2012 the Vermont Independence Party held its convention inside the Vermont Statehouse. Reception In 2006, John McClaughry, president of Vermont's Institute for Liberty and Community and co-author with Frank Bryan of The Vermont Papers, Recreating Democracy on a Human Scale, told the Los Angeles Times: "This really is a good-natured cult. Intellectually, they've got some horsepower, but mostly this is the whole left-wing litany, seen through an interesting prism." Secession, said McClaughry, "is not going to happen, and no one believes it is going to happen." In early 2007, an anonymously written blog, using material published by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), revealed that some advisory board members had affiliations with Neo-Confederate groups, such as the League of the South (LOS), resulting in internal and public controversy. In reaction, SVR co-founder Thomas Naylor told The Vermont Guardian that the organization has no direct link to LOS, except a link on the SVR website, and that SVR is not racist. He told a radio audience: "The SPLC is a well-known McCarthy-style group of mercenaries who routinely engage in ideological smear campaigns on behalf of their wealthy techno-fascist clowns. It's all about money, power, and greed." However, in response to this controversy, groups such as the Green Mountain Anarchist Collective (GMAC), who were generally favorable to the idea of Vermont secession and an empowered Town Meeting system of self-government, became publicly critical of the organization. GMAC published these misgivings in the Catamount Tavern News; Vermont Secession: The Extreme Right, And Democracy. In early 2008, SPLC did a long article about the group and interviewed Naylor. In July 2008, Naylor asked the League of the South to consider several actions to distance itself from the taint of racism. In October 2009 another SPLC article described the group's ongoing relationship with the League of the South. See also Flag of the Vermont Republic Green Mountain Anarchist Collective History of Vermont Politics of Vermont Killington, Vermont secession movement Free State Project References External links Second Vermont Republic home page 2003 establishments in Vermont Politics of Vermont Secessionist organizations in the United States Organizations established in 2003