Champlain Secessionist

Colin Mixson

Apr.21.2010

Rob Williams is a Vermont resident, a professor at Champlain College and a firm believer in the politics and ideas that formed the republic of the United States of America. So it may seem ironic to learn that since 2005, Rob Williams has been the editor and publisher of Vermont Commons, the state’s largest secessionist newspaper, and a proponent of Vermont’s peaceful retirement from the union.



Rob’s revolutionary streak began with the conclusion of the 2000 presidential election, which for him, “was the first inkling that things were getting weird.” The election raised a few important questions for Rob, in particular the possibility that the electoral process has been undermined by a troupe of electronic voting machines, and that the foundation of our republic, and thus our republic itself, were in grave danger.

If the 2000 election roused his suspicions, then the events following 9/11 hammered them home like a fat, proverbial hammer. To Rob, 9/11 was a “lever” that the U.S. government used to justify, “dropping the bomb in Afghanistan, invading Iraq, and beginning to clamp down on civil-liberties with the U.S.A. Patriot Act.”

Finally, the “so called” election of 2004 cemented Mr. Williams’ sneaking suspicion that the United States was no longer the republic it had once been.

“You basically had two, millionaire, Yale, alum candidates,” says Rob, “John Kerry and George Dub. I realized at that point just how limited the range of choices there were in terms of viable presidential candidates.”

It was in that same year that Rob attended a conference in Middlebury, VT sponsored by a man named Kirk Patrick Sale, a person who according to Rob is, “a longtime, left leaning writer/activist.” The conference was attended by about fifty people, all of who were discussing the curious idea of secession, of which Rob admits frankly, “…sounds kind of crazy when you first hear it.” While at the conference, Rob kept himself busy by taping interviews of people at the conference, and asking his fellow Vermonters what motivated them to secede. Sometime during the conference, Williams was introduced to Thomas Naylor, the co-founder of the Second Vermont Republic, a secessionist think tank located in Charlotte, VT and author of the 2008 book Secession: How Vermont and All the Other States Can Save Themselves from the Empire.

These conversations, coupled with his background in U.S. history led Williams to creating the Vermont Commons in the spring of 2005. Today, the Vermont Commons pushes out 10,000 copies to 200 locations in Vermont, six times a year. That’s not including the Vermont Commons web site, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blog, which features twelve writers from across the state.

“We like to say we’re Vermont’s only statewide, independent newspaper,” Rob says with a smile. He also goes on to comment on Vermont’s Commons having one of the most overtly stated biases. “We are very clear that we are not objective. We are subjective; we have a point of view.” says Rob,” as used to be the case in the early days of the U.S. republic. Every newspaper was partisan in the sense that it had a point of view. We think we ought to bring that back, rather than pretending that we are objective, when any intelligent reader understands that no newspaper is objective. That’s ok, as long as it’s stated upfront.”

What Rob is stating up front is that the United States no longer operates as a functioning republic, but as an, “out of control empire.” Williams cites the prodigious amount of U.S. military bases located around the world, what he describes as “rampant militarism,” as well as voter fraud and the fact that the average congressional district size is as large as the population of Vermont, which he says, “is in no way democratic.”

Today, Rob keeps himself busy trying to live the life of an independent businessman, a trait Rob believes that all Vermonters should strive to embody in the quest for an independent state, and independent living. In addition to managing affairs at Vermont Commons, Williams keeps busy by teaching in the communication and creative media department at Champlain College, as well as by rearing Vermont's only domestic Yak herd at his Waitsfield ranch.

"I'm a businessman," says Rob, "and it's hard. We want people to understand that we're not trying to build a wall around Vermont, but our first plank is Vermont's financial independence. We want to stimulate entrepreneurialism, we want to stimulate small business's, we want to stimulate people's ability to be commercial."

Rob Williams' quest, and the quest of all Vermont secessionists is an unquestionably hard one. It's not difficult to understand why many people question the viability, both ethically and pragmatically, of secession as an answer to Vermont's problems. Vermont, like any other state, currently enjoys federally funded highways, military protection, federal services and relies on the U.S. dollar for commerce and trade. So it would seem unlikely, even in the face of what many Vermonter's feel to be a moral prerogative in the face of an uncaring, imperial power, that secessionists will ever enjoy the popular sentiment, or political clout required for secession. However, that doesn't seem likely to deter Rob Williams, whose secessionist rhetoric seems to be unceasingly accompanied by a sly smile, betraying the obvious satisfaction of a man who feels he is doing the right thing.