Lately we’ve been standing dumbstruck at the edges of the media celebration of vaunted American democracy in action as caucuses organize energy back into the the suffocating binary of U.S. electoral politics. Mr. Ketcham does well to bring us this timely reminder of other ways to be–necessary reconceptualizations of the U.S. possibility. Vermont’s political and environmental exceptionalism pings an ominous note against the condition of other states to acclimate to new political geographies. As the article also reminds us, the notions of independence-minded Green Mountain folks reverberate darkly in the hearts of those who hold secession as a fundamentally American tool to conceal older race hatreds and fears of difference.

However, the issues of scale and the implementation of policies, ways of doing and living, that are good for the local land and the people who share it need to be made central to our debates. The war in Iraq and the refusal of the government to withdraw there, the recent EPA decision to refuse California’s proposed environmental regulations are examples of systemic maladies that require a cure likely involving some drastic reduction in the vast, naturalized sweep of what paints itself as the national government. We are confronted with Wal-Mart’s methods for economic colonialism that heeds no national borders while simultaneously facing violent nationalist, anti-immigration rhetoric and actions evolved from this same old capitalist necessity of disenfranchisement. Americans are increasingly forced to buy from the very commercial powers that are profiting from weakened local self-determination and the widespread displacement of people into the whirlpools of cheap and cheaper labor markets.

The need for us all to resist this plague of fiscal and political agglomeration is readily apparent. It is crucial for us to have farms that are defensible against agri-business and communities with the collective power to legislate protections and wise-use policies apart from distant powers that are largely unaccountable. Secession may be a radical step but certainly the logic stirs much-needed hope. Vermont stands as a model though of state’s power in some respects, but without dismantling the national super-structure, states such as North Carolina can never hope for such autonomy as they exist as the physical sites of national military power.

Secession is alluring, but I tremble to think of the massive upheavals it might also produce as factions seize power and threats, real or perceived, are leveled at other groups. How do we navigate ourselves into a more hopeful place without the looming danger of massive violence visited back upon us in as recompense for our own hubris and lust?

Lately we’ve been standing dumbstruck at the edges of the media celebration of vaunted American democracy in action as caucuses organize energy back into the the suffocating binary of U.S. electoral politics. Mr. Ketcham does well to bring us this timely reminder of other ways to be–necessary reconceptualizations of the U.S. possibility. Vermont’s political and environmental exceptionalism pings an ominous note against the condition of other states to acclimate to new political geographies. As the article also reminds us, the notions of independence-minded Green Mountain folks reverberate darkly in the hearts of those who hold secession as a fundamentally American tool to conceal older race hatreds and fears of difference.

However, the issues of scale and the implementation of policies, ways of doing and living, that are good for the local land and the people who share it need to be made central to our debates. The war in Iraq and the refusal of the government to withdraw there, the recent EPA decision to refuse California’s proposed environmental regulations are examples of systemic maladies that require a cure likely involving some drastic reduction in the vast, naturalized sweep of what paints itself as the national government. We are confronted with Wal-Mart’s methods for economic colonialism that heeds no national borders while simultaneously facing violent nationalist, anti-immigration rhetoric and actions evolved from this same old capitalist necessity of disenfranchisement. Americans are increasingly forced to buy from the very commercial powers that are profiting from weakened local self-determination and the widespread displacement of people into the whirlpools of cheap and cheaper labor markets.

The need for us all to resist this plague of fiscal and political agglomeration is readily apparent. It is crucial for us to have farms that are defensible against agri-business and communities with the collective power to legislate protections and wise-use policies apart from distant powers that are largely unaccountable. Secession may be a radical step but certainly the logic stirs much-needed hope. Vermont stands as a model though of state’s power in some respects, but without dismantling the national super-structure, states such as North Carolina can never hope for such autonomy as they exist as the physical sites of national military power.

Secession is alluring, but I tremble to think of the massive upheavals it might also produce as factions seize power and threats, real or perceived, are leveled at other groups. How do we navigate ourselves into a more hopeful place without the looming danger of massive violence visited back upon us in as recompense for our own hubris and lust?