can you add me to the porqupine list?
My vote is for either MT, WY or NH. I am planning to hit the western 2 States next spring, I only wish I could go before I vote.
Posted on 08/15/2003 7:53:21 PM PDT by Dada Orwell
This just went up on the FSP website.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Elizabeth McKinstry, Vice President Free State Project, Inc. Phone: (734) 904-5712 Email: emckinstry@freestateproject.org Website: www.freestateproject.org
Free State Project hits crucial 5,000 member mark
August 13, 2003
Celebrity writer Boston T. Party becomes 5000th "Free Stater" Group aims to migrate, free one state from "Big Gov." 5000th sign-up considered key milestone Event triggers crucial vote: Which state will become the Free State? One year ahead of schedule, America's fastest-growing liberty movement has just crossed a rubicon. This week Colorado author and privacy activist Boston T. Party became the 5,000th person to join the Free State Project, an organization working to concentrate 20,000 liberty-minded voters in one state. Their aim is to help reduce the size and scope of government there, making it a beachhead for individual liberty: The "Free State."
"It is my pleasure to formally join," says Party, author of "Boston's Gun Bible" and "You and the Police."
"Start packing your bags...We're all gonna be neighbors!"
Boston isn't the first public figure to become involved. Other notables in the movement include New Hampshire Governor Craig Benson (R) and syndicated columnist Vin Suprynowicz. But Boston's decision to join triggers both crucial events and warm responses.
"Boston T. Party was a favorite author of mine long before the Free State Project, " says FSP Vice Pres. Elizabeth McKinstry, "and it's thrilling to see the synergy between Boston and the FSP blossom in this way."
Having reached the 5,000 mark, the Project is now required by charter to select a state. Over the next month, members will vote by mail to choose between ten candidates: VT, NH, ME, MT, ND, SD, WY, ID, AK and DE. The winner will likely become their eventual home, though members are officially pledged to move only if their numbers reach 20,000.
Individuals wishing to participate in the state vote have until August 15 to join the FSP. Ballots are due Sept. 22, and (drumroll) the winning state will be announced on October 1, 2003.
In the meantime, Party says he's nearing completion on a novel he started in 1997: "Molon Labe!" The topic? Thousands of liberty lovers try to establish a Free State! Excerpts are now available on the FSP website, www.freestateproject.org.
I think it will come down to New Hampshire, Maine & Deleware and which of those three can only 20,000 people make a difference. Maine has 2 RINO senators, Delaware has 2 'Rat senators where they could have an effect. Would the strategy be for them to evenly disperse or to take over a particular town? What if these people leave swing states causing them to then swing over to 'Rat? The logic escapes me.
Good questions. For the first, they should try to concentrate in a particular area. Maybe not the same town, but perhaps the same county or the same state legislator district so they can at least get somebody elected. For the second, most of the people who sign up for this thing are libertarians and libertarian anarchists who seldom if ever vote Republican to begin with. So we won't be losing any votes by their departure. By contrast, if they do settle in a marginally 'rat state they may provide the electorate with a sizable enough minority to swing what would have otherwise been a two-way contest. In short, I don't think it will hurt anything and it does stand a good chance of picking up a couple of smaller offices with right wing conservative and libertarian candidates if they consolidate - small town mayors, city councils, state legislators, county commissioners and the sort.
DE:
Albert Gore Jr. 180,068 54.96%
George W. Bush 137,288 41.90%
Ralph Nader 8,307 2.54%
VT:
Albert Gore Jr. 149,022 50.63%
George W. Bush 119,775 40.70%
Ralph Nader 20,374 6.92%
ME:
Albert Gore Jr. 319,951 49.09%
George W. Bush 286,616 43.97%
Ralph Nader 37,127 5.70%
20,000 Won't even be enough to cancel out the radical greens' vote in VT and ME.
There is another thing to consider, low population states are generally low population for a reason: not too many jobs.
How many of these free staters would actually move when the time came? They would have to give up careers, friends, and location-dependant hobbies. I think many would reconsider when faced with making all these sacrifices all for the sake of some lower offices. To actually turn a state into a conservative bastion and make it worth their effort they'll need a hell of alot more than 20,000. See post #9
20,000 is 1/10 of the total voters in the state.
The FSP is not about winning a state for Republicans, it is about winning a state for libertarians.
-archy-/-
20,000 is 1/10 of the total voters in the state.
See also the following article regarding Wyoming redistricting.
The U.S. Census Bureau today delivered to Gov. Jim Geringer and the majority and minority leaders of the state legislature the official Census 2000 Redistricting Data Summary File for Wyoming that, under Public Law 94-171, could be used to redraw federal, state and local legislative districts.
The census data allow state officials to realign congressional and state legislative districts in their states, taking into account population shifts since the last census (in 1990) and assuring equal representation for their constituents in compliance with the "one-person, one-vote" principle of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. These data also are the first population counts for small areas and the first race and Hispanic-origin data from Census 2000.
The redistricting file consists of four detailed tables: the first shows the population for each of 63 single and multiple race categories; the second shows the total Hispanic or Latino population and the population not of Hispanic or Latino origin cross-tabulated by the 63 race categories. These tabulations are repeated in the third and fourth tables for the population 18 years and over. The data are for the resident population of the United States. (To access the detailed data, go to http://factfinder.census.gov).
Psychologists will have a field day explaining their penchant of imposing their toleration of evil upon each other. "I'm personally not involved in ____(fill in an evil here)____, but will be glad to move next door to you in order to impose my toleration and non-judgmentalism upon you."
Concur. That's one reason why Wyoming and Montana are thought of as more likely choices among the first 5000 signed-on Porcupines in the West, and why New Hampshire is generally the most preferred location of those on the Eastern Seaboard.
I think, however, that the first 20K will be but the tip of the wedge. Once others find out that they're not alone and that there is hope for them and their political beliefs elsewhere, I expect a good many leaving the failed pismire ant-people warrens in California and elsewhere will give it a go, signed on as pledged FSP members or not. We shall see, and fairly soon.
Back when we had less than a thousand pledged FSPers, I was considered to be overly optimistic by suggesting that the vote for *which state* would take place before this Halloween. My bet is that it'll take us about as long to garner the next 15 K as it did to get the first 5000. After that, deponent guesseth not.
-archy-/-
You don't understand who these people are. They are Job Creators, Innovators, Entrepreneurs, Hard Workers and aparently well off enough to pick up and move confidently. Whichever state is chosen it will be very fortunate to recieve some of the best, brightest and most determined this country has to offer.
You're half-right about concentrating on particular districts, but we're also attempting to avoid having all our porcupine eggs in one basket. As many as a quarter of those relocating are expected to head for the goal state's capital city, where they'll become the core of the eventual political party to evolve from the FSP migration- the FSP is NOT going to assume that role, avoiding alienation of existing long-term residents similarly inclined. We want to work with them and enhance their previous efforts, Not *show them how to do it*. THEY are the experts....
On the other hand, in at least three of the potential goal states, research has been done into previous elections and potentially winnable electoral districts, particularly in the Representative seats [this was a real easy project in Wyoming!] Whether one or none of those states is chosen for the initial effort, that research will NOT be abandoned simply because efforts will be directed elsewhere initially. Their time will come.
20,000 is 1/10 of the total voters in the state.
Pretty close. Actually, the likely chosen tactic is also going to include removal of incumbents of either party, via a *None of the Above* vote for porcupine- or other- candidates. But in any event, there'll be no easy no-opponent races for party hacks.
-archy-/-
The mainstay of local politics...the no-contest election. That's gonna really hurt....lol, I love it.
Yep. And the political, economic and social data collected in the consideration of which state to launch the initial FSP efforts is not being round-filed, but updated and reworked, as the overflow from the first effort makes a second and third possible, then more to follow in the successes of the first, and maybe others. Setbacks, sure, we expect 'em, but don't expect the FSP efforts elswehere to come to a halt just because they're initially focused in one location. If the porcupine hadn't been chosen as our symbol/mascot, I believe I'd have held out for Kudzu.
-archy-/-
...an incumbant in every pot...with the heat turned up!
-archy-/-
can you add me to the porqupine list?
My vote is for either MT, WY or NH. I am planning to hit the western 2 States next spring, I only wish I could go before I vote.
Perhaps you do not understand what a *pledged* porcupine is. I gave my word that I would do so, altering if not quite *giving up* career, friends and location dependent hobbies [and I HATE the idea that none of the viable choices were in the American South, but the numbers spoke for themselves. Someday....]
Neither am I teerribly happy about some of the Eastern locations, though events have turned my opinion around on two or three of the possible eastern choices, tythough I've made no secret that I favour a Western move, or possibly, Alaska, where I've previously resided, but where our initial effort will take longer.
So we shall see. But I gave my word and I'll keep it, and from what I've seen, most of my fellow porcupines are at least as serious about their intentions as I am.
-archy-/-
I hereby state my solemn intent to move to a state of the United States designated by vote of Free State Project (FSP) participants as specified in the Participation Guidelines of the FSP. Once this move occurs, I will exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of civil government is the protection of life, liberty, and property. I have read and understood the Participation Guidelines of the FSP and agree to be bound by them.
5,000 out of a country of 300 million. They should get a salute on Hee Haw.
My vote is for either MT, WY or NH. I am planning to hit the western 2 States next spring, I only wish I could go before I vote.
Agreed, though my granddad's Homestead Act plot is in Wyoming, making that an easy choice for me, and one to which I should be able to relocate to within 30 days of the announcement IF it's the one chosen. I could handle South Dakota or Montana about as well, having been peromised work and housing there if either of them are picked.
But whichever place, one way or another: see ya in the Free State, pal!
-archy-/-
As things are now going, and with the point of view we have now, I'd reluctantly have to agree with you that the future could be as bleak as you suggest.
But then too, few in the late 1980s or early 1990 foresaw the coming breakup of the Soviet Union, either. Things, and situations change, sometimes beyond the ability to easily see it coming. And I'd rather be among 20,000 others similarly inclined than in one of the liberal anthills when the lights go out.
As well as 20,000 more consumers and customers, very probably followed by others travelling in their footsteps.
Actually economists predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union after it stopped it's expansion, knowing that sooner or later the system would by design overload itself....
And I'd rather be among 20,000 others similarly inclined than in one of the liberal anthills when the lights go out.
Fully agreed my friend, better by a mile. The problem is that when the lights go out (not "if") there are going to be hordes of refugees flooding the still quite sucessfull FreeState(s)....
Exactly! The people prepared to move are not doped up losers. They are wealth creators, if it were otherwise they wouldn't want to move to somewhere where the gub safety net will be promptly pulled from beneath them.
Actually, I expect to hear squeals more like those of angry piglets. But either way, I think a few are going to find themselves in politically boiling waters much sooner than they'd like.
I've been impressed by the enthusiusm, practicality and maturity I've heard from many of the Porcupines of college age, and I've also noted a particularly high number of military veterans among the older ones, as I am- and including a sizable number of experienced combat arms officers. That makes for a real interesting mix....
Despite the regimentation, discipline and endless waste and often inefficiency, the military at least offered an evenhandedness and virtues [including honour] that were at least generally followed, if sometimes left in the breech for expediency's sake.
But the current system not only disregards such things but considers them as an anathema to their continuation, and rightfully so. You've read Heinlein's Starship Troopers I bet. *Those people* never had a History& Moral Philosophy course, much less fulfilled the first duty of a citizen....
-archy-/-
Yep, as per the FSP report of the Governor's interest *here*. Indeed, his endorsement is one factor that caused me to remove New Hampshire from my *Opt-Out* list of states I wouldn't be considering for relocation to, both for the acceptance of our migration as well as the liklihood that despite certain political and philosophical differences, we could work with statre leaders like Governor Benson.
Besides, I like the idea of having someone like Benson in the Governor's mansion.
Isn't it a shame what they did to that book? So now, the people who saw the flick but never read the book will never understand your comments....
Maybe. And maybe not. I understand a sequel to the first film is in the works....
I always get the shakes before a drop....
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