments were because we know how the cold war ends. We know that the soviet union collapses without a a shot. We know that the soviet union was never as powerful or as threatening as we thought it was at the time. But today its important to learn these lessons, particularly in the era of the new Nuclear Threats from north korea, to realize just how unwinnable nuclear war is. That its possible that our people left standing after nuclear war, what if someone says in raven rock it will be hard to consider them a winner. Cspan is in burlington, vermont, children more about his literary community. Up next to make a stop at nearby montpelier, vermont. Back about eight years ago i was in sweden. It happen that the dark knight, christopher nolan, second in his acclaimed trilogy, revered that particular day. I went to a swedish megaplex with my swedish brotherinlaw, and we saw pat leahy confront heath ledger, the joker, in a key scene. And i thought that was incredible, and i said oh my god, thats pat leahy. In my swedish brotherinlaw said who is pat leahy . I said hes my center, and any followup with the obvious question, which is whats he doing in the dark knight . I i have zero idea what the ansr was. So when i got back to the states i went to the library looking for a biography to tell me, and there was none. So i set about finding out and then writing out what i found. Senator pat leahy is our senior senator. Hes been there since 1974. Hes a longestserving most senior center. When democrats hope how he is third in line to the presidency. So hes a very powerful figure not only in that way, but again when democrats are in charge he chairs the Senate Judiciary committee. And in that way is the gatekeeper for Supreme Court justices changes to the criminal justice system, et cetera. Hes also powerful on the appropriations committee. So for a very small state he gives us huge clout in washington. Pat leahy was born about five houses from where were standing here on state street. And when he delivered his papers, he had a paper route every morning, he walked past the capital and im sure that himself one day im going to be in that building. As it happened he leaped right over the statehouse so he went from being the states attorney to being a u. S. Senator when he was 34. An amazing jump. And because of that come his seniority has accumulated much more rapidly than anybody else. So hes only now in his late 70s but hes the most Senior Member of the senate. Pat leahy has had an amazing legislative career. A number one bill that i mitch would be the u. S. Aid patriot act. The following 9 11 hes a person everyone agrees must take charge of the operation to respond legislatively to the terrorist attack. So he with one arm is push against the Bush Administration who are trying to write something that would have guided Civil Liberties in america and with the other hes trying to reform what was an outmoded system that didnt take account Technology Changes and other things that allowed terrorists exploit this loophole for he had an incredible job with the patriot act. For all of its warts it isnt in something that has allowed us to try to move into the 21st century with our terrorism and counterterrorism effort. Some people tend to forget that the months following 9 11 came the anthrax attacks washington d. C. And then a few weeks after that a second letter was found that had pat ladies name on a fix of nation was on the edge washington d. C. Was at the whitehot center of this. The pentagon had been hit, major areas in the capital had been attacked with anthrax. So the patriot act was mustpass legislation. Pat leahy was in a very difficult position. He was the only person willing to stand up and say at that moment we need to go cautiously and protect civil rights. And he took a lot of heat for the pics i think if theres one moment that he demonstrated strength of character and a profile in courage, that was it. Like a lot of long serving senators, hes been able to bring home a lot of money for important projects. Some of those projects have his name on them. Theres the pat Leahy Echo Center in burlington, for instance. Theres a street in burlington called leahy way. That accumulates over 40 plus year career. What i i would say, like Bernie Sanders, vermont politicians are in your community. They dont separate themselves. Honestly they dont bring on a lot of security so they show up at the Farmers Market here in montpelier. You will see pat leahy if you hang out a couple of weekends in a row at the Farmers Market. Go to burlington you see Bernie Sanders at the bagel store. Just something vermonters have come to rely on, thats part of the reason why we send our senators back in partaking influence through seniority, but in another way we simply know that and we trust them. Why change horses when someone has done you so well in the past . You