“Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of [Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness], it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

The Declaration of Independence, 1776

This past April many Vermonters may not have given much thought to the fact that by filling out their taxes they are funding a United States government that has proclaimed global military hegemony, a government that doesn’t even try to conceal its devotion to private-sector interests, a government that has ignored any attempt at curbing major climate change, and a government that is running itself into the ground – and taking the rest of the world with it.    

Uncle Sam with Pistol. 

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  It is time that Vermonters take another look at nonviolent secession from the United States as the most reasonable attempt at dissolving the U.S. Empire and providing the citizens of a 21st century Vermont with a better opportunity for a life of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The U.S. Empire: Military Power

 The United States of America is undoubtedly an empire, and furthermore it is the largest empire that has existed in the history of humankind.  Its military budget exceeds the total military budget of the next 25 nations. As U.S. policy analyst Chalmers Johnson has recently pointed out, “defense-related spending for fiscal 2008 will exceed $1 trillion for the first time in history.” As of 2005, it officially had 737 military bases located on foreign soil, and 2.5 million U.S. military personnel spread across the planet.  Furthermore, the Bush II administration clearly stated that it would resort to force to eliminate any perceived challenges to U.S. hegemony – an audacious claim echoed by the Obama administration.     

The danger of having an aggressive behemoth on the world scene has become apparent after the invasion and subsequent annexation of oil-rich Iraq into The Empire.
    
The U.S. Empire and the Planet

It seems that those in charge of our country have forgotten the basic fact that any economic system that does not benefit the natural community on which it is based is inherently unsustainable.  In Issue 22 of Vermont Commons (“Mud Season,” 2008), Kirkpatrick Sale observed:

Science is in agreement that all the important systems upon which human life depends are in decline and have been for decades: the erosion of top soils and beaches, over-fishing of every ocean fishery, deforestation, freshwater and aquifer depletion, pollution of water, soil, air, and food, overpopulation, over-consumption, depletion of oil and minerals, introduction of new diseases and invigoration of old ones, extreme weather, global warming, rising sea levels, species extinctions [on a scale not seen for millions of years], and human overuse of the earth’s photosynthetic capacity.   

As the global empire and the culture with the highest level of consumption, we are setting the bar of planetary destruction for the rest of the world to follow.  The very habitat of Homo Sapiens Sapiens (and every other life form) is being razed to make way for the “global economy,” and it is our country that is spearheading and cheerleading this effort.  As long as the Empire exists, this trend toward a barren earth will continue.

The U.S. Empire and Capitalism

Since the 1980s, U.S. internal and foreign policy has become dominated by hands-off, “free-trade” advocates, resulting in the axing of social programs and consequently the highest levels of income inequality since the 1920s – right before the Great Depression.  The removal of regulations on financial markets has also allowed for financial speculators to gain an unprecedented hold on the domestic and global economy, allowing them to influence such diverse fields as the housing market, currencies, and most recently food prices.  This unprecedented push toward a socially intolerable and financially unstable consolidation of power has been aided and defended by the U.S. government, at the expense of its own citizens as well as the rest of the world.    

With or without active participation in its demise, the U.S. Empire is on its way out.  Every empire that has ever existed has eventually collapsed or deflated, and ours will prove to be no different, whether the final blow comes from Peak Oil, another great economic depression, or the wholesale collapse of earth’s life-support systems.  Given the destructive nature of this Empire, and the fact that every day that it continues to exist it pushes more and more species to extinction and puts more and more people below the poverty level with the intent of increasing the wealth and power of a small few, we cannot sit around and wait for it to collapse on its own.  We must take it down.    

As one of 50 states in The Empire, Vermont holds some measure of power in and over the United States.  What would happen if our state decided that it had had enough, and left The Empire to form its own nation?  We have governed ourselves before; it is high time we start thinking about it again.

Nonviolent Secession as Direct Action

The citizens of Vermont have elected representatives who consistently speak out against the Iraq war, yet the occupation continues. One of Vermont’s senators has introduced the most progressive climate-change bill in the Senate, yet it is not taken seriously.  Vermont has joined with California in supporting states’ rights to make their own greenhouse-gas emissions laws for automobiles, but legal roadblocks continually pop up to stall the effort.     

It is clear by now that indirect action through representatives will not alter the course of this destructive juggernaut. From 1777 to 1791, the Republic of Vermont “issued its own currency, ran its own postal service, developed its own foreign relations, grew its own food, made its own roads and paid for its own militia,” as Jim Hogue has observed in Vermont Commons.  We can do it again.   

Vermont’s nonviolent secession from the United States of America would serve a dual purpose.  First, it would be a direct action against the U.S. Empire.  The act of Vermont’s citizens collectively standing up and saying “We’ve had enough” would make many U.S. citizens in other states think long and hard about Washington’s legitimacy, inspiring movements for major change across the country.  Secession would also show the rest of the world that there are chinks in America’s armor.  Given the United States’ enormous military, breaking down the Empire from within may be the only feasible option.   

Second, and just as important, Vermont’s nonviolent secession would provide a better life for Vermonters than is currently possible under U.S. domination.  The federal government consistently upholds laws favoring agribusiness at the expense of the family farmer.  The effects of this cannot be overstated; these restrictions choke the life out of local economies and force citizens to depend upon the corporate-controlled, fossil fuel-intensive infrastructure that is lacing our bodies with pesticides, consuming 80 percent of the nation’s fresh water, and providing us with crappy food to boot.  Restrictions on the sale of raw milk, on the small-scale slaughtering of animals, and on growing industrial hemp are thinly veiled attempts at preventing rural economies from developing any measures of self-sufficiency.   

Vermonters should be free to implement whatever kind of health care they desire, without having to answer to Washington.  The same can be said about education, about drug laws, about same-sex marriage, about the death penalty, about abortion rights, and especially about sending their sons and daughters off to fight in an unjust war.  In a February 2008 poll, 77 percent of Vermonters agreed that the United States had lost its moral authority. Why should we be governed by a body without morals or ethics?  The same poll, done by U.V.M.’s Center for Rural Studies, found that 11.5 percent of Vermonters favored secession and the establishment of an independent Vermont republic.  As The Empire of which it is a part of continues to fall apart, those numbers surely will grow.   

Secession is possible. The U.S. Constitution does not forbid withdrawal from The Empire.  According to the Tenth Amendment, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Nowhere in the Constitution or in the state ratification documents is there any renunciation of sovereignty to the national government – which means that states can leave any time they please.  When the Confederate states were in the process of leaving The Empire, three amendments to the U.S. Constitution were proposed that would forbid secession.  These did not pass, which makes it clear that it is fully constitutional to secede.  And when the Empire’s army withdrew from the South, it forced the Confederate states to sign a clause forgoing the right of sovereignty.  This clearly implies that states which have not signed this clause – Vermont being one of them – have the full right to secede.   

Out of all of the 50 states, the transition to self-governance would be easiest in Vermont, where almost all of the state’s 237 towns convene once a year in a town meeting to vote upon issues of importance within the town.  This is direct democracy in action, normal citizens getting together to make decisions for themselves, without lobbyist and special interests getting in the way.     

Our state is enjoying a renaissance of farmers’ markets, farm stands, and farms practicing Community-Supported Agriculture (CSL) – forms of direct sales from farmers to local consumers.  Local food has become part of the culture, as Vermont has the highest volume of direct sales, per capita, in the country.  As oil prices skyrocket, prices of local organic foods will become increasingly competitive with heavily subsidized yet oil-dependent industrial agriculture. When corporate-produced food loses its retail-price advantage, the market share for Vermont products will increase even further.
.

Empire: Possible Reactions to Vermont Secession

Should Vermont secede, the United States would be faced with a number of options, ranging from diplomatic to quite-violent action.  Given that our government is willing to eliminate even “perceived” threats to its power, secessionists should consider and plan for the federal government’s reaction.   

The first potential reaction that comes to mind is invasion or attack.  If the 625,000 people of Vermont sought to leave the Empire, there is a very real possibility of a U.S. military occupation.  Occupation, however, would garner Vermont an enormous amount of international support, and would revolutionize the political scene within our own country.  The cracks in the Empire’s façade of freedom and democracy would become obvious and deepening, as the cultural core and foundation of our country was revealed to be nothing more than political doublespeak.   

Arguably, the most realistic scenario would involve the United States developing a package of economic sanctions and placing some sort of an embargo on Vermont, then leaning on other countries – especially Canada – to also adopt the embargo.  Sanctions would have a profound affect on certain Vermont industries, but they would also force citizens to spend their money in-state (sorry, in-country), giving a boost to our own economy, reinvigorating Vermont agriculture, and creating scores of jobs in the process.   

We are on a sinking ship.  The U.S. Empire is economically, politically, culturally, and especially environmentally unsustainable; and far from fixing itself, it is just getting worse.  When a government that has no moral authority is in possession of enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world many times over, in the position to dominate the global economy for its own interests, and continually places the needs of the “economic system” above the needs of the natural world, the time for action cannot be put off any longer.  Someone, or some entity, needs to stand in front of U.S. “progress” with an enormous red STOP sign.   

Vermont’s exodus will prove to be just that.   

We are an anomaly among the 50 states of the Empire.  We are a peaceful, ecologically responsible, and mostly agrarian state in a country dominated by big business, industrial agriculture, and swollen, impersonal governance.  It is time that we once again step up to the world stage and return to being a self-governing republic.     

On behalf of the citizens of Republic of Vermont, I would like to say, “Thanks for the hospitality, Uncle Sam.  The past 217 years have had their ups and downs, and after a long time together we will now be on our way.  We bid you adieu.”