Being from Vermont, I have always been entertained by my home state's secessionist movement. I have never examined its tenets, but found its self-seriousness to be humorous and endearing. I always assumed that it was based solely on a libertarian, if somewhat granola, platform, and its website does nothing but bolster that view. But according to the AP, some of the leaders of that movement are holding a "Secessionist Convention" with members of the League of the South, a Southern secessionist group. Here is what the Southern Poverty Law Center has to say about the League. It quotes the leader of the League as saying:
[I]t is time we demand that respectable members of the 'minority community' control their debased 'brothers and sisters.' If they refuse, then we can only believe that they secretly condone such behavior. Let us not flinch when our enemies call us 'racists'; rather, just reply with, 'So, what's your point?'What does the Second Vermont Republic have to say about the controversy and the League's racism: Its leader, Thomas Naylor attacks, not the League, but the SPLC, describing it as
a well known McCarthy-like group of mercenaries based in Montgomery, Alabama, who routinely engage in ideologically driven witch hunts and smear campaigns on behalf of their wealthy, techno-fascist clients.Just take a look at the SPLC's award-winning program "Teaching Tolerance." I wonder why Mr. Naylor feels a need to make such injudicious remarks about a widely respected organization that is known for supporting the public good. As this article demonstrates, the relationship between the Second Vermont Republic and the League of the South is extremely troubling. I'm not so entertained anymore.
3 comments:
I'm so glad my own secessionist organization, the Popular Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of the Republic of California (PRFLRC), didn't accept the invitation. Would my face have been red.
I'm thinking about shortening the name. But, a dissident faction has already taken the name Popular Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of California (PRFLC). &$%#-ing splitters!
Wow, for a moment I thought that Vermont might actually have a Libertarian party. Imagine my disappointment when I read the articles you referenced
I'd originally started a blog to examine this very topic, secession in Vermont.
The writings and pedigrees of some of the advisory board members was what first struck me as odd for a group seeking to lead Vermonters onto a new path. As I learned more it became clearer and clearer that Thomas Naylor's group was all part of the same old earlier neo-Confederate organizations and figures, now being dressed up as some crunchie Vermont group. Fact is, Naylor runs the organization, such as it is, with an iron fist. Dissenters in the organization to his odd reactions to my revelations about his connections to some really awful people were dismissed.
His recent interview on a hate radio program is quite revealing. And as a result of my posting about that there was an apparent orchestrated comment barrage at my site where a number of menacing comments were made regarding an SPLC leader and his family.
http://vermontsecession.blogspot.com/
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