Free Ben & Jerry's!

I was born and lived my first few years in Vermont. So it's kind of fun to read up on the state's sometimes strange politics.

The New Republic did a short piece on Vermont's persistent but changing secessionist movement that's worth a read if you like fringey politics.

Vermont was originally a separate Republic, so there have always been a significant group of folks who'd like to see it as one again. The New Republic did this to focus on how the Obama campaign has changed the movement.

Thomas Naylor, a retired Duke economics professor, ascended the podium at an anti-war rally at Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont, shortly before the U.S. invaded Iraq. His speech was filled with the usual leftist rhetoric about the evils of the Bush administration. His solution, however, was far from traditional. It was an idea that he had been developing for about ten years, but had never spoken about in public. "They were shocked, bug-eyed," he tells me, reflecting on the speech. His idea was the peaceful dissolution of empire, beginning with the secession of Vermont from the United States of America.

Five years later, 11.5 percent of Vermonters agree with him, according to the 2008 poll conducted by the University of Vermont's Center for Rural Studies. One out of ten might not seem overwhelming, but Naylor is quick to point out that only about 25 percent of Americans supported secession from England. In the face of much derision and mockery, Naylor has remained resolute that his idea is possible. His organization, the Second Vermont Republic (SVR), has been joined by frustrated '60s activists, bohemian radicals, organic yak farmers, bartenders, college professors, and possibilitarianist puppeteers, all saying the same thing: Vermont would be better on its own.

While I'm much happier with progressive states like Vermont as part of the US, because it gives us great progressive Senators like Bernie Sanders, I do like the earnestness of folks who want to just let Vermont do its own thing.