Gotcha.  That's some of what I've been hearing out there, when talking to people about their concerns... if they're well off, folks are as yet unwilling to even discuss the subject of secession. They haven't been hurt yet by the general decline.  They'll even agree with my first three Senate campaign points, but are afraid of No. 4:

1. NO further Vermont support for War, Torture…or deployment of VT National Guard. Order the Guard home now.
2. NOT a dime more for Wall Street…Invest VT funds in VT small banks and credit unions for lending here at home.
3. Build a Green Vermont via serious investments in alternative energy, human-food-agriculture, and all local community efforts towards self reliance and town/village life. Clean, green, decent, peaceful & fun. 
4. Start the discussion with all Vermonters re returning our state to the status of a free Independent Republic [as we once were], maintaining free trade & good relations with all other nations of the world. 

...and there's the rub.  Nos. 1 through 3, everything that we hope to achieve in Vermont, can happily be blocked or perverted by a federal government pushing its 'standards' and increasingly desperate economic measures and civil repression onto Vermonters.If you've still got lots of money, the last paragraph may make me sound like a nutjob, a Jeremiah. If you're like most Vermonters, trying like hell to make ends meet as Montpelier cuts essential services; if your kids, parent, spouse (in one case both spouses, leaving the children behind) have been grabbed for Afghanistan, No. 4 begins to make sense! For example, my learned colleagues in the Legislature vote to decommission Vermont Yankee. Entergy can then take Vermont to Federal Court and overturn the decision of our representatives.   Just like that.  An independent Vermont, on the other hand, could take Entergy to international court.  While it wouldn't change the fact that we're gonna be left holding the bag for decommissioning, cleanup (plus the loss of potable groundwater in the region), we'd have a shot a freezing their assets.  Ditto with local food.  How can we achieve anything of significance, with Monsanto and others firmly in control of the federal legislature and supreme court, securing their profits through measures increasingly repressive to local food?A central feature of my campaign is to stop the outflow of money from Vermont, that could be used to restore essential services and develop energy independence.  Most Vermonters can't afford $20,000 solar panels or windmills, but communities can afford them if we're not forced to spend our public money on adhering to federal standards that make no sense except to bureaucrats and lobbyists in DC, or our pension funds in Wall Street. To plug this leak effectively, we need a divorce.We Vermonters are, as George Bush described the Baltic nations Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in 1990, 'Captive Republics'.  We want a divorce, not another Chernobol.In the meantime, organisations such as 350.org are making the same tactical mistake that similar organisations all over the Empire have made: make a discovery, alert the highest powers in the land that changes must be made. Bigwigs jet to Copenhagen, declare victory, actual change gets stonewalled... and if the Peak Oil people are right, what' left of Utah and Alberta's natural beauty will be torn up to satisfy the need to drive the SUV to the next climate change action meeting.  More coal-fired electricity plants will be needed to recharge the hybrid, if you wish to trade in your gas-guzzler.  This way lies madness.  Real change comes not from above, not from a huge, seemingly omnipotent federal government. Change comes from below, from us.  Hope for change comes from small nations, not tied up by large corporations and bureaucracy, to make change today.  Coalitions of these small nations soon follow. It is happening.  Vermont needs to get a divorce and get into the small nations game.  "Due to an historic responsibility for mankind,we decided to summon the First World Conference of the People onClimate Change," says Bolivian President Evo Morales.  Morales urged all leaders of the world'sindigenous ethnic groups, scientists and experts on environmentalissues to attend the Conference, scheduled for April 20-22 inthe central Bolivian city of Cochabamba. This is change!  A Free Vermont also represents hope.