Whither Secession in Vermont

Fox News continues its secessionist flirtations with an interview by Glenn Beck of Thomas Naylor, co-founder of The Second Vermont Republic.

Mr. Naylor reiterates the 12 percent support for secession in Vermont translating into 60,000 registered voters. There is a large chasm to leap between the endorsement of an idea and its support. Sam Young, the acknowledged secessionist gubernatorial candidate in Vermont during the '08 elections drew 0.8 percent (2,466 votes).

There is a glaring disconnect here. Questions to be asked are: Why does the disconnect exist? How can it be resolved?

Part of the problem may lie in the fact that, as of yet, there is no real secessionist political platform and policies that can be offered to the voting public. Waiting for Republicrats to seize the secessionist initiative is self-defeating. As such, the creation of a secessionist party, as proposed by the Green Mountain Brigade in Vermont, may prove the way to go. The SVR is on record as opposing such a development. Such a party would translate into a concrete alternative for the electorate to entertain. Via such a political vehicle, the 12 percent, if it actually exists, may step out from the shadows knowing that its support would actually translate into true State legislative representation.

If the 12 percent support really does exist then the paper revolutionaries in Vermont owe it to those citizens to organize politically around their support, as opposed to leaving them dangling in the wind. With a first-across-the-line voting system, parliamentary representation, and multiple parties (at the State level) to not crunch the numbers and to not enter the electoral fray in a wisely-targeted electoral district with a distinctive secessionist party brings Tallyrand to mind: “It is worse than a crime, it is a mistake.” The same electoral dynamics apply for a couple of Southern states and especially for Texas. For the latter, we have had that discussion in this space before.

This particular revolution will not be a re-enactment of a sixties love-in. Each geographical jurisdiction carries the responsibility to safeguard and promote its own and unique autonomy. Vermont’s business is Vermont’s business. However, until such time as the secessionist struggle goes political then it is all just make-believe. As we have known all along, some will get it right, some will get it wrong, and some won’t get it at all.

As for the interview itself, the same applies here as to last week’s WSJ article, Divided We Stand. NAmerican secessionists will have to tweak their media savvy. It always helps to know who is playing whom…and to whose advantage.

The stakes are growing in leaps and bounds.

Divided We Stand: Addendum

It would seem that the secessionist community has gone ga-ga over the WSJ exposure, Divided We Stand, by Paul Starobin. In predictable, politically short-sighted fashion, little concern has been shown to what might lie beneath the surface, i.e. things are never as they seem.

My original take on the article was: Why this? Why now? And why via the WSJ? My most concrete thought is directly related to Post-Peak Oil collapse, i.e. with a financially bankrupt federal state, the public is being prepped on the federal state having to bail out, ergo my entire notion of secession-by-default. This particular take on secession makes me a bit of a freak even within the secessionist community. With all due respect to my States' Rights colleagues, the clamp-down on individual freedoms is a symptom of a greater cause. The cause, the social driver of socio-political devolution is the entry onto the depletion slope of Post-Peak Oil and the shattering of social institutions that will accompany this historical collapse and transition.


As pointed out by Chris Hedges in The American Empire Is Bankrupt:
It is the first formal step by our major trading partners to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. If they succeed, the dollar will dramatically plummet in value, the cost of imports, including oil, will skyrocket, interest rates will climb and jobs will hemorrhage at a rate that will make the last few months look like boom times. State and federal services will be reduced or shut down for lack of funds. The United States will begin to resemble the Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe. Obama, endowed by many with the qualities of a savior, will suddenly look pitiful, inept and weak. And the rage that has kindled a handful of shootings and hate crimes in the past few weeks will engulf vast segments of a disenfranchised and bewildered working and middle class. The people of this class will demand vengeance, radical change, order and moral renewal, which an array of proto-fascists, from the Christian right to the goons who disseminate hate talk on Fox News, will assure the country they will impose.

It would seem that it was no accident that the WSJ article appeared when it did and where it did. As a complimentary article to the Hedges article, see:
De-Dollarization: Dismantling America’s Financial-Military Empire, by Prof. Michael Hudson.
Over the course of the coming years secessionists will need to be wary as to who is setting the agenda and to who is establishing the filters through which information is sifted. We cannot and must not allow the secessionist movement to be framed by our adversaries. To do so would merely render us as useful idiots, obedient lap dogs unwittingly serving a greater, globalist agenda. One need simply look at the example of how the Green movement has been co-opted for such purpose.

That secessionist organizations will be infiltrated by COINTELPRO's should come as no surprise. If the movement is legitimate, this is par for the course. To borrow from previous historical examples, the challenge will be to flush out the infiltrators and turn them! We will need to be wary of who is playing whom and to whose advantage. Who is the dog, who is the tail, and who is wagging whom?

Only a legitimate, continental secessionist organization with an Executive elected by the constiuency that it purports to represent can, rightly or wrongly, assume such responsibilities.

Novacadia Premiers in the Wall Street Journal

To-day the Wall Street Journal ran an article by Paul Starobin, Divided We Stand. The article deals with a hypothetical redrawing of the North American political map. Mention is made of Novacadia and it is identified on a pop-up map.

My sensation is one of awe and gratitude, as it was me who coined the term "Novacadia."
On April 6, 2008 I placed a call to Thomas Naylor, founder of the Second Vermont Republic, and ran the idea past him. He had no problem with it. On April 8, 2008 I sent an email to Kirkpatrick Sale of The Middlebury Institute and Burt Cohen who had interviewed me for his Portside radio program in New Hampshire. The email reads verbatim:

Gentlemen:

Please see attached word doc. I discussed this shift with Thomas on the week-end. He had no problem with it. As I have had a few days to toss it around and put things to paper, I shall fax a copy of the attached word doc to him to-day. The spark for this shift came from a tactical disagreement I had with Jonathan Dean of the Atlantica Party several days ago, IMO, nothing more than a pretense to squeeze me out. Cutting bait with the AP is all for the better anyway. Now things will be out in the open on a very clean slate where I can push my own personal envelope...and a true secessionist agenda at the provincial level.

Kirk: Please make appropriate change from Atlantica Alliance to Novacadia Network on the Questionnaire for Registry which I sent to you yesterday. Nothing has been lost over the one-week lifespan of the AA. Hits to the site were minimal. For those who have visited, they will be re-directed to http://www.novacadia.org/. The domain change will hopefully be in place by day's end. You will note that I have also fired up a dedicated gmail account.

Burt: If you can somehow squeeze in a plug for the Novacadia Network site prior to Thursday's broadcast that would be great and, again, nothing has been lost during the short lifespan of the AA. Actually, not having plugged it during the original broadcast now comes in as an asset.

I would appreciate your feedback on the rationale for making this shift. Thanks for your attention. Later.

Sebastian


The attached Word doc referenced to in the email reads as follows:
Political Mandate and Identity Shift to The Novacadia Independence Party, Rationale for

Distance and differentiate from Atlantica Party
The Atlantica Party is somewhat soft on Maritime Union (a political necessity prior to secession as a unified region)
The Atlantica Party’s motive/premise for Maritime Union is to foster greater economic prosperity for the Maritimes
The motive/premise for Maritime Union of the Novacadia Independence Party is diametrically opposed to Atlantica Party’s position, as it is politically misleading within the context of “owning” the economic and social consequences of Peak Oil and incorporating such into party constitution and policies
Atlantica Party identified by the public with the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS), if valid or not does not matter
In the public mind, AIMS is the front organization/think tank for a right wing, corporatist agenda
The Atlantica Party’s constant denial that it is not affiliated with AIMS hardly negates the fact that it is one of the first questions asked of it
Rightly or wrongly, the perception of affiliation exists
Lastly, in spite of the Atlantica Party’s constant refutation of affiliation with AIMS, that it in fact may be a shill for AIMS is quite probable
Although the “marketing baggage” for the Atlantica Party at this stage is minimal, it can only increase rather than decrease; it is barely out of the gate and having to deal with a serious political liability
Rather than work with a hidden agenda within the Atlantica Party, take the secessionist initiative on the provincial level to the fore, i.e. the high ground, and position the secessionist initiative for the public to clearly see, contemplate, and decide to support or not (“no secrets” is a much stronger and more ethical tactic than “hidden agenda”)
Will make for several interesting years on the Nova Scotia and Maritime political fringes (Novacadia Independence Party, Atlantica Party, Green Party)
There’s certainly nothing wrong with some good old competition
I am confident that, over time, support can be weaned from both the Atlantica Party and the Greens
If I did not believe that the Novacadia Independence Party will come out on top after several years of ideological street fighting, then I would not bother putting this initiative into the world
Meet SVR halfway with its proposal for New Acadia; makes for a sincere and concrete diplomatic gesture that may hold great media appeal at the conference
Novacadia, as an identity, speaks politically to both Scottish and French history and heritage in The Maritimes, ergo a hybrid identity incorporating Nova Scotia and Acadia
Until such time as the Novacadia Independence Party is up and running, use the organizational tool of the Novacadia Network with which to promote, i.e. shift from Atlantica Alliance to Novacadia Network (tentative domain name change by my server has already been approved)
As “peak oil and hard political action” will be one of the major themes of my presentation at the conference, the Novacadia Independence Party serves as a regional political entity and prototype for delegates to consider to further their own secessionist agendas
With this initiative I cross a personal Rubicon, thus forcing me to own it fully and assume responsibility at the highest levels of my own political conduct

So in the span of 14 months the notion of Novacadia has gone from idea to the pages of the WSJ. The political designation of Novacadia was officially introduced at the Third North American Secession Convention last November in Manchester, New Hampshire via my paper and presentation, Post-Peak Oil and NAmerican Regional Secession. Since the convention, two blogs and a web site have been dedicated to the idea of Novacadia, plus a Facebook page has recently been launched. During the winter a probe went out to New England secessionists for a Novacadia conference in the spring. There was no interest. It seemed that focus was going towards creating the Switzerland of North America. Outreach in the Maritimes is ongoing, though slowly and carefully. A discussion on the role of the monarchy in Canada is here, after all, still legitimate political discourse.

It is for such reasons that I find it odd that, when quoted in the WSJ article, Kirkpatrick Sale would say that the idea of Novacadia, "did not actually evolve into very much."

Hosting my position paper on the Middlebury Institute site might alleviate that, although that would compete with other secessionist interpretations. The guess is ventured that showing some courage and decency by the Vermont Commons editorial board against one stringent voice might alleviate that. Making the slightest of dents in one's American exceptionalism might alleviate that. Pointing the writer of the WSJ article towards the founder of Novacadia might have alleviated it even more.

“Did not actually evolve into very much!” I mean honestly, what kind of a politically and diplomatically asinine comment is that to make by the self-anointed, go-to guy for the NAmerican secessionist movement?

Paul Starobin, the writer of the article, states, “The Middlebury Institute, a group that studies and supports the general cause of separatism and secessionism in the U.S., has held three Secession Congresses since its founding in 2004.”

I doubt if the term “Secession Congresses” dropped into Mr. Starobin’s mind out of the blue. It has already been pointed out that the Middlebury Institute went out of its way to bill its events as “conventions.” Now that concrete plans are underway to hold the inaugural meeting of the proposed North American Secessionist Congress in 2010, backtracking and a re-writing of history to make Joe Stalin proud is all in vain.

If it quacks like a thief, then odds are, it’s a thief.

Alas, contrary to Mr. Sales' pedestrian and myopic secessionist agenda, the geographical designation of Novacadia is doing just fine, thanks very much, all things considered. We're in the WSJ! It only took 14 months to get there! And no one, no one who has not earned it deserves any credit for it being there.

During times of intellectual revolution great and courageous perceptions and statements will occur, as will the small and petty. The onus falls on the pioneers who congregate around a movement to determine who makes which, from which motives, and towards which ends.
We make our beds, and then we get to sleep in them.