Trust Fund Hippies

In other news, in the People's Republic of Vermont, the citizens of Brattleboro will vote on the following petition next March 4th:

Shall the Selectboard (sic) instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution, and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities and shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro Police, pursuant to the above-mentioned indictments, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and prosecute or extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them?

Alas, poor Vermont. Your Bloviator, back when he had more youth and money, and an avid skier, was a frequent visitor to the Vermont Republic (as it is legally known). It may astonish you to learn it wasn't that long ago Vermont was a solidly Republican state. What happened? The 'sixties and 'seventies: Vermont became a haven for the counter-culturalists who, owing to the laissez-faire, libertarian attitude of the natives, were tolerated and even welcomed because they brought, along with guitars and dope, much needed revenue to a relatively poor state. What the locals didn't reckon was the back-to-the-earthies, along with their money, came brimming with political activism and in surprisingly short order took over many of the town governments; New England-style town meetings with boards of selectmen (as they were called in those baleful pre-feminist days). Much to the locals' horror, the well-heeled socialists rammed through expensive entitlement programs, oppressive environmental regulation and the usual identity-based social pogroms programs. The result is a state still poor and with high taxes and layers and layers of regulations, it will remain poor because of the rotten business climate.

So when you behold adoring media accounts about those feisty, independent "Vermonters" who churn out whackadoodle legislation like the above, understand those moonbats are about as indigenous to Vermont as waiter-actors are to Manhattan. The townies in the Green Mountain State, fed up with the noisome intruders, have stopped attending town meetings and have worked out other ways to accomplish the nuts-and-bolts work of government, e.g. highways, public works and law enforcement. One can only imagine the pain they feel having their state hijacked by 'sixties left-overs and the fervency their prayers for cold winters and flue epidemics as the baby boomers get older and older.