I love Vermont, BUT

[cali]

it's a weird little place that doesn't have a whole lot to do with, well, much of anything as far as the national discourse goes.

I'm proud of this place. I love my fellow Vermonters. We're engaged and what we do matters- here.

Having said that:

It's highly, highly unlikely that anyone from Vermont will ever be President- or even Speaker of the House or Senate Majority leader or Vice-President.

Bernie couldn't be elected to the Senate in any other state.

We're tiny. There's only 600,000 people here. Our biggest city has a population of around 40,000. Our capitol has around 7,000.

We are rural. Most of us live in small villages of a couple of thousand people- or of a few hundred. And those villages don't change all that much over the passage of time.

The population is overwhelmingly white. Yes, more minorities are moving here, but it's still a sadly small number.

We're educated. Vermont has nearly a 90% hs graduation rate.


We're odd and we've always been odd. Maybe we're ahead of the curve, but that doesn't mean we influence what happens in other states.


Abraham Lincoln had his largest margin of victory here.

Vermont didn't join the Union after the Revolution. It was an independent republic with its own constitution written in 1777. That constitution banned slavery.

Women had the vote in state races as early as 1880.

Things don't change as fast here. The landscape is important just because it doesn't change all that much. And of course, a lot of that is deliberately legislated. So we're connected both to the past and to each other in a that isn't unique for a town or a county or an area, but is unique for a state.


So don't waste your time on trying to draft Bernie. He won't run for prez no matter what- even if he were 20 years younger he wouldn't do it.

On the other hand, if you can take our winters, you can always move here.

[Taverner]

1. Vermont = Bend, OR = Aspen = Olympia, WA = Santa Cruz, CA = Eugene, OR

We all know our 'thought friendly' cities

May the ever grow!

[cali]

4. yep, my son moved to Colorado last year

he says Boulder is just like Burlington.

[Taverner]

Boulder = Burlington

Boulder Creek= Burlington, VT

That will be our eventual destination - the lands of the lovers, the dreamers and me

[Hawkeye-X]

10. Yup. That's why we call Boulder

The People's Republic of Boulder. :)

[flamingdem]

27. A friend told me it's pretty yupified, Burlington is getting that way.. nt

[eridani]

31. Very good analogies n/t

[mattvermont]

2. Very nicely said Cali

You just made me even prouder to be one of the few

[sarge43]

3. Like every other place, Vermont has its faults and problems.

That said, you're mighty fine neighbors - aye up.

[John Q. Citizen]

5. You call that winter?

we are 4/5 the size of California and have just about 1000000 people in the whole state.

We could fit a whole slew of Vermonts into our foot print, about 15 or so. It must be tough living so crowed together and all.


But yeah, I'd trade my Dem Senators for yours in a heartbeat

[cali]

9. sure you could. we're small geographically, for sure

but no crowding, and that's part of what makes it workable politically.

And yeah, it's cold here, but no doubt, you've got us beat on that front.

States in America where temperatures have dropped to -50 °F (-45 °C) or lower at least once: Location °F Date
Prospect Creek Camp, Alaska -80 Jan 23, 1971
Rogers Pass, Montana -70 Jan 20, 1954
Peter’s Sink, Utah -69 Feb 1, 1985
Riverside RS, Wyoming -66 Feb 9, 1933
Maybell, Colorado -61 Feb 1, 1985
Island Park Dam, Idaho -60 Jan 18, 1943
Tower, Minnesota -60 Feb 2, 1996
Parshall, North Dakota -60 Feb 15, 1936
McIntosh, South Dakota -58 Feb 17, 1936
Tetonia, Idaho -57 Feb 9, 1933
Couderay, Wisconsin -55 Feb 4, 1996
Seneca, Oregon -54 Feb 10, 1933
Old Forge, New York -52 Feb 18, 1979
Bloomfield, Vermont -50 Dec 30, 1933
Big Black River, Maine -50 Jan 16, 2009
Gavilan, New Mexico -50 Feb 1, 1951
Mount Washington, New Hampshire -50 Jan 22, 1885
San Jacinto, Nevada -50 Jan 8, 1937

[dkf]

6. I will always love Vermont for giving us Howard Dean.

Still my Fave guy.

[glinda]

7. Agree about Bernie and totally understand his importance of being able to

have a voice.
I think we need someone with a spirit and intelligence like Bernie.
And I would very much like to move to Vermont. My parents are very ill and old and so are most of our pets. It is my first place of choice to relocate to. Someday I hope that I can.

[jillan]

8. Any state that brings us Bernie AND Leahy, who has Grateful Dead play at his fund raisers is alright

by me.

C'mon - I come from the land of Kyl, McCain and Brewer. I'll trade you anytime, any day. Except for your winters ;)

[cali]

11. I think Arizona is amazingly beautiful

I spent a month out there a couple of years back.

[jillan]

12. It is. From desert to mountains and everything inbetween. It's just our

politics that make think it's time to move. I can't even imagine what it's like to live in a state with two progressive senators.

[NorthCarolina]

13. Everyone always has a big "BUT". nt

[Arkana]

14. Vermont wasn't even a state at the time of the Revolution, if memory serves.

[RufusTFirefly]

15. Therefore, everything that Bernie Sanders said can be discounted. QED

:sarcasm:

By the way, Saskatchewan has less than 4 percent of the total population of Canada. And yet it was the birthplace of the health care system enjoyed by all Canadians.

Arkansas has less than 1 percent of the total population of the United States. And yet it is the birthplace of a two-term Democratic President of the United States.

[asdjrocky]

16. Vermont has always seemed like a really cool place,

and one of the few states I've yet to venture to. I do love the idea of small towns, villages and cities.

[hfojvt]

17. I didn't remember Montpelier being so small

even smaller than Pierre, the capitol of my home state. However, I still don't think Vermont is as rural as SD. It does have about 200,000 less people, but it also has 1/8th of the land mass. Meaning the people are packed much closer together in Vermont than they are in SD. Chittenden County is about as big as Minnehaha county in population, meaning the metro areas for Sioux Falls and Burlington are roughly equal. Not only that but Burlington is only 130 miles from Albany, NY and 170 miles from Springfield, Ma, and 105 miles from Montpelier to Manchester, NH. Whereas it is 325 miles between Sioux Falls and Rapid City and 299 miles between Sioux Falls and Bismarck, ND. Still, even in South Dakota, 57% of the population lives in (or fairly close to) the ten largest cities (although number 10 is probably 11,000 people or so.)

[flamingdem]

18. You forgot HOWARD DEAN! nt

[OHdem10]

20. Vermont produces people with courage of their convictions.

Bernie Sanders and Howard Dean.

[flamingdem]

25. Don't forget ETHAN ALLEN! nt

[handmade34]

19. pretty good assessment...

except... I have seen too many changes for my taste. We have lost most of our dairy farms and land has gotten much too expensive...

warmed up today a bit but this is what my front yard looked like yesterday...

[frazzled]

21. Vermont is just so cute you want to pinch it

Those rolling hills and green valleys, the cute red barns where you can stop and get maple syrup. I just used to love going there when I lived in the Boston area. But, you're right, it isn't the real world.

Cook County, Illinois, in which I live, has a population of 5,294,664. The Chicago Metropolitan statistical area has a population of 9,793,036. 37% of the city is African American; 26% is Hispanic. We have a massive public transportation system (something Vermonters have no experience with) with issues; we have a great deal of poverty in our public schools; we also have one of the world's great symphonies, great art museums, etc.

I do think there is a divide between urban and rural America. Vermont is just unusual in that it tends rural and lightly populated, yet usually progressive. (Don't get me wrong, Vermont also has some extremely conservative citizens as well. I've met them!).

You just can't apply Vermont ideals to the rest of the nation, because they really don't match.

[flamingdem]

26. Bernie is a New Yawker, he knows from public transportation nt

[rox63]

22. I love Vermont and would move there in a heartbeat

My mom was born and raised just outside of Newport, VT. But I suspect jobs might be harder to come by up there than down here in Mass. Maybe I'll relocate up there when I (if I can ever afford to) retire.

[fadedrose]

23. I like Pat Leahy too but I sort of wish...

that since he's moving on in years, maybel Howard Dean could run for the Senate? Would he win?

Leahy could work with DFA,or even another progressive group would love to have him in some executive position.

[Tsiyu]

24. I've been to Vermont many times

Born and raised next door in Syracuse, to parents who loved road trips.

Took my kids a time or two.

Our family spent summers in the White Mountains of New Hampshire as well.

And I have to say, you don't know rural until you've been to some of the coves here in Tennessee.


And it's going to feel like zero here with the windchill tomorrow night.

One thing is for sure in Vermont - a winter-tight barn....


Hope you are warm up there, hope to be moving that way soon :)

[mmonk]

28. I admire your state and the people in government it has produced.

[terrya]

29. And your state has marriage equality

As I recall, Vermont was the first state to get civil unions. And Vermont was the 2nd, after Massachusetts, to get marriage.

I very much admire, respect and like your state as far as respecting the diversity of ALL of your citizens. May we in Illinois follow your path.

[Better Believe It]

30. I can think of a lot ot states where Sanders could be elected Senator

Because of the big city and mainly urban populations, huge minority populations, big college campuses, a significant union presence and other positive objective factors that Vermont lacks.

[cali]

32. name one. seriously, I don't think there's a hair of a chance that bernie

could be elected anywhere else- even in MA.

[Vinca]

33. He might not have been a great president, but don't forget Mr. Coolidge.

There's no reason Vermont can't produce a leader. I'm always surprised at some of the smart, talented, often well known people found residing at the end of a dirt road in a small, Vermont town. As for Bernie, as much as I would love to have him run, I don't think he would want to remove himself from the people and he probably wouldn't feel comfortable around the trappings of the presidency. He's a down-to-earth man with one of the biggest hearts on the planet.

[Eddie Haskell]

34. VT

Finally.