Is it not treason to actively promote secession?
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. ...
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.
This issue was pretty much settled in 1865: states can't leave the Union. Frankly, I think these sorts of secessionists should be prosecuted as traitors if their "plotting" has gone beyond the talking stage and they're organizing to take action.
It's true that America began with a secession from England so the question can be asked: why wouldn't a secession by Vermont from America be as noble? I guess the only real answer is that history is written by the victors, and if you want to secede and we won't let you then you'll have to fight for it, just like America did.
If it were easy we'd all secede!
Let em secede, it'll be hilarious. Maybe all the wacko liberals will go live there. We can then rename Vermont to "Vermin."
DeoDuce, Vermont is another state that's pretty conservative outside Burlington and, uh, whatever the other "big" city is.
I doubt the state has enough resources of whatever types are necessary to make a go of secession, even if it could, and so this will never go anywhere. Various groups have been talking secession for ages.
Well, you look at people who are in office in Vermont. Hello, Stalin.
"If it were easy we'd all secede!"
Meaning... states lose more than they gain from being part of the Union? If so, that's pretty sad.
And seriously, while I sometimes wonder what it would be like if the US split into a country of mostly-liberal states and a country of mostly-conservative states, the truth is the liberals and the conservatives need each other to not get too crazy, to not go too far towards one direction or another. But right now it does seem like the conservatives are getting their way far too often. (Or maybe it just seems that way because I live in California).
WELL, if the US was split into a Conservative Part and a Liberal Part, the Liberal Part wouldn't survive very long. Abortion and homosexuality in the liberal part would slow the birth rates as opposed to the Conservative part, Islamic extremism would take hold because of "fairness and equality," and I'm sure the suicide rate would go up in the Liberal side as well since Liberals tend to be less religious and therefore, less happy with life. There was a study done on that last year, I'll have to look it up.
So, I can conclude that as a conservative, the only reason a liberal wants me around is so that they can throw me under the bus first when it all goes down.
DD: Abortion and homosexuality are not unique to one group, whether the divide is by states or by ideology.
BM: I'm somewhat stunned that you think that conservatives get their way about much of anything at all... especially in California!
Mark: Straw man. No one said "unique" except you.
MW: No, but that's not the point. The point is that the influence wouldn't be terribly significant in one or the other.
"Well, you look at people who are in office in Vermont."
Yeah, coming from Burlington, for example. Again, no surprise--it's a lot like, say, Colorado.
I have an aunt who had a house in Lebanon, NH, not far from the border, around midline of the state. I spent a lot of weekends there as a teenager. NH and VT are pretty conservative places--except for the bigger cities.
As far as secession goes, it must be done by permission of the congress, just like admission is done. Of course, getting that permission might be a bit difficult.
It can't be illegal to advocate secession (free speech), it is just illegal to try to implement without going through the hoops.
In Southern and Eastern Oregon and Northern California, there has long been a movement to secede from their respective states, and form a 51st state called Jackson. The logic being that the metropolitan areas only take from them and don't give anything back. The non urban areas stand a much greater chance of prospering if they are not shackled by the tyranny of the majority in the cities.