A Look at the Vermont Secession Movement

Nearly 150 years after South Carolina seceded from the Union and sparked the Civil War, the winds of secession are again blowing. This time, however, it's not nostalgic Confederates, renegade Texans or Hawaiian islanders that want to govern themselves. The state that's had enough of the United States is Vermont.

A grassroots movement called The Second Republic of Vermont has published a "Green Mountain Manifesto," and they hope to put the question before citizens at Town Meeting Day next March, eventually persuading the state Legislature to declare independence. Vermont secessionists see the move as a return to what they were from 1777 to 1791: an independent Republic. The fact that they would not have remained independent if the British had defeated the American colonists seems to not enter into their thinking. Unlike Texas, Vermont may have declared its independence, but it never had to fight for it.

Vermont is certainly outside the mainstream of the U.S.; they are currently the only state with a Socialist Senator. Some feel that the Iraq war has given the secessionist cause greater sympathy, and the numbers back this up: the movement is supported by 13% of the population, up from 8% last year. Many Vermonters feel that the U.S. is too large, too controlled by multi-national corporations, and too imperial in its attitude, and they want out.

To indulge this fantasy scenario for just a moment, if Vermont was able to secede, then what? No natural resources, no seaport, minimal trade opportunities, and a tiny population give it very little hope of survival. In a few years it would simply be annexed by Canada, and this might happen before the US even realized Vermont was gone. How many people would really even notice?

The only states that could reasonably expect to survive as nations following secession are Texas, California, New York, and Florida. These states have all of the advantages that Vermont lacks, but even if one of these four decided to leave, the federal government has a few Abrams tanks and Apache helicopters that say they won't be able to.

If these people were as passionate about fixing the wheel that's broken (the Federal government) as they are about just inventing a new one, maybe something would actually get done. Vermont has a small enough population that a committed few could alter who represents them in Congress, but the last time I looked, their Senators and their lone Congressman were just as inept as anyone else's.

So to Vermont secessionists I say this. Shut up and do something constructive, unless you like the idea of having a picture of the Queen of England on your money.