Did you know that today’s secessionist movement is an intellectual one, unlike the Tea Party movement? Neither did I, but it’s the claim of one of the organizers of a recent secessionist conference in Charleston, S.C. Now, don’t jump to conclusions just because of the setting:

In the Aloha State, the idea of secession for the native Hawaiian people is not just common, it’s commonly approved. And rightfully so, considering that the Hawaiian Kingdom was illegally overthrown by the United States in 1893. And in case you need to be reminded, former Alaskan First Dude Todd Palin was a member of the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party.
And then there is the Second Vermont Republic, a northeastern secessionist group headed up by Thomas Naylor. The Republic supports universal healthcare, green energy, equal rights, and nonviolent resolutions to international conflicts. Simply put: the members of the Second Republic are what some might call hippies.
Along with Second Vermonter Kirkpatrick Sale, founder of the Middlebury Institute, Naylor was a scheduled speaker at the Abbeville Conference. His lecture topic: “The Vermont Village Green: An alternative to empire.” As for Sale, he had a lecture lined up of his own. The subject: the size limits of states and the human scale of secession.

I always knew that foolishness respected no ideological boundaries. I just never expected to see Kirkpatrick Sale journey to Charleston, presumably by ox cart, to talk secession. What’s next, President Obama and Congressional Republicans convening a nationally televised summit to talk health-care reform? Oh, right.