Second Vermont Republic's Continuing Downward Spiral to Political Irrevelance in Vermont

Earlier this month I posted about an article written by Vermont freelance political writer Jon Margolis.   Margolis' piece was about whiners in Vermont and it led off by alluding to the Second Vermont Republic and its supporters.   Margolis concludes that the group is not only "racially tinged" and "intellectually unimpressive," but that it is also "politically impotent."   This recent press release from SVR, the self-appointed leader of the Vermont scession movement, underscores the point about the political impotence:

SVR Legislative Team

Fairfax political activist and SVR supporter Peter Moss has agreed to assume the responsibility of recruiting candidates for the Vermont Legislature who are committed to Vermont independence.

His objective is to recruit, support, and eventually elect enough secessionists to call a statewide convention to consider and adopt articles of secession calling for the return of Vermont to its status as an independent republic as it was between 1777 and 1791.

Peter is currently a 2008 candidate for the Vermont House of Representatives.

If you are a secessionist and are interested in running for the Legislature, please contact Peter Moss at peter28moss@yahoo.com.   [1]

For those who have never heard of him, Moss has been a frequent, unsuccessful candidate for statewide office.   In 2004 he ran unsuccessfully in the Republican U.S. Senate primary.  
[2]   In 2006 he ran, again unsuccessfully, against Bernie Sanders, and in some ways against the Democratic party, in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary.   [3]   In addition to being a candidate for the Vermont legislature next year, as noted in the SVR press release above, he is also a self-described "Peace Party" candidate for the Vermont seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2008 election cycle.   [4]

By some accounts Moss is an affable and humorous man who campaigns promoting unusual proposals that are laced with odd word creations and rather sophomoric acronyms.   This from a recent campaign of his:

"I have proposed a new U.S. DUD (Department of Un-Do) to retroactively reverse tax cuts for the rich, re-establish the inheritance tax, not privatize Social Security, un-do excessive national debt and budget imbalance, not use religion as a political weapon, stop senseless wars, and every other anti-social act and action. This will stall the bushists‚ 2 remaining years; impeachment would do nothing and recall would install Cheney. The new DUD must report directly to the voters, and should be staffed by Goldstar Mother Cindy Sheehan and GM critic Michael Moore, and their supporters."   [5]

As well as:

"I have proposed an Environment and Energy Emergency Act [ENEMA] to replace oil with liquid hydrogen in an 18-month all-out crash program, supplemented by solar and hydroelectric power, to address environmental degradation, global warming, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, excessive oil and gasoline prices, peak oil, and the hatred fueling Islamic terrorism. ENEMA will create a wind turbine, water electrolysis, and hydrogen liquefaction ("hyliq") industry for cars and home heating, and store hyliq for low wind periods. Oil tankers would disappear and sailing ships would return for passengers and freight. Service stations would add hydrogen pumps, and the nation‚s 100-million car park retrofitted for dual fuel. All this would create economic prosperity as did World War Two. ENEMA would end most pollution and global warming, oil wars, and terrorism. Oil prices would drop from $70 a barrel to $3 and production would stop. The $67 spread finances global terrorism, I believe, so we are financing terrorism. Without oil, oil company shares would drop to penny stocks, and we could de-privatize for one dollar per 100 shares. Raze the refineries and replace with hyliq plants."   [5]

And my own personal favorite, Moss' endorsement of telescreen-like apparatuses for Vermonters (and probably the next best reason to then shoot your TV):

"Televoters Act to convert all TVS to 2-way communication, to conduct nationwide non-binding same-day opinion surveys, to replace manipulated and manipulative small-sample surveys."   [5]

Just as I thought that this couldn't get any funnier I learned that Moss also calls himself a "Lincoln Republican."   [6]   Given the SVR leadership's tendency to foam at the mouth at the mere mention of Lincoln, this alliance has tremendous potential for future ironies and conflicts in agendas.   [7]

To underscore SVR's downward spiral to political irrelevancy, I can confirm the Vermont's Dan DeWalt has been been dismissed from the SVR Advisory Board.   After having heard from a number of sources that DeWalt was dismissed, I did some checking and learned that DeWalt never really did anything while on the board.   When he offered unsolicited advice to SVR's Thomas Naylor, he found himself in conflict with the early SVR responses to the revelations here and on other blogs.   In short, Naylor found that DeWalt wasn't of the right "mindset" to remain on the board so DeWalt, like Robert Riversong   [8], is now gone.