A model for these fractious days

by Chris Braithwaite 

With the death Friday of Melvin Mandigo, Vermont -- and particularly this corner of Vermont -- lost a friend, a piece of its history, and a master of an art that has been all but lost over that past few years:  the art of civil political discourse.

Melvin, who served this area for 16 years as the representative, and later the senator from Glover, was deeply political.  He was even more deeply conservative, standing firm for right-wing principles at a time when Vermont was moving steadily to the left. 

He was committed, opinionated, and argumentative. 

He was also so charming, so tolerant of dissent, so respectful of every Americanís right to his own opinion, that it is impossible to recall an argument with Melvin as anything other than a great pleasure.

Melvin loved to talk politics in any setting.  It might be on the floor of the State House, on the stage of the Glover Town Hall where he moderated many Town Meetings or, since he earned his bread for a time as an artificial inseminator, in a customerís barn with one white-gloved hand deeply engaged with the more intimate parts of a cow.

Few men could talk politics in such a situation and hope to be taken seriously.  But Melvin was a tall man with an odd, antique dignity that made it easy to imagine him holding forth in the Forum of ancient Rome, the Agora of Athens itself. 

Americans take their politics seriously, and many find it difficult to hate the other fellowís politics without hating the fellow himself. 

Melvin took his politics very seriously indeed.  But why would he despise his opponent in a knock down, drag out political argument that scratched deep toward the fundamentals of human nature and the will of God and the shared truths of American history?  Was that not, after all, an exercise in pure democracy?  And few men loved democracy more than Melvin Mandigo.

We missed him when he left politics and moved back to his hometown of Randolph.  And on the news of his death, we find ourselves missing him more than ever.