Charles Sheehan-Miles

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Sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction

Ok, so here's the deal. The biggest, most difficult idea to swallow in Republic is the idea that in the modern day, an actual secessionist movement from the United States could gain any adherents at all. I spent a lot of time in the book trying to make that concept both believable and realistic. Turns out, some folks in Vermont beat me to it.

Take a look at this article in the Boston Globe, which describes the nascent secessionist movement in Vermont.

But the idea has found plenty of sympathetic ears in Vermont, a left-leaning state that said yes to civil unions, no to slavery (before any other) and last year elected a socialist to the U.S. Senate.

About 300 people turned out for a 2005 secession convention in the Statehouse, and plans for a second one are in the works. A poll this year by the University of Vermont's Center for Rural Studies found that 13 percent of those surveyed support secession, up from 8 percent a year before.

"The argument for secession is that the U.S. has become an empire that is essentially ungovernable -- it's too big, it's too corrupt and it no longer serves the needs of its citizens," said Rob Williams, editor of Vermont Commons, a quarterly newspaper dedicated to secession.

Scary? Maybe. But I'll be sending them a copy of the book.

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