The New York Sun reports on the Middlebury Institute. A think tank devoted to the study of separatism, secession, and self-determination that is planning the First North American Secessionist Convention in Burlington, Vt.
According to the Middlebury Institute web site, responses have come in from “Hawaii Nation, Alaska Independence Party, League of the South and several of its chapters, Southern National Congress Committee, Southern Caucus, Christian Exodus, New State Movement, Puerto Rico Independence Party, Parti Quebecois, the State of Jefferson, and the Second Vermont Republic.”
A strong response has also come from secession supporters in “Cascadia” (Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia) and “Delmarva” (Delaware, Maryland, and the Virginia Peninsula), among other areas.
In an article in Adbusters magazine, the director of the institute, Kirkpatrick Sale, wrote:
“For one thing, as hurricane Katrina has glaringly shown, the Federal government is a clumsy, bureaucratic, politicized, and insensitive instrument (and as the rebuilding will show, corrupt as well), and states and localities that give themselves over to depending on it are in real trouble.”
Noting the tradition of secession in American history, Mr. Sale told the Sun that he doesn’t know why it should be impractical for Vermont to secede. “The first group of secessionists [were] the Founding Fathers,” he said. “The American Revolution was in fact a secession from the United Kingdom.”
Not to mention the problems with the legality of Hawaiian, Alaskan, Californian, and Texan statehood under the strict letter of the law. And, of course, Lincoln’s illegal reconquering of the south in 1861.
