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Yes. The people are very libertarian. My parents go way back past the founding of the state. They're both registered Republican. They both go to a (theologically strict) church. Yet they both shrugged and had no problem with the "civil union" law because their point of view is: what individuals do is not the government's business. Very strong libertarianism. Remember, Vermont was a separate republic for 14 years before it even joined the union. And we pretty much were playing the French against the British and doing a lot of drinking while shooting during the revolutionary wary. We've always had a touch of Australia in our attitude, if you will. So a part of it is a really strong core of libertarianism.

As to why it's so liberal, that's a recent phenom of the last 40 years. Vermont used to be very agrarian and grassroots conservative -- scrabble poor conservative. Never so much as New Hampshire (which was where the richer landed gentry, the fancy-pants conservatives lived, and where we stole their land to form our state). But when the farms died out, tourism and colleges became predominant industries in our state. That brought in rich liberals from places like -- gasp -- Connecticut. So very many people who live in Vermont now weren't born there.

Finally, Vermonters just don't like national parties. We have, at least in the past, always tried to find consensus with our neighbors. Partisanship and suing people was considered rude -- or at least not being a "good neighbor" -- if you carried it too far. Sure, you weren't a proper Vermonter if you didn't get upset about some issue and do a little protest of one with your sign on the corner of where the 2 main streets in your town intersect. Sure, there are lots of angry letters to the local paper. But in the end, people tried to get together on a resolution -- as you might expect in an agrarian community where people have to help each other.

A good example is environmentalism: Vermont Republicans always thought that environmentalism done right was a good thing. My Dad helped to right Act 250 and he was big in the Republican party. He'd always vote Republican on everything in the state senate except on environmental matters. The national Republican party people called him up one day and threatened to campaign against him in the primary at the next election if he didn't start towing the line. I know they did: I heard my father's end of the telephone conversation. He said gleefully: "You just do that!! People here don't like the national professional politicians, I'll clean up if you do that!!" And that's exactly what happened.

Now, you can say that's a good thing or a bad thing. But that's the kind of discipline-less libertarianism that runs rampant in the state.

Looking at the last 40 years, you could argue that that kinda attitude let Vermont wide-open to wholesale liberal immigration by people who played politics in a more hardball fashion. And that my father's less disciplined and neighborly approach fell by the wayside. Oh, don't doubt my Dad's conservative credentials: on most issues, he definitely was. But he didn't play political hardball.

The Vermont of my childhood is no more. Bernie Sanders is personally popular -- I don't think most Vermonters agree with him politically. It's not *that* bad. And combined with the liberalism there is still the libertarianism. But it's pretty bad. I guess the good news is that the state never did have much $ and you can't make a really good living there (that's why I live in DC but will retire in VT) on just brains and hard work. Passable, but not really good living. Calvin Coolidge once said, "Our people are Vermont's best export." It's true. The bright young people have to leave. And the rich retired people come. And the place gets less and less local.

This political revolution can easily occur in a state as small as Vermont -- about a million people. Remember, you can't build above a certain altitude in the state, so there's a lot of land that's not habitable. The place is only so big and the economy is only so stable. When liberals with $ come here, they're listened to.

Vermont's being sold out from under us.

BTW, thinking about the road to grandmother's house. I would have to say that the walk to my public library was precious to me. I loved that beautiful library.