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sandmountainslim

Separatists unite in their desire to break it off

By Paul Nussbaum
The Philadelphia Inquirer

BURLINGTON, Vt. — Separatists, unite!

That was the pitch last weekend by neo-Confederates, New England free-staters, Hawaiian nationalists and a clutch of other dissenters who want out of the United States.

The First North American Secessionist Convention, billed as the first national gathering of secessionists since the Civil War, included an eclectic mix of conservatives, liberals, libertarians, left-wing Green Party zealots and right-wing Christian activists.

The denim-vested representative of the Alaskan Independence Party sat next to the United Texas Republic man in his gray suit and red tie, just across from the blond pony-tailed representative of Cascadia (better known as Oregon, Washington and British Columbia).

They joined members of such disparate groups as the League of the South, the Confederate Legion, the Free State Project, Christian Exodus, Free Hawaii, the Alliance for Democracy and the Center for Democracy and the Constitution.

All agreed on one thing: their disdain for "the empire" of modern America.

The latter-day separatists inveighed against government intrusion, the influence of corporations and the loss of individual freedoms. They castigated the Patriot Act, the war in Iraq and corruption in Congress.

"Reform is useless. Rebellion and revolution are useless," said Kirkpatrick Sale, a New York author who organized the session. "What is left? Secession."

But what about that annoying precedent of the Civil War?

That is a problem, the secessionists acknowledged.

"Abraham Lincoln really did a number on us," said Thomas Naylor, a former Duke University economics professor who is a leader of the Second Vermont Republic movement. "He convinced the vast majority of Americans that secession is illegal, immoral and unconstitutional."

At the moment, most Americans show little interest in divorcing their government. Even here in Vermont, home of one of the most active secessionist movements, only 8 percent of residents said in a recent University of Vermont poll that they favored secession.

The separatists see hope in the widespread citizen dissatisfaction with Washington. And they predict that global political unrest and natural disasters may soon push disaffected Americans toward the exit. It's only a matter of time, they insist, before the federal government will have to let its people go.

"We have to make secession sexy, we have to make it a viable option, as it was in the first 70 years of this country's history," said Rob Williams, a Champlain College history professor who is a leader of the Second Vermont Republic, which advocates for Vermont independence. "Secession is every American's birthright."

Don Kennedy, the Louisiana author of "The South Was Right," wore his gray Confederate greatcoat, which he usually reserves for Civil War re-enactments. Kennedy, a leader of the League of the South, said that was as close as he intended to get to civil war.

"We're not going to repeat that," he said. The 12-year-old League of the South has been accused by the Southern Poverty Law Center of being a white-supremacist "hate group," which the League denies.

Race was only one issue where the Southern and Northern separatists showed strains beneath their common goal. Mark Thomey, of the Louisiana chapter of the league, said an independent South would not permit abortion on demand, gun control or open borders, and would not take the Ten Commandments out of courthouses.

Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationw
orld/2003365324_separatists08.html

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William Potter
ScotWatch International
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Jefferson Republican Party
http://jeffersonrepublicanparty.com
http://jeffersonrepublican.blogspot.com/

sandmountainslim · Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 12:54 am Post subject:

The story acts like it is a "big deal" and surprising for Green Party members and League of the South members to sit side by side in protest of Billy Empire.
It is NOT surprising. The Alabama Green Party have worked with both the ACP and JRP, Alabama on several occasions when mutual benefit is involved.
Just because Confederates/Jeffersonians disagree politically with Greenies does not mean we cannot and do not do what we can to get equal rights and ballot access for one another.
WP
_________________
William Potter
ScotWatch International
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scotwatch/
Jefferson Republican Party
http://jeffersonrepublicanparty.com
http://jeffersonrepublican.blogspot.com/

SLG · Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 11:16 am Post subject:

Fascinating sandmountainslim. Sounds like folk are getting organised and it's really important that the different movements work together on this.

sandmountainslim · Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 12:14 pm Post subject:

Avatar · Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 4:48 pm Post subject:

I had no idea there was such a movement going over there, I think we will begin to see the collapse of large power states this century as we begin to move towards the idea of smaller cooperative states. A welcome change Smile

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Theresa · Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 4:05 am Post subject:

I also had no idea that a secessionist movement was going on here in the States. Seems like the ultimate vote of "no confidence" in a country that is poorly lead and viciously divided in its politics. Should be interesting to see what happens now that we have a Republican president and a Democrat congress . . . Confused

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