Yeah. Let's game it up -- do you think the nuclear reactor is too close to the residents?
Posted on 01/28/2007 5:33:27 AM PST by NewHampshireDuo
By now, 20,000 liberty-minded Americans should have started packing their wagons to head east – to the new frontier of libertarianism in New Hampshire.
But more than three years after the Free State Project announced it had chosen the Granite State as its home base for furthering bare-bones government, the movement has fallen way short on membership goals.
The group had hoped that by 2006 it would have 20,000 like-minded people pledged to move here. Once that target was reached, the committed masses would have then hauled their families and furniture to New Hampshire, ultimately integrating into state culture and politics.
But to date, only about 7,500 people have agreed to uproot their lives and start over in a state that offers not only the possibility to spread libertarian ideals, but also a comparative dearth of economic opportunities as found in other parts of the country.
“If we knew the answer to the question on how to get to 20,000 by the end of 2006, we would have done that,” said Free State Project Director Varrin Swearingen. “It should go without saying no one has done anything like this before, so we’re inventing the wheel. It’s not an easy task.”
Indeed, the project earned widespread notoriety for its novel approach of allowing members to choose one out of 10 states as a future home. In October 2003, 5,454 members chose New Hampshire over Wyoming, Montana, Vermont, Maine and five other states that already had streaks of libertarianism. Since the hoopla of that vote, only 2,000 more people have made the pledge.
Free Staters aren’t obligated to get their wagons rolling until the 20,000 milestone is reached, and with 2006 since passed, anyone who held second thoughts has been allowed to slip out of the pledge, Swearingen said. He stressed that 2006 wasn’t a target set in stone, but rather more of a loose goal.
Many Free Staters, though, in interviews several years ago, spoke of the deadline in nearly hard-and-fast terms.
More than 100 pledge signers – including Swearingen – didn’t bother to wait for the 20,000 objective to be reached and have already moved to New Hampshire, he said. But with no one yet obligated to come here and fewer people committing, the movement seems to be stalled.
“There is a significant impediment to moving,” said Swearingen, who in 2004 left California with his wife and two children and settled in Keene. “There are real issues to deal with; it can be tough to start over.”
Lifestyle choices – leaving good jobs, friends and family to start over – are reasons why many Free Staters have probably hesitated to pull up their stakes, said University of New Hampshire associate professor of political science Mark Wrighton. Particularly, people living in the South and West regions of the country, where population and economic opportunities are growing, have less reason to move, he said.
“You’re asking people to do something against the trend of where the population movement is,” Wrighton said. “And it goes against the general trend that people don’t stay in New Hampshire. People tend to leave the state and not come back.”
To Swearingen, there is an economic advantage to living in the Granite State: less taxes. His savings in taxes has already paid for his move from the West Coast, he said.
Not every Free State Project member is a libertarian. Some register as Republicans and a few as Democrats. They espouse a wide spectrum of causes: gun rights, decriminalization of marijuana and the overriding goal of less government.
Even though they aren’t quite 20,000 strong, the members who already live here have made a difference, Swearingen said. For instance, members helped lobby against a state measure that would have banned smoking in restaurants, and they have played a part in defeating municipal budgets that total in the millions, he said.
To kick-start the drive to 20,000, the Free State Project has launched a new initiative. One member who has already committed is asking 999 others to do so by year’s end, with the pledge terminating next New Year’s Day.
The movement has no plans of ceasing, but just re-emphasizing the importance of moving to New Hampshire, Swearingen said.
Of course, the longer it takes 20,000 to make the pledge, the longer it takes for them to settle here and become ingrained in New Hampshire life.
“For many folks, this is a novel and interesting idea,” Wrighton said. “I don’t think anyone would want to proclaim the movement as necessarily dead. If the numbers haven’t moved in 20 years, then you might call the movement dead.”
The wheel is useful in a million ways.
This movement is probably not.
No, you do like PBS and declare another membership drive.
"No, you do like PBS and declare another membership drive."
they really need to do what furniture stores do, every other month have a "Going Out Of Business Sale"
Really ... new hampshire ...?
Is it really a surprise that no one is moving ?
NH is a beautiful state, a little cold though, and not a whole lot of opportunity, unless you want to commute to Boston.
Which means about 75 would actually have moved.
I have lived in New Hampshire. There are lots of kooky cults out in the woods.
If this group were not loaded to the gills with tofu atheists they would join ranks with the Church State folks in South Carolina who are vigorously libertarian, albeit Christian. Now that would get some results.
Might have something to do with bitter cold winters, and massive influx of liberals from Boston.
South Carolina is a much better choice.
Libertarians need to start thinking on a scale greater than 1-2%.
Actually, not. SC is a very red state with a very strong Christian influence, a good thing. I doubt the majority of South Carolinians would agree with the Free-stater's libertarian leanings.
One thing that would help their movement considerably is a New Hampshire "destination". That is, the Free Staters should set up a Free State village or town, as sort of a receiving center for new arrivals. Just calling for people to move to a State is too broad and impersonal.
Without making a philosophy out of it, the Free State village should present itself as a picture of old-fashioned, friendly, community life. To a great extent this is a function of village design. You want people to say "Wow! This looks like a great place to live", and to think by extension, that this is a microcosm of New Hampshire.
A good design for such a village would be a town square with its town hall and Free State office, surrounded by small local businesses, with no corporate chains and restrictive and subdued advertisement zoning.
Branching off from the town square would be a type of housing that experimentally has proven to be very family friendly. Hexagons or octagons of houses or condos, each with a small private backyard, but sharing a much larger, common backyard. It is like an inverted cul-de-sac.
There is also a branching street reserved for unusual and non-commercial buildings. This is where you put the grocery and hardware store, churches, private school, post office, fire and police department. Branching off of that street is where the adult-oriented businesses are placed, such as theaters, a bar and a gun store.
When new Free Staters would arrive in the State, they would first head to that town as the welcoming center, to give them a taste of a low-stress, low-government environment. Having a place at the edge of town where they can securely leave their goods, with a motel good for a week or two, a short walk into town directs them right to the town square Free State office.
The Free State office should be a font of information about where is a good place to find an apartment or a home, where to find the right job, New Hampshire information, how to keep in touch with other Free Staters, etc. And it should also offer that the people stay a week or two in the village, to relax, get organized, and figure out what to do next.
Because there is nothing like a safe, comfortable place to sleep, good food, and helpful people to convince somebody that it is a nice place to live.
An oxymoron. I can't see a libertarian approving a law against immoral behavior which doesn't harm others.
A classical liberal, yes. A libertarian, no.
Uhhhh....like man....uh....like uh, I was gonna move....yeah, like man....I wuz too stoned
Yeah. Let's game it up -- do you think the nuclear reactor is too close to the residents?
An oxymoron. Immorality is defined in all its manifestations as behavior that harms others. Is it possible to be immoral in absolute isolation from others? Doubtful. Suicide may be the only way. Another assumption you are guilty of is assuming that Christians are about the business of trying to control the behavior of others. I am not aware of any political or religious group that does not try to influence others. Your implied criticism is, therefor, a red herring. If you define libertarian as atheistic then it is not libertarian. If you define libertarian as anarchistic it is not a movement since all movements have at least implied organizing principles. The difficulty is as I described. Too many who call themselves libertarians are in fact atheists and anarchists.
Well, it at least affects others. But you're preachin' to the choir.
Ask any libertarian, however, and they'll tell you that prostitution, pornography, drug use, gambling, and other vices committed by consenting adults harm no one but (possibly) the participant -- and that behavior is none of our business.
"Another assumption you are guilty of is assuming that Christians are about the business of trying to control the behavior of others."
Only in the sense that a Christian would approve of a morals-based law that a libertarian would not.
"Too many who call themselves libertarians are in fact atheists and anarchists."
We agree.
"If you define libertarian as atheistic then it is not libertarian."
You don't need to be an atheist to be a libertarian -- though it certainly helps. Libertarians take the position of moral relativism as their "religious" philosophy. Many libertarians on this forum consider themselves Christians.
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
I agree that this is a major tenent of many libertarian's position. It is manifestly false. Prostitution is rampant with child abuse and drug dependency. Drug use creates dependencies that can hardly be described as benign. Gambling, alchohol, sexual promiscuity and other similar vices invariably hurt someone, usually family members.
Moral relativism only works if there is no willingness to recognize the effect of one's bad behavior on others.
If it is my wife's problem that she cannot cope with my vices then it is also her problem that she bruises when I beat on her. Such thinking is anathema to moral codes.
Do Your Thing ethics is really anarchy, not libertarian. A genuine libertarian ethics protects the liberties of the community, not the social misfit.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.