How Unlike The Secessionists At The Scottish National Party Are The Weenies At The Secesher Second Vermont Republic?

In recent months the baas of the Second Vermont Republic, Rob Williams has been making thinly veiled comparisons between his moribund group and the Scottish National Party. Let's take a look at that comparison.

SVR has existed for about a decade; the SNP has existed for more than eight decades. The SNP holds 10% of the seats in the Scottish House of Commons; SVR has never occupied a legislative or statewide office, ever. Secessionists (Dennis Steele, Peter Diamondstone and Emily Peyton) have repeatedly failed to inspire public support beyond the single percentile; in fact, in their most ambitious attempt, the Steele gubernatorial campaign of 2010, the seceshers failed to do better than three quarters of one percent of the vote - more than 99% of Vermonters voted for someone other than the secesher Steele. The SNP's widespread support in the Scottish body politic is contrasted by SVR's utter lack of support from the public, political institutions, public bodies, educational institutions, clergy and, well, just about anyone you can think of. Other than its strident antipathy to rule seated in London at Westminster Parliament the SNP has never engaged in the establishment of alliances with racist, white supremacist or homophobic hate groups as the SVR has in furtherance of its goals; nor has the SNP engaged in and promoted the base anti-Semitism as SVR's "small community" of crackpots has.

One similar strategy of the two groups has been opposition to popular military projects. In SNP's case it's the Trident nuclear sub base 40 miles from Glasgow; in SVR's case it's opposition to basing of still to be developed F35s with the Vermont Air National Guard. In SVR's case the opposition has taken a distinctly anti-VTANG tone, while the SNP has engaged in no such demonizing of the military in general. Further, the SNP has sought to establish common ground with the Labour Party, if not with the Conservative Party, in the upcoming election which will have the base as an issue, while the SVR has fostered terrible relations with Vermont's congressional delegation, virtually all of its political parties (except for the Liberty Uniontards who never count), its statewide and legislative officials and Burlington's city administration (the F35s will be based at the city's airport). Hell, Williams can't even get his wife to support his movement.

The SNP's opposition to the nuclear fleet is based on real world considerations of affordability and Britain's future role in the world if it's to keep Scottish participation, while SVR is basing its opposition to the F35s based on the loose interpretations of a patent attorney's thoughts on a limited number of documents received by a narrow FOIA request.

The SNP could very well shape the future of Britain's nuclear fleet, while the SVR has virtually no chance of affecting the outcome of the F35 basing.

While the SNP supports marriage equality SVR proposes to set aside Vermont's now long established law based on its constitutional requirements on the matter in favor of a referendum majority decision on minority rights; likewise, it seems to want to take no position on women's reproductive freedom. Kinda makes one wonder what SVR intends to do with Vermont's constitution which predates by more than a decade and a half its statehood.

"(T)he Second Vermont Republic takes no official position on such controversial issues as abortion, gay marriage, school prayer, and legalizing marijuana. These are issues for the citizens of the independent republic to decide." SVR website FAQ, 3.28.15

Oddly, SVR's failed lieutenant gubernatorial candidate recently, according to SVR, spoke to the South Burlington Rotary about... Wait for it... legalizing marijuana - go figure. Apparently the South Burlington Rotary thought so little of Peter Garritano's remarks that they made no mention of the attendee on their website as they normally do.

The SNP proposes expanding voter access while SVR proposes curtailing and suppressing voter access through an outdated and archaic town meeting scheme. The SNP stands for the eradication of poverty, the building of affordable social housing, free higher education as a matter of governance, while SVR vaguely stands for such but only through a trickle down fashion from a poorly thought out public bank scheme.

The SNP first gained traction with the voting public with a influx of Labour Party members (kinda like Democrats), trade unions and the nuclear disarmament movement; SVR has experienced no such influx, particularly among Vermont Democrats, unions and Vermont's small demilitarization movement with the exception of the aforementioned patent attorney and a sham radical, Juliet Buck, tied to SVR's hateblog.

In short, the Second Vermont Republic isn't even remotely comparable to the actually secessionist movement Scottish National Party.

The SNP has widespread community support as a political enterprise; the weenies at SVR are a statewide standing joke.

More on the SNP nuclear fleet issue here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

For the archive of the Free Vermont Framework listserv, click here.