What is happening in Vermont suggests that a small state with long-standing libertarian traditions may turn out to be the best laboratory for initiating social change. But spreading that change could take some time. It was also the basis for the justices' ruling about same-sex couples. The personal nature of Vermont politics, too, encouraged its pioneering stand. You run into your legislator at the grocery store.
Legislators expect to be called at home.
Add to this the fact that the state's political center of gravity has moved to the left in the past 20 years. Bernie Sanders, the former socialist mayor of Burlington, now represents Vermont in Congress as an independent, and Sanders's supporters and ideological soul mates have formed the Progressive Party, which is fielding a candidate in this year's gubernatorial race. Reflecting this political shift, Vermont enacted a number of gay-rights laws in the 1990s that put the state far ahead of the national curve. Ed Flanagan was elected auditor, making him the first and only openly gay statewide elected official in the country. Some of the gay-rights legislation passed with significant Republican support.