Thomas Naylor, founder of the secessionist Second Vermont Republic, died this week after suffering a stroke on Sunday. He was 76. Naylor’s friend and ally Rob Williams delivered the news via email on Friday afternoon.
Naylor, a Charlotte resident, founded SVR in 2003. In his Vermont Manifesto, which he self-published the same year, he declared that, “Our nation has truly lost its way. America is no longer a sustainable nation-state economically, politically, socially, militarily or environmentally.”
His solution? Secede from the union and create a second Vermont Republic; the first existed from 1777-1791, before Vermont joined the Union.
Secession sounded nuts — until George W. Bush won a second term in 2004. Suddenly, Naylor’s quixotic quest began making headlines, and disgruntled liberals started slapping SVR bumper stickers on their cars.
Some of those supporters abandoned the group, however, after an anonymous blogger raised questions about SVR’s ties to secessionist groups such as the League of the South, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed a racist hate group. Williams, who founded Vermont Commons, a journal devoted to Vermont independence, was one of them. For his part, Naylor disputed the suggestion that SVR was in any way racist.
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Sadder still, 7Days has skipped over Naylor’s virulent anti-Semitism and his contempt for Vermont voters, clergy, legislators, many public institutions and educators who declined to join him in his ludicrous quest.
Time to let him go, including the numerous out of state transplants that found him so endearing.
Sad to see him go. His vision of freedom from the US empire lives on. SECEDE Kilgore
I fear some people who superficially supported Naylor’s call for secession didn’t really know him.
Just after 9/11, when most Americans were feeling solidarity with NYC and the innocent victims of that massacre, he endeared himself — NOT — to many people by authoring an op ed suggesting that America got what it deserved and that Vermonters could make themselves safe from foreign attack by seceding and publicly declaring to the world that we were no longer asasociates with the US. Thius was a twisted person.
In his writings on secession, he was a name-calling bully. He affiliated his organization with racist separatists from the South. And if you dared criticize him in the slightest, you were publicly subjected to ad hominems, such as “prostitute” or “technofascist.”
Meanwhile, while preaching to the rest of us to live “small,” he resided in comfort in one of the toniest neighborhoods in one of Vermont’s wealthiest towns, having amassed his pre-retirement wealth from a career of consulting to America’s biggest corporations.
Texas secessionist Larry SECEDE (yes, according to Tarrant County TX courthouse records, he recently changed his middle name to the ALL CAPS version of secede) Kilgore is perennial loser in Republican Party office attempts who also, holds these views:
“His issues are mostly grounded in the Bible and are centered on ending abortion. Here are some of Kilgore’s positions
Judges shall carry out the death penalty against murderers, including those who abort a fetus, within 24 hours of conviction. Crimes of other bodily injury would result literally in an eye for an eye.
Adultery with a married woman would carry the death sentence.
Public use of vulgar sexual language would result in flogging.
“Judges will flog more severely those convicted of transvestism…â€
The state should stop spending money on the “government indoctrination of children†also known as public schools.
Last, but not least, “Texas should secede because the U.S. has sealed its doom.â€
SOURCE: Houston Chronicle http://blog.chron.com/texaspol…
Larry SECEDE Kilgore; a typical Naylor admirer.
One of the toniest neighborhoods in one of Vermont’s wealthiest towns? Come on, I am neighbors with the Thomas family. They live in an incredibly modest home and the guy drove a blue Honda Civic. Twisted person? Talk about a name-calling bully. He’s dead so chill.
Feral House, publisher of Thomas’ book on Secession, is saddened to hear about Mr. Naylorr’s passing. http://feralhouse.com/secessio…
According to the State of Vermont, Charlotte VT has one of the highest household per capita income levels in the state, second only to Dorset, VT. What a person drives does not provide a record of actual wealth; Charlotte land records indicate that the casa Naylor is assessed at just south of $500K. One of Naylor’s own published bios refers to, his words, “wealth” that he amassed prior to retiring to VT. Your assumptions don’t comport with the known facts. Thomas Naylor recently wrote about the anti-Semitic, homophobic, misogynistic, Holocaust revisionist leader of Iran, Mahmoud Admadinejad, “The only difference between Ahmadinejad and the other political leaders of the world is that he has the guts to stand up and confront the Israelis and their American sponsors for the hypocritical acts of terrorism, genocide, and ethnic cleansing waged against the Palestinians, all justified by the Holocaust.” “Twisted?” Yes. Extremist? Of that there can be no doubt.
While I often disagreed with Thomas, I’ve always been grateful for his bright and probing mind. We desperately need people who ask hard questions and suggest solutions that, while they may never come to fruition, at least make us think in a new direction and engage in conversation. Thank you for that, Thomas, and rest in peace.
Bingo. Twisted and extremist.
Thomas Rowley, your contempt for Dr. Naylor is palpable. I don’t know what you believe he has done to you, for many of us, we consider him brilliant. It takes a particularly strong person to believe non-mainstream. Dr. Naylor was indeed strong. His love of liberty and freedom was strong as was his resolve to become independent was inspiring. Rest in peace, Doc. for those of us who had the privilege to call you friend, you will be greatly missed.
In fact, it was Naylor’s own massive contempt for the vast majority of Vermonters that he has called out repeatedly, like the electorate that voted, all 99.24% percent of them, for someone other than his handpicked gubernatorial candidate; all of Vermont’s elected officials (he called Sen. Leahy a “world class prostitute”); all of Vermont’s congressional delegation; virtually all of Vermont’s clergy and churches; all of Vermont’s schools and institutions of higher learning; all of Vermont’s journalists (even one who he helped to bankroll); nearly all of Vermont’s print, TV and radio media, who, unlike you, weren’t entranced by his Ruritanian fantasy of a breakaway republic or his promotion of racists like George F. Kennan as the godfather of his proposed Vermont republic or his numerous alliances with racists associated with the League of the South or the Lega Nord. “His love of liberty and freedom” did not extend to those who would be caught behind the neo-Confederate lines of his allies. Given his utter lack of success, your bar for brilliance appears to be set rather low.
Mr Rowley,
I now understand that your personal views collided with Mr. Naylor’s on a variety of subjects, both personal and intellectual. Your points regarding his affiliation or references to questionable groups and writers, thinkers or leaders, his language when referring to not only persons of repute but when referring to groups as a whole, and his personal and financial life in Charlotte have now been made here and in other forums. They are well taken, and I’ll be the first to state that there were many instances in which I disagreed with Mr. Naylor politically.
As a native Vermonter, I knew Mr. Naylor as a young man. I respect his memory and I refuse to believe that a comment on a blog post made in remembrance of his passing is the correct forum for these comments. I don’t know you or your history, nor who or what you represent other than a closed Facebook profile, but I do know that you have a well-trafficked blog in which to post your thoughts (http://vermontsecession.blogsp…. It seems that you have spent a great deal of time and effort in sharing your (and your associates’) disagreements with SVR and Thomas’s personal and public philosophical beliefs and statements, as is your right as a citizen of this country. I laud you for continuing the discussion that the idea of secession brings to the table in that forum and in the various other public and private means of communication available to you.
To be honest, I was shocked to search for a notice of his death and find this post followed by the comments herein. All I ask is that instead of using an obituary notification posted here at 7DVT as a further venue for your views on Mr. Naylor as a person, as a public figure, and as a writer and thinker, you respect his family, his friends and those who come here to remember Thomas. Let us all agree that however you might argue that that it is “time to let him go,” we all have a right to remember him in our own way.
Rest in Peace, Thomas. I know that you will be missed by many.
Edit: You point is taken, joyful was a poor choice of word and has been amended.
He was completely contemptuous of anyone and everyone who disagreed with him, or just anyone whom he just didn’t like, (which, as explained above, was pretty much everyone) and he responded by publicly calling them vile names. If racism, bigotry, authoritarianism, hypocrisy, and anti-social behavior are anyone’s idea of “brilliance,” then I guess he was brilliant.
SL,
May I call you SL? Identity seems to be an issue for you, although one that you have not raised with any other commenters here, including those of a like mind to you or, not surprisingly, yourself.
First, this article is not in an obituary column, nor did it appear as a paid obit. This piece appeared in a blog on Seven Days that’s called, “Off Message: Vermont’s Politics & News Blog.” Comments on a political blog are to be expected and are encouraged.
Naylor’s residence and finances were not raised by me but by others. I merely provided facts when misrepresentations were made by a supporter of his. He drove a Civic. So what? Billionaire Warren Buffett drives a 42K GM vehicle. Thomas Naylor lived a lifestyle far more comforted than the average Vermonter or, frankly, many of his very few ardent supporters here.
However, I do have my limitations. I’d have thought it crass to post a link to my blog. You didn’t, as nor did one of Naylor’s publishers who posted a link to their website that sells books; didn’t see your affront about that either.
At the risk of being perceived by you of being, how shall we say, harsh perhaps, you don’t know me or my personal views about Naylor’s longtime associations with many racists, anti-Semites or homophobes.
To suggest without basis that I am “joyful” about the death of you buddy, or anyone else for that matter, is despicable but that’s your right. Do I regret that Naylor will no longer around to invite out- of-state anti-gay activists, racists and anti-Semites to Vermont for one of his staged, dog and pony conventions? Not in the slightest.
One of Thomas Naylor’s more egregious offenses in his campaign to silence opposition to his secessionist plot was an attempt early on to have a Vermonter fired from his job and thus lose health benefits for his family. There was an oblique reference to this instance in the article above, but for some reason the writer didn’t link to her own report on this particularly malicious, offensive and unwarranted act by Naylor.
“All I ask is that instead of using” a political blog “post here at 7DVT as a further venue for your views” of Naylor, who is no longer “a person… a public figure” or “a writer and thinker,” that you either pay for or have the funeral home properly submit an obit. You won’t see a comment from me in that case.
No doubt, if the self-professed “Dixie” singer Thomas Naylor is going to “be missed by many,” it will be by his many admirers in the neo-Confederate world. You apparently have no idea how offensive Vermonters found him to be.
Edit: Likewise, I mistakenly transposed your, um, sobriquet as “TL” rather than “SL.” The rest stands.
The slander that someone is a racist is so overused now, and mainly by people who support the financing of their favored candidates by rounding up poor brown and black kids and selling them to the educrat cartels for campaign donations, that I now assume people are lying when they use it until I see evidence.
It is also the case that the ruling political class will freeze certain viewpoints out of the media, so that people with those viewpoints end up speaking to anyone who will listen, including people with odious associations. The political class then smears the person they were trying to silence for communicating with the only people who were listening to him. Ron Paul for example is smeared in this way by selective use of who he talked to, because he will talk to anyone; though no one ever claims he is a flaming gay Austrian even though he went out to meet an unbeknownst to him fictional person named Bruno for an interview.
I didn’t know about this fellow, but my assumption is that he is being smeared by people who would smear any advocate of secession anywhere. The nit picking over his property tax assessment is just icing on the cake. I live in NW DC, where the ruling class and its minions live, who live off your tax money. In these zip codes “just under $500,000” will buy you one of the cheaper two bedroom condos (not a house) or a really luxurious one bedroom condo. Because all the people here secessionists want to secede from make 6 and 7 figure tax funded salaries as regulators or lobbyists.
That does sound odious but there are actually anti-imperialists who stupidly say things like that not because they are anti-Semites but because the oppose US tax funding of all foreign governments and militaries, including Israel.
Dude,
Hailing Iran’s Mahmoud Admadinejad as a hero?
Defending the League of the South?
Calling the Southern Poverty Law Center “techno-fascist”? http://www.7dvt.com/2007/funer…
The point is this: you can promote Vermont secession without being a racist. Naylor didn’t have to consort with, defend, and idolize racists to promote his cause of secession. BUT HE DID.
Were that all that Naylor had ever said about the matter you might have had a point. The fact is that Naylor has a history of saying hateful, “odious” things about Jews. One of his outlets, in addition to his numerous writings about Jews and their “hammerlock hold” on Congress, the White House, the media, the military and the finance industry, all of which is goes to the very heart of what anti-Semitic conspiracists believe based on the long discredited “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” was Press TV which is operated by the Iranian propaganda ministry and is notorious for its filming of the forced confessions of journalists and others in Iranian prisons. Press TV is also a committed outlet for the views of numerous Americans that support Holocaust denialism and revisionism. In one of his many appearances on Press TV railing on and on about the Union, to the delight of his Iranian hosts, Naylor said, “The problem is that President Obama… and his foreign policy is effectively under the control of the rightwing Likud of Israel with the complete compliance of the United States media.” If you can’t smell the anti-Semitism in that steaming pile of BS, said while consorting with the propaganda ministry of a state that, like Naylor himself, has questioned the very legitimacy of the existence of the State of Israel, you may yourself be similarly afflicted but I’ll assume for the moment that you’re not.
Lotta assumptions there in service to your desired biases. That being the case, you’re definitely not going to read piece on Naylor at Green Mountain Daily here. It starts near the bottom of the scroll, next to the image of a lump of coal.
Dr. Naylor was a friend, mentor and sounding board. He will be quoted and remembered for generations and not just in Vermont. Rowley can say what he wants. That’s the type of freedom that The Doc was about. But at least The Doc was public about his stance. We knew who he was. Where he came from. Where he lived. What he believed. Agree with him or disagree with him, you always knew where he stood and you always knew where you stood with him. And he was out-front about it. He didn’t hide behind pseudonyms. I am going to miss him greatly.
I am his first cousin from MS. He was both indefatigable and irascible, as previously stated: both genetic inclinations. He is the off spring of two very strong willed families. He was, however, very kind, caring, and family oriented: all attributes from his extremely southern upbringing. He will be missed by his family who continues to reside in the south, in spite its many faults and sins of the fathers.
In fact, Naylor went to get lengths to silence those who disagreed; those few Vermonters who were on his advisory board got sacked; he sought the job dismissal of at least one person that I know who’d criticized his many longstanding ties to the racists of the League of the South and the Lega Nord; he expelled so many members that he eventually disbanded formal membership in SVR.; “payback” was an integral part of his character – just ask Bill McKibben or, hell, Rob Williams. Naylor was an exceptionally spiteful person.
Since you’re a Texas secessionist (and how’s that workin’ out for you, pardner?) you’re probably unaware that he had no meaningful impact on the body politic here and his public events amounted to little than theatre and stunts. I do agree with what you were trying to find the words to say; he was renown for his mean spiritedness and intolerance to those who would not do his bidding. For instance, when Bernie Sanders declined to resign his congressional seat to then run as his secesher candidate for governor, since Naylor lacked the personal charisma or background to do so himself, Naylor then waged a years long campaign at his website savaging Bernie at every opportunity he could.
You are right about one thing though; I’m sure to quote Naylor or cite what he’d actually done in years to come when speaking truth to someone who’d pay false tribute him.
“Facts are stubborn things” – John Adams
I knew Tom in the early 80s and was a neighbor for more than a decade. He was an interesting guy, but I think very insecure. For a long time he was fixated on getting a Nobel Prize in Peace or Economics, thought he could be a cabinet member in a future Democratic administration, and once talked about moving to Montana because he thought he could be elected governor there. I do miss Tom and wish I could still talk to him.