Comments on: Made in Vermont

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:21:30 +0000

Great article in the beginning, but you lost me with the anti-civil union talk. Were the anti-abolitionists in Vermont “acting in a long Vermont tradition of resistance to centralized tyranny?”

Civil unions are a demonstration of the type of individual freedom that is ostensibly extolled in this article.

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:30:26 +0000

As another native Vermonter (and high school mate of Mr. West above) I also appreciated this article.

On a side note: Although those “Take Back Vermont” signs (one of which I still have) gained popularity during the debate over civil unions, they originated a couple years earlier in resistance to the passage of Act 60, which took away the ability of the towns to set their own property tax rates, instead imposing a uniform rate on the entire state. As with civil unions, this was also the result of a Vermont Supreme Court decision.

By: N. P. West

N. P. West — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:37:58 +0000

As a native Vermonter who is friends with Frank (he serves on the Advisory Council to the conservative Lyceum Society of Vermont of which I am moderator) I really appreciated this post. Your readers might also like the article Frank wrote on Vermont icon Ralph Nading Hill for The University Bookman (the issue in question I believe was guest edited by Bill Kauffman).

We don’t have town meeting in the city where I live but Town Meeting Day is still celebrated.

By: Sean Scallon

Sean Scallon — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:57:20 +0000

Thank you Bill Kauffman for capturing the true spirit of Vermont in your essay and brining it to a wider auidence. Vermont and a website like Front Porch Republic just have to get together.

I find myself sympathetic to Vermont secession becasue such a move would protect the real Vermont homeland from the globalists. The Left may like the Vermont of image but they would not like the Vermont of acuality which makes them no different than the Wal-Mart despoilers.

Only a free Vermont can keep such polluters out and encourage localists and decentralists everywhere, not that they would wish the secession of their own regionals (which in home state of Wisconsin would never, ever happen) that restoring true power to their communities is possible.

By: Reg Cæsar

Reg Cæsar — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:30:25 +0000

This brought to mind one of my favorite regionalist books, “Real Vermonters Don’t Milk Goats”. Then it clicked– déjà VT? I ran to the bookshelf, and indeed (or is it “ayuh”?), there’s Frank Bryan’s name, along with Bill Mares’s, on the cover.

That book had its genesis at the Oasis, in “…Burlington, a large city that has the advantage of being very close to the Vermont border.”

By: Dylan Hales

Dylan Hales — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 03:35:51 +0000

Brilliant essay. I have yet to read Real Democracy, but The Vermont Papers is one of my favorite books.

By: Nathan P. Origer

Nathan P. Origer — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 03:15:45 +0000

Mr. Kauffman, thanks for this wonderful piece!

I hate to make use of the comment box for personal reasons, but is it possible that you could either provide an e-mail address at which I could reach your, or contact me directly at nporiger@gmail.com? I’m interested, possibly, depending on circumstances, in inviting you to a yet-to-be-arranged talk at the U. of Maryland to coincide with the potential reprinting of Dylan Hales’ review of Forgotten Founder, Drunken Prophet in the student-run paper that I run on campus.

Thank you.