History has not treated the Green Mountain State very kindly.

In the 19th century, freedom-loving Vermonters flocked to fight against Slavery in the War Between the States in such numbers, and fought so bravely, that the state’s population was significantly reduced. Previously an industrial power, Vermont entered into a period of long decline, ultimately becoming a quaint backwater, a kind of reservation of old-fashioned Yankee culture.

The rise of Environmentalism and the Counterculture in the last century, brought even worse disaster to Vermont, in the form of an invasion: an invasion of goat-milking hippies, trust-fund revolutionaries, and back-to-the-land tree huggers, who arrived in numbers adequate to transform the Granite state’s ethos from the rock-ribbed Republican spirit of self reliance formerly epitomized by Calvin Coolidge into the rich guy Bolshevism represented by Ben & Jerry.

Today scrofulous beatniks misuse the traditional Vermont town meeting to make pretentious political statements and strike leftist poses. The latest fad is for Vermont town meetings, as in Newfane voting under the leadership of some pony-tailed musician-cum-antiques-restorer, to call for President Bush’s impeachment.

It’s not only in town meetings trying to set national policy though that Vermont feels the impact of the invasion of the crunchies. The leftist flatlanders brought their own big spending approach to local politics along as well. These days Vermont ranks right at the top nationally in per capita taxation.

Ethan Allen must be spinning in his grave.