Rumblings from the Blue States

Earlier this week I posted a story about a neo-con commentator expressing concern about the "Monster in the backyard", an excitable little treatise about how dangerous the Canadian border is for the USA. The author one Warner Todd Huston rambled on about how Canada could be a launching pad for troublesome times in the USA.

Well if Mr. Huston is concerned about Canada, he'd going to be positively apoplectic about Vermont. The Northern State (which I'm sure Mr. Huston would note is on the Canadian border), which is decidedly in the Blue camp, is apparently the home of a nascent independence movement. It seems that last week a group of 400 like minded self described "freedom fighters" met at the Vermont legislature to discuss what they called the neo-con takeover of their country.

The group which were not elected officials, but rather concerned citizens gathered for the debate at the State Capitol in Montpelier, Vermont. Armed with copies of the declaration of Independence, those in favour of secession highlighted a clause that summed up their beliefs to the word.

"Whenever any form of government becomes destructive, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it and to institute new government" Those gathered, feeling that the neo-con agenda is not in the best interests of America, then voted on a resolution that stated "Be it resolved that the state of Vermont peacefully and democratically free itself from the United States of America and return to its natural status as an independent republic as it was between January 15, 1777 and March 4, 1791."

It apparently is the first such resolution since May 20, 1861 when North Carolina voted to leave the Union.

Now nobody is actually taking the resolution to heart, a small band of 400 constitutional zealots is not about to reduce the number of states in the Union by one. But the group does have big dreams, they have a blue print of an independent Nation, of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, sandwiched between the neo-con America to the south and our own little peaceable kingdom (well in between referendums anyways) to the North.

I doubt if Mr. Bush will have to ready the troops to reign in the dissent just yet, but for neo-cons like Mr. Huston it is a timely warning. Many of those in the Red States won't be surprised by the developments in the far north, there's always suspicions about the way they think that close to the tundra. But the development in Vermont is something to take note of, it's a sign that not everyone is signing on with the neo con agenda and there seems to be a constant current of concern over their plans and the fallout from them.

Mr. Huston had best stop looking at the Canadian backyard, it seems to me that his problems are a lot closer to home!