Posted on 10/03/2007 6:23:44 AM PDT by free_life
Charleston Daily Mail Secessionists from South and New England to meet
The Associated Press
Wednesday October 03, 2007
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- In an unlikely marriage of desire to secede from the United States, two advocacy groups from opposite political traditions -- New England and the South -- are sitting down to talk.
Tired of foreign wars and what they consider right-wing courts, the Middlebury Institute wants liberal states like Vermont to be able to secede peacefully.
That sounds just fine to the League of the South, a conservative group that refuses to give up on Southern independence.
"We believe that an independent South, or Hawaii, Alaska, or Vermont would be better able to serve the interest of everybody, regardless of race or ethnicity," said Michael Hill of Killen, Ala., president of the League of the South.
Separated by hundreds of miles and divergent political philosophies, the Middlebury Institute and the League of the South are hosting a two-day Secessionist Convention starting today in Chattanooga.
They expect to attract supporters from California, Alaska and Hawaii, inviting anyone who wants to dissolve the Union so states can save themselves from an overbearing federal government.
If allowed to go their own way, New Englanders "probably would allow abortion and have gun control," Hill said, while Southerners "would probably crack down on illegal immigration harder than it is being now."
The U.S. Constitution does not explicitly prohibit secession, but few people think it is politically viable.
Vermont, one of the nation's most liberal states, has become a hotbed for liberal secessionists, a fringe movement that gained new traction because of the Iraq war, rising oil prices and the formation of several pro-secession groups.
Thomas Naylor, the founder of one of those groups, the Second Vermont Republic, said the friendly relationship with the League of the South doesn't mean everyone shares all the same beliefs.
But Naylor, a retired Duke University professor, said the League of the South shares his group's opposition to the federal government and the need to pursue secession.
"It doesn't matter if our next president is Condoleeza (Rice) or Hillary (Clinton), it is going to be grim," said Naylor, adding that there are secessionist movements in more than 25 states, including Hawaii, Alaska, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Texas.
The Middlebury Institute, based in Cold Spring, N.Y., was started in 2005. Its followers, disillusioned by the Iraq war and federal imperialism, share the idea of states becoming independent republics. They contend their movement is growing.
The first North American Separatist Convention was held last fall in Vermont, which, unlike most Southern states, supports civil unions. Voters there elected a socialist to the U.S. Senate.
Maybe Vermont should try just one year without paying any federal taxes or collecting any federal highway money, education money or HHS money and just see how it goes for them.
They're protected by the fact that most Canadians don't want them.
And this would be different how?
What year this is?
I’m a Southerner but I think the League of the South is full of KOOKS.
And here I was worried someone would correct me by saying “not a republic! a monarchy!”
send Biden to mediate
Secessionitis has returned?
Don’t tell me we’re going to have to burn Atlanta again.
spoken like another Yankee know it all. You probably have a Franken ‘08 sign up in your yard already.
True that. Most people don't realize there are two wholly-separate cultures in Vermont: an extremely liberal one, and an extremely old-school, backwoods individualist-type one.
And us Border Ruffians here in Missouri think those Kansans have been getting kinda uppity here lately.
Unfortunately we don’t have enough of them, especially in the east. One of the downsides of having a mostly urban population.
yea but sometimes I think the there are more people than we think who understand Freedom and Liberty but our voices get drowned out by the communist funded media. I often wonder what Russia is doing with its immense oil and natural gas money because it sure as hell isn’t going to provide economy for its people. My guess is some of it is going into propaganda that you can read or watch in the Guardian, NYT, LAT, Reuters, Associated Press, Stars and Stripes etc. I just don’t believe that the school of Marx, the Frankfurt school and the likes have given up on destroying Capitalism and human freedom to instill an engineered society complete with Orwellian freedoms. etc
You'll never guess which Presidential candidate speaks for affiliated groups?
I suspect that a lot of money is flowing from Saudi Arabia to the mainstream media. I’ve heard that rabidly anti-Bush columnist Eric Margolis is on the Kingdom’s payroll.
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