Posted on 04/01/2007 2:11:31 AM PDT by Timeout
Vermont was once an independent republic, and it can be one again. We think the time to make that happen is now. Over the past 50 years, the U.S. government has grown too big, too corrupt and too aggressive toward the world, toward its own citizens and toward local democratic institutions. It has abandoned the democratic vision of its founders and eroded Americans' fundamental freedoms.
Vermont did not join the Union to become part of an empire.
Some of us therefore seek permission to leave.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
If Vermont 'rebels' we can invade them, steal everything that is not nailed down and burn the rest, then turn it into an agricultural colony.
But the interesting question is that these men knew we needed a strong federal government if America was to survive in a world that still had France and Spain wanting to colonize the interior of the continent through the Mississipi River system. THe founding fathers could see that they were involved in an international race for the remainder of the continent and needed a strong central government to compete against Spain, France and Britain.
The established states did not much care about the issue, but wanted to maintain the economic strengths of their own societies. But they did not want to fight another war to maintain the original states rights under the Articles of Confederation.
Arguably, but you won't get much popular support to overturn that decision.
Any time a legal question becomes intractable, when it cannot be negotiated and one side or the other will reject the rulings of the courts, it comes down to force of arms. Sad, but true.
The Civil War was, IMHO, inevitable from the day the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. From 1776 to 1860, the politicians basically kicked the can down the road,
It was clear from the beginning that the question of slavery would be explosive. It was clear from the beginning to be a source of future conflict. It was clear that neither side could in good conscience yield, so it had to come to blows. A great many good and wise men tried their damnedest to push it aside, but they only managed to push it back.
Why doesn't Vermont form a State Guard, like 30 other states? Or are they afraid they'd have to draft liberals into it to staff it?
Sure ~ they can be independent but they gotta' give all the land back first.
Not meaning any disrespect and only interested in my education;
What is the taxation situation there?
What is the state legislature like?
Is there an influx of new folks coming from N.Y. and the other overpopulated areas of the North?
How are they treated and accepted?
If there is an influx has it precipitiously upped the real estate prices?
I'd appreciate your input.
The balance of powers between the Feds and the states was a struggle from the beginning of the Republic, as was the question of whether a state that had joined could later opt out -- the latter wouldn't be answered until 1865, and then only by force.
The fact that the states were kept from leaving by force doesn't answer the question. Any sovereignty the states had before entering the Union was retained except what was written in the US Constitution. The right to leave was not given up and so the actions of the ferderal government to keep them from leaving was illegal.
This would mean the use of any technology developed after 1970 would be prohibited. Further, since hippies were too poor to own automobiles, their use would be severly restricted. The only ones allowed would be VW buses with flower-power paint jobs.
I doubt you could find too many existing but that's OK. Hippies were against cars.
Any sheep farms still up there would be exempted.
For libs, this will not be a problem, given how quickly those Dems who voted for going to war in Iraq have found reasons recently to say they really would have voted against it.
They probably have not thought this present passion all the way through. They don't realize what a can of nested hornets they will be opening up if they push this further.
Whoa, wait a minute. I thought this issue was settled back in the 1860's when Idol Abraham wouldn't let the South secede and go in peace. Maybe W ought to declare military law in VT and arrest/imprison a bunch of politicians, newspaper editors/publishers, and common folks, and end these thoughts of secession once and for all. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
They have a steep uphill climb, if current support is 8%.
We're already dependent on foreign maple syrup: most of what is sold in the US is imported from Canada.
Of course, if Vermont were to seceed, Pennsylvania could mount a 'buy American' marketing effort: more maple syrup is produced from trees in PA than from trees in VT, or at least that was the case when I was growing up in PA.
I've been thinking for a while that the red bits of NY and PA should secede to form their own state. The red bits of VT could come along too. The more the merrier. And maybe my Green Mountain Boys ancestors would stop spinning.
The problem is, as fractured and balkanized as the American political scene is, if one state secedes, can others be far behind? Just like in 1860, we could find ourselves in a civil war. Read Orson Scott Card's "Empire" for a novelization of the chilling scenario.
You can get a much better quality and tasting maple syrup from New Hampshire. AND you won't have to worry about it being contaminated with a social disease like the stuff from Vermont.
I dream about making it over the wall all of the time.
I had a great vacation in Vermont two years ago. The Ben and Jerry's tour was pretty funny -- a film about how idealistic they were, dedicated to pure ingredients and social responsibility, small businessmen up against the corporate food giants -- and then they sold out to Unilever!
Like many of the moonbats, total phonies.
free dixie,sw
Benjamin Franklin famously replied "A Republic, if you can keep it," when he was asked what they had wrought in 1776. The moonbats substitute "democracy" in letters to the editor citing this quote, I've seen this a second time. It's just sickening.
fyi, should that happy event actually occur, i will make a pilgrimage to the NEW international border to wish them ,"FAREWELL & BYE-BYE"!!!
free dixie,sw
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