would represent constituencies ofnabout two hundred people. Shiresnwould not be mere units of administration;nthey would actually make policy.nA liberal Burlington shire, for example,nmight spend prodigally for welfare,nwhile rural shires opted for Coolidgeannparsimony.nWith “geography as cocoon andnhistory as memory,” Vermont is annideal site for the rebirth of grass-rootsndemocracy. Its population is scatterednamongst 246 small towns steeped innthat noble New England tradition, thentown meeting. Industrialism, and thendependence it breeds, passed Vermontnby. The percentage of self-employednVermonters is twice the national average;nsmall, locally owned businessesnand dairy farms predominate.n(Although the Tennessee AgrariannDonald Davidson once marveled atnthis “land to which God had given anmonopoly of all things good and precise,”nVermont is not paradisiacal, andnno one knows this better than itsnneighbor, Upper New York. People onnour side of the border are friendlier andnless pretentious. Our natives are not asnsullen; our newcomers are not as uppity.nOur maple syrup tastes better. Etc.)nThe Vermont Papers was radical andnreactionary, as any modern expressionnof the Spirit of ’76 is bound to be. Itsnvision of men and women as citizensn— rooted, community-minded peoplenwho enjoy their liberty but are evernmindful of their obligations to neighborsnand the less-fortunate — seems ancharming anachronism in this rootlessnage. So, too, its celebration of localnpride and healthy parochialism.nBut populist anger also infuses thenbook: resentment against The PrettynPeople and those who disparage ordinary,nundegreed Vermonters. Mc-nClaughry confesses to “a natural animosityntoward urbanism,” and that biasnhas led some reviewers to conclude, innMcClaughry’s words, that “these guysnare living in a dreamworld of hobbits innthe back country.” They do not addressnthe maladies that the TV newsmenntell us really matter: AIDS, thenhomeless. South Africa, drug dealersnbumping each other off. Serious problems,nto be sure, but irrelevancies tonthe tens of millions of Americans whonlive in small towns and rural communities,nwho are fast becoming subjects ofnmetropolitan rulers, serfs of large dis­ntant corporations.nIronically, Vermont reviews of ThenVermont Papers have generally beennless perceptive than notices in nationalnpublications. The problem isnMcClaughry’s reputation. “The merenmention of this man’s name broughtnfoam to the mouths of liberals,” anVermont reporter has written.nMcClaughry’s failure to reach leftndecentralists recalls the only other politician,nin memory, to peddle such anthorough and plausible plan for reform:nNorman Mailer. Brooklyn’s favoritenfugging son, in his 1969 Democraticnprimary campaign for Gotham’s mayoralty,nproposed the virtual abolition ofnNew York City’s government and thendevolution of power to the neighborhoods,nalong the lines of Jefferson’snward republic scheme. Mailer callednhimself a “left conservative,” but nonone to the right of Greenwich Villagenever listened, and he lost badly.nThe McClaughry-Mailer parallelnexperiences are a sobering lesson tondecentralists. Mailer was right on everynimportant issue — he even opposednfluoridation of the water supply—butnManhattan’s tuxedoed conservativesngave him nothing but sneers. (Henwrote novels containing swear words,ndon’t you know, and said nice thingsnabout the Black Panthers’ demand fornHariem control of Hadem schools.)nMcClaughry, despite his Greenishnhue, his communitarian language, hisnpopulist attacks on concentratednwealth, is a bete noire to the Vermontnleft. Like Mailer, his failure to breaknthrough the liberal-conservative gossamernis due to style. He likes countrynand western music. He uses “CaptivenNations” in conversation. He twits thengay rights movement.nBut dammit, the man has somethingnto say, and if Jeffersonianism is everngoing to be resurgent in our AmericanJohn McClaughry’s the likeliest standard-bearer.nHe’s a homespun populistnbut no demagogue; he’s an intellectualnfluent in the vernacular of Americannpolitics; he’s a Northern Agrarian, annadmirer of both the Virginia planterstatesmennand the Vermonters whondefied the Fugitive Slave Law. Henloves history, lives and breathes it;nEthan Allen is very real to him.nMcClaughry has portraits of his heroesnon the wall: Jefferson, of course,nand John Taylor of Caroline and Fight­nnning Bob LaFollette and Robert Taftnand his old boss Reagan. He is a goodnfriend of Green writer-activist KirkpatricknSale, and is undoubtably the onlynReaganite ever to serve on the board ofndirectors of the E.F. Schumacher Society.nHe knows that the wisemen ofn20th-century politics are buried in thenfootnotes: Amos Pinchot, Burton K.nWheeler, Herbert Agar, and the unheedednprophets who wrote I’ll TakenMy Stand and Who Owns America?.nHe is also fond of ex-Oklahoma SenatornFred Harris, who with his classicnmotto, “No More Bullshit,” enlivenednthe 1972 and ’76 Democratic presidentialnprimaries. McClaughry’s requiemnfor Harris’s career serves, too,nas a self-assessrnent: “Fred is an eariyn1900’s Populist who’s been propellednforward in time with all the talentsnthat would have made him a contendernin 1916, but now, no one gets whatnhe’s talking about.”nHarris never figured out how to getnhis message across. Maybe McClaughrynwon’t, either. After McClaughry’snlosing primary campaign for the U.S.nSenate in 1982, his buddy Frank Bryanndescribed the hurdle that the candidatenhadn’t leaped: “How, with limitednfunds, to articulate his views to annelectorate that does not possess thennecessary concepts or language?”nPower to the Shires! has not caughtnon as a battie cry in Vermont yet, butnthere are favorable auguries. The VermontnPapers was enthusiastically reviewednin the pages of the Nation andnNational Review; the New Age bellwethernNew Options gave it lavishnfront-page treatment. On the homenfront, Bryan and McClaughry spearheadedna Republican/Green Party onslaughtnthat defeated Governor Kunin’snland-use master plan.nA Jefl^ersonian renaissance in Vermontnwould be a wonderful way tonusher out our bloody century. Butneven if The Pretty People pot thenwoodchucks once and for all, keep anneye on John McClaughry. He is, handsdown,nthe most interesting politician innAmerica; his way, the Ethan Allen-nLoco Foco-Prairie Populist way, liesnliberty, community, and the genius ofnthe Old Republic.nBill Kauffman is a novelist now atnwork on a book about the literarynheritage of Upstate New York.nDECEMBER 1990/47n