I was struck by a couple passages in the article:
A former Duke University economics professor, Naylor heads up the Second Vermont Republic, which he describes as "left-libertarian, anti-big government, anti-empire, antiwar, with small is beautiful as our guiding philosophy."
AND
With 20 or so mostly middle-aged attendees looking on, the candidates each stood at the podium to deliver a remarkably unified message: The U.S. government, they said, was an immoral enterprise — engaged in imperial wars, propping up corrupt bankers and supersized corporations, crushing small businessmen, plundering the tax-base for corporate welfare, snooping on the private lives of citizens — and they wanted no more part of it. "The gods of the empire," Steele told the room, "are not the gods of Vermont."
Vermont has the reputation (Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy are the state's Senators!) as one of the most Liberal states in the U.S.... but does the above quote sound Liberal to you? Naylor's claim of "Left-Libertarian" and "anti- Big Government" is really just LIBERTARIAN with with the word "Left" thrown into the mix for marketing purposes. Heck the "engaged in imperial wars.... private lives of citizens" line sounds like something I WROTE. I mean, come on... when was the Left so concerned about Small Business? Or anti-Big Government? This is a major shift, and one to which I say "Welcome! Come on over! Good to have you here!"
If you have been reading my stuff for a while, you know that I firmly believe that there are not that many issues separating the majority of American's who describe themselves as "Left" or "Right"... actually, I have been saying that for the most part, the VAST most part, that the only issue separating these Americans is abortion (and that the TPTB be are terrified that the non-feminist Left will come to their senses on this issue) and aged American's support of Social Security and Medicare (seniors can't focus on anything else, and understandably so. If you addict someone to heroin or free services... well, what the h*ll did you expect?).
That Tea Parties and Vermont Secessionist Movements are coming into ideological alignment tells me that we are approaching some kind of political tipping point, and it would appear that aging, childless feminists are finally losing their grip on the former "Left".
One can only hope.