Time Mag Likes Vermont Secessionist Movement

Time may not come right out and say so, as do apparently 13% of Vermont's citizens, but one gets the sense the magazine doesn't see Vermont's Leftist-libertarian secessionist movement quite the same way they might view one from the Right, say in Texas.

A former Duke University economics professor, Naylor heads up the Second Vermont Republic, which he describes as "left-libertarian, anti-big government, anti-empire, antiwar, with small is beautiful as our guiding philosophy." The group not only advocates the peaceful secession of Vermont but has minted its own silver "token" — valued at $25 — and, as part of a publishing venture with another secessionist group, runs a monthly newspaper called Vermont Commons, with a circulation of 10,000. According to a 2007 poll, they have support from at least 13% of state voters. The campaign slogan, Naylor told me, is "Imagine Free Vermont." In his fondest imaginings, Naylor said, Vermonters would not be "forced to participate in killing women and children in the Middle East."

Comments

[bishop]

Don't let the door hit you on the way out, man, they can join Quebec

[Philip McDaniel]

If the majority of them want to secede then we should put a fence around it, cut off all federal assistance, move out all federal offices, etc. and let them go on their merry way. What do they contribute anyway, besides maple syrup I mean.

[BlogDog]

I took an econ class from Naylor. Let's hope he's better at *anything* than he was at teaching econ.

[Rich Fader]

Imagine Pat Leahy and Bernie Sanders out of the Senate.

[ruralcounsel]

Most of us here in Vermont would be happy to run these clowns out to the Canadian border with some hot tar and feathers chaser. The rest of New England gave us their burnout hippie dregs and socialist provocatuers in the 70's, and we've had a hard time ridding ourselves of them ever since. They have a nasty habit of burrowing into politics, dragging their equally unproductive friends into state government employment, and living off of the taxpayers. Any sign that they might pull up stakes and head elsewhere is great news. They sure aren't taking the rest of the state with them. Not peacefully.

[Casey]

ruralcousel: too bad y'all can't give them to the Quebecois; sounds like a match made in heaven. :)

Massachusetts and California are also welcome to found their own countries. Let's see how long they can survive without Federal funds to prop up their bloated state governments.

[Gary Maxwell]

What Cheney told Leahy goes double for the entire state as far as I am concerned. Any place that would elect as a US Senator an avowed Socialist like Sanders is beneath contempt.

[John]

Were this to actually happen, I kind of picture Vermont 20 years down the line as being North America's version of the Gaza Strip, only with snow and maple syrup.

[Immanuel Goldstein]

Vermont would be the perfect place to house and try any and all Jihadist prisoners. Khalid Sheik Muhammed should be placed there.

[Jim B]

What's absolutely laughable is that Vermonters who support secession are also the same ones who demand federal spending for each and every need of its citizens. If they think that their little country could manage itself without the benefit of being incorporated into the United States, then I say let them try. I give them a maximum of 5 years before they come crawling back, begging for reincorporation when they find out just how bad things will get.

[templar knight]

Wait a minute. I like Vermont and it should not be allowed to secede. I have a better idea, and it is that all liberal hippie slime in Vermont be deported into New York and Massachusettes, where they belong. And the same goes for New Hampshire.

Don't tread on Vermont, or NH! Oh, yeah, I'm from Texas.