Ian Baldwin, who co-founded Chelsea Green Publishing with the current publisher, Margo Baldwin, is helping spearhead the Vermont secessionist movement. He and fellow secessionist Frank Bryan [1] state their case in yesterday’s Washington Post.

The Once and Future Republic of Vermont

By Ian Baldwin and Frank Bryan
Sunday, April 1, 2007; B01

BURLINGTON, Vt.

The winds of secession are blowing in the Green Mountain State.

Vermont was once an independent republic, and it can be one again. We think the time to make that happen is now. Over the past 50 years, the U.S. government has grown too big, too corrupt and too aggressive toward the world, toward its own citizens and toward local democratic institutions. It has abandoned the democratic vision of its founders and eroded Americans’ fundamental freedoms.

Vermont did not join the Union to become part of an empire.

Some of us therefore seek permission to leave.
[[2] cont’d]