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Anti-Bush entrepreneurs retool products for new times

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MONTPELIER – For Elliot Nachwalter, it was one insult too many from President Bush.

More than three years ago, Nachwater's jaw dropped when he learned that the Republican president allowed Clinton-era environmental laws to expire. All the regulations needed to continue were Bush's signature.

"I turned to my wife and said, 'When is this going to be over?'" Nachwalter remembered recently.

The Manchester pipe carver decided to fight back – by looking forward. He scribbled on a piece of paper the date of Bush's final day in office – Jan. 20, 2009.

A light bulb went off in his head.

Within just a few months, Nachwalter would print up that image – "1.20.09 Bush's Last Day" on stickers, T-shirts, clocks and other merchandise and see it sold at more than 600 stores across the country. National news reports of the countdown merchandise pegged Nachwalter's sales at more than $1 million.

"It was probably the Web site that really helped us along," Nachwalter said, referring to www.BushsLastDay.com, which not only allows people to buy the merchandise but also connects them with progressive political organizations.

"The Web site went viral and really got us out there," he added.

But with just days to go before the end of the Bush administration – three days, 21 hours, 16 minutes and 23 seconds as this reporter typed this story, according to a countdown clock at Nachwalter's Web site – Vermonters who have benefited from the backlash against the Republican president are now wondering what do with all this stuff.

Surprisingly, Nachwalter said he doesn't have much of anti-Bush merchandise left over (the Web site is offering a 75 percent discount on the remaining items). He launched a line of Obama merchandise – "1.20.09 Obama's First Day" – several months ago, which are also popular.

"We're actually very busy this week, busier than we were before Christmas," Nachwalter said. "We're shipping a lot of merchandise out overnight for people before the inauguration."



Out of Vermont

Riverwalk Records, a store specializing in vinyl and old rock merchandise just up the street from the Statehouse in Montpelier, found itself splashed all over newspapers and the Internet in the summer of 2007 when the media highlighted Vermont's secession movement.

The store, at the time, was printing and selling – and at a brisk pace, too – shirts printed with the slogan, "U.S. Out of VT!" The store even launched a Web site to promote the shirts – www.usoutofvermont.com – and proudly states that the shirts were featured on FOX News, Huffington Post and in the pages of the Boston Globe.

Store owner Jacob Grossi said he is not one of the ardent supporters of Vermont's secession movement, but that he began offering the shirts because he thought it would provoke some interesting debate.

But he added that the movement could lose some steam without the Bush administration as a boogey-man.

"It's always good to remind people that secession is an option," Grossi said. "We should remember that we are here voluntarily and we don't have to send our tax dollars to Washington so that they can send it back and tell us how to spend it."

"This is really more of a states' rights issue," he added.

Thomas Naylor of Colchester, one of the founders of the Second Vermont Republic, the state's secession movement, said there were three recent events that were "lightning rods" for many who desire to see the Green Mountain State leave the United States.

The first was Bush's military and domestic responses to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Naylor said. The next two were the 2003 invasion of Iraq and Bush's re-election to a second term a year later, he said.

"But, in the long run, I don't see Bush leaving office as making any huge difference," Naylor said. "It doesn't matter who the president is, Democrat or Republican, because it is the same old, same old."



'It was on a timer'

White River Junction's Chelsea Green Publishing Co. has released books focusing on progressive politics and sustainability for more than 20 years – but two of its biggest best sellers in recent years focus on the Bush administration and Washington, D.C., Republicans.

George Lakoff's 2004 "Don't Think like an Elephant!" (featuring a forward by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean) sold more than 250,000 copies and last year's "The End of America" by Naomi Wolf landed on the New York Times bestseller list.

Chelsea Green Publisher Margo Baldwin said as bad as Bush's eight years have been for the country, they've also been great for politically progressive book publishers.

"Still, the end of the Bush administration is a cause for celebration," Baldwin said. "We published political books before Bush and we will still publish political books after Bush."

In the last year, Chelsea Green has moved toward new types of books for their customers. The company this year released Robert Kuttner's "Obama's Challenge," which looks at the multitude of problems facing the president-elect. The company "took a chance" on this book, Baldwin said, releasing it in August, months before the presidential election.

Baldwin said new political books will likely tackle the financial, military and social problems facing the country, pointing to Thomas Greco's "The End of Money and the Future of Civilization," which will come out in April 2009.

Chelsea Green also sees a possible rise in how-to guides that help people survive tough times. Baldwin said readers can expect to probably see new books about gardening, food preservation and other guides that point to a back-to-the basics style of living.

"There is still going to be lots to write about, especially as the whole system collapses," Baldwin joked.

Down at Brattleboro's Everyone's Books, many of Chelsea Green's books can be found in the racks. The store, which specializes in environmental and progressive literature, also has walls full of bumper stickers and shirts, many of which poke fun at the Bush administration.

Owner Nancy Braus said the Bush countdown merchandise and anything promoting Obama are still popular at the store – although the fever had died down since the election two months ago.

"Oh, the whole Bush industry is clearly over," she said. "It had to be. It was on a timer."

But interest in politics will not go away with the Bush administration, she said. Her customers still have a desire to see peace, she said, and are concerned about other issues, such as the corporate control, health care and human rights.

Bush was always "more of a symbol" of dissatisfaction with current affairs than anything else, she said.

"We're now seeing customers come in looking for merchandise around the bailout," Braus said. "People are feeling very frustrated and angry about our government's bailout of Wall Street."

And, she adds, those on the far-left politically will be keeping a close eye on Obama as he begins his first term as president.

"Obama is far better than Bush, but he is no leftist," Braus said.



Welcome to Vermont, Mr. President

Vermont is the only state that Bush had not visited while president – and with only a day or two left in his term, it's clear that the Green Mountain State will retain that distinction.

And why would he come here? He never won the state in his two presidential elections; dozens of towns and the Vermont Senate passed nonbinding resolutions calling for his impeachment; and at least one town – Brattleboro, the home of Braus' progressive bookstore – voted to have him arrested if he ever set foot in the community of 12,000 people (local police have said they cannot enforce that vote, however).

Washington Times writer Joseph Curl tackled this subject in a newspaper column in December, writing, "He's got just 46.5 days left in office, and a scant 50-minute flight aboard his personal 747 to allow him to check off that 50th state. So will he do it?"

Probably not, according to the White House, at least if you read between the lines. Reporter Les Kinsolving, who is a correspondent for WVMT in Burlington, along with several other radio stations across the country, asked White House spokeswoman Dana Perino on Dec. 4 if the president "while ignoring the towns that impeached him" will ever "visit the rest of Vermont?"

"That's a good question," Perino responded. "But I don't have an answer for you today."



Contact Daniel Barlow at Daniel.Barlow@timesargus.com.