And Mr. Beck seems surprisingly lucid and thoughtful this evening.

Here's a transcript of the conversation.

And here's what missing from the discussion:

1. The United States is no longer a republic, but an Empire, run by multinationals and unaccountable to its own citizens. The Empire is unreformable, unfixable.

2. Nonviolent secession is a deeply American legal and constitutional response to the above, and secession as a regional movement was pioneered in 19th century New England (not in the South, as some left-leaning Vermont blogospheric blowhards would have you believe.)

3. 21st century Vermonters may better be able to feed, power, educate, and entertain themselves as an independent republic, working in concert with the rest of the world, than as one of fifty states in the U.S. Empire, which is ultimately unsustainable.