NEWPORT CENTER, Vermont — There's an important political lesson here in the soft green hills of this state.
Over centuries, Vermont has held to its traditions. Its communities govern themselves through town meetings in the slushy first week of March, when often it is treacherous to venture outside. Its governors face the voters every two years, a departure from 48 other states that have four-year terms. Its citizens revere higher education, even though the number of Vermont high school seniors is in such steep decline that only one out of five students at the state university is actually from Vermont. Its prevailing ethos, dating from Ethan Allen and his 18th-century Green Mountain Boys, is independence.
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