Text 29028, 120 rader
Skriven 2007-06-03 17:18:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Vermont
===============
I say good riddance.  Let these clowns go..  Also once these are no 
longer part of the US they get no protections from the US, including the 
military.  If another country wants to invade their little leftist 
paradise, they are free to do so.

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http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2007/06/03/in_vermont_
nascent_secession_movement_gains_traction/

In Vermont, nascent secession movement gains traction
By John Curran, Associated Press Writer  |  June 3, 2007

MONTPELIER, Vt. --At Riverwalk Records, the all-vinyl record store just 
down the street from the state Capitol, the black "US Out of Vt.!" T-
shirts are among the hottest sellers.

But to some people in Vermont, the idea is bigger than a $20 novelty. 
They want Vermont to secede from the United States -- peacefully, of 
course.

Disillusioned by what they call an empire about to fall, a small cadre 
of writers and academics is plotting political strategy and planting the 
seeds of separatism.

They've published a "Green Mountain Manifesto" subtitled "Why and How 
Tiny Vermont Might Help Save America From Itself by Seceding from the 
Union." They hope to put the question before citizens at Town Meeting 
Day next March, eventually persuading the state Legislature to declare 
independence, returning Vermont to the status it held from 1777 to 1791.

Whether it's likely is another question.

But the idea has found plenty of sympathetic ears in Vermont, a left-
leaning state that said yes to civil unions, no to slavery (before any 
other) and last year elected a socialist to the U.S. Senate.

About 300 people turned out for a 2005 secession convention in the 
Statehouse, and plans for a second one are in the works. A poll this 
year by the University of Vermont's Center for Rural Studies found that 
13 percent of those surveyed support secession, up from 8 percent a year 
before.

"The argument for secession is that the U.S. has become an empire that 
is essentially ungovernable -- it's too big, it's too corrupt and it no 
longer serves the needs of its citizens," said Rob Williams, editor of 
Vermont Commons, a quarterly newspaper dedicated to secession.

"Congress and the executive branch are being run by the multinationals. 
We have electoral fraud, rampant corporate corruption, a culture of 
militarism and war. If you care about democracy and self-governance and 
any kind of representative system, the only constitutional way to 
preserve what's left of the Republic is to peaceably take apart the 
empire."

Such movements have a long history. Key West, Fla., staged a mock 
secession from America in the 1980s. The Town of Killington, Vt., tried 
to break away and join New Hampshire in 2004, and Hawaii, Alaska, New 
Hampshire, South Carolina and Texas all have some form of secession 
organizations today.

The Vermont movement, which is being pushed by several different groups, 
has been bubbling up for years but has gained new traction in the wake 
of disenchantment over the Iraq war, rising oil prices and the formation 
of the pro-secession groups.

Among its architects:

--Thomas Naylor, 70, a retired Duke University economics professor and 
author who wrote the manifesto and founded Second Vermont Republic, a 
group pressing for secession, in 2003.

---author Kirkpatrick Sale, 69, founder of the Middlebury Institute, a 
Cold Spring, N.Y., think tank that hosted a North American Separatist 
Convention that drew representatives from 16 organizations last fall in 
Burlington. The group is co-sponsoring another one Oct. 3-4 in 
Chattanooga, Tenn.


Naylor's 112-page manifesto contains precious little explanation of how 
Vermont would do without federal aid and programs when it comes to 
security, education and social programs. Some in the movement foresee a 
Vermont with its own currency and passports, for example, and some form 
of representative government formed once the secession has taken place.

The cachet of secession would make the new republic a magnet, Bryan said 
recently during a strategy session with organizers in Naylor's home.

"People would obviously relish coming to the Republic of Vermont, the 
Switzerland of North America," he said. "Christ, you couldn't keep them 
away."

But there are plenty of skeptics.

"It doesn't make economic sense, it doesn't make political sense, it 
doesn't make historical sense. Other than that, it's a good idea," said 
Paul Gillies, a lawyer and Vermont historian.

While neither the Vermont Constitution nor the U.S. Constitution forbids 
secession per se, few think it's viable.

"I always thought the Civil War settled that," said Russell Wheeler, a 
constitutional law expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, 
D.C.

"If Vermont had a powerful enough army and said, `We're leaving the 
union,' and the national government said, `No, you're not,' and they 
fought a war over it and Vermont won, then you could say Vermont proved 
the point. But that's not going to happen," he said.

For now, the would-be secessionists are hoping to draw enough support to 
get the question on Town Meeting Day agendas.

"We're normal human beings," said Williams, 39, a history professor at 
Champlain College. "But we're serious about this. We want people in 
Vermont to think about the options going forward. Do you want to stay in 
an empire that's in deep trouble?"


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