The Secessionist Campaign for the Republic of Vermont
By Christopher Ketacham, 31 January 2010
The President on Wednesday may have reassured Americans that the state of the Union is “strong,” but, just the week before, a group of Vermont secessionists declared their intention to seek political power in a quest to get their state to quit the Union altogether. On Jan. 15, in the state capital of Montpelier, nine candidates for statewide office gathered in a tiny room at the Capitol Plaza Hotel, to announce they wanted a divorce from the United States of America. “For the first time in over 150 years, secession and political independence from the U.S. will be front and center in a statewide New England political campaign,” said Thomas Naylor, 73, one of the leaders of the campaign.
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.”
Second Vermont Republic's gubernatorial candidate is Dennis Steele, 42, a hulking Carhartt-clad fifth generation Vermonter and entrepreneur. He owns Radio Free Vermont, an Internet radio station, and honchos an online venture called ChessManiac.com. Steele says that, if elected, his first act in office would be to bring home Vermont's National Guard from overseas deployments.
Phi Beta Iota: For some time now we have been focusing on the disconnect between national policies that are made in a strategic and financial vacuum, by a small minority driven by partisan and special interests, totally disconnected from both domestic and global reality. In addition to Vermont–which has ever legal right to succeed, this is no longer in question in the USA or Canada or just about every where else in the world (there are 5,000 emergent secession movements over-all)–we anticipate Alaska, Hawaii, Texas, Maine, New Hampshire, Montana, and several other states concluding that the “cost of Empire” is too great a burden to bear. This also comes at a time when the public is recognizing that corporations are immoral and predatory, that the personality status given to corporations by the federal courts is inappropriate and should be negated at the lcoal level–no waiver no sales–and finally, that we have lost our mind as a Republic and are committing national suicide. There is a non-violent sensible remedy: the Electoral Act of 2010. If President Obama were to free himself from his “handlers” and actually lead all Americans, he would find the majority is in favor of honest open government that makes decisions based on open consensus–decisions that are affordable and in the national interest. They days of Congress being a channel for moving money from the individual taxpayer to a handful of mega-banks is over. It may take 20 years to settle this, but this is the end of the beginning and the beginning of a seriouis contest for creating the Second American Republic. In our humble opinion (IOHO).
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Self-Determination & Secession
Review: A Constitutional History of Secession
Review: One Nation, Indivisible? A Study of Secession and the Constitution
Review: Secession, State, and Liberty
Review: Secession–How Vermont and All the Other States Can Save Themselves from the Empire
Review: The Nine Nations of North America
Review: The Vermont Manifesto (Paperback)
