Etienne Note: Check out my article on the Free State Project to understand what this article from The Nation is missing: Somewhere around half of Free State Project members are self-described voluntaryists, anarcho-capitalists and/or peaceful anarchists. One of the running jokes in the FSP is: What is the difference between a libertarian and an anarchist in the Free State Project? About six months! The reason is that, unlike many parts of the country, where you might never hear the well-reasoned, logical and moral arguments of voluntaryism, anarcho-capitalism and/or anarchism at a political get together, you start talking indoctrinated statism at an FSP gathering and you will face multiple, intelligent, articulate voices that will give you an intellectual curb stomping. We are happy that our statist brethren are kicking ass in state-level politics, but the bigger and more important revolution brewing is the largest population of voluntaryists in the world is helping roll back “government” and slowly and surely exposing the scam of “government,” of easily rigged elections, the illegitimacy and immorality of “democracy,” and the state stands ready to be our “Laboratory of Liberty” to prove you can have prosperity and abundance without organized crime “government.” THIS is why anonymous interests are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to divide and conquer the Free State Project and make it look like a Republican, Nationalist and/or white supremist thing.
libertarian Intentional Community Roundup is where we cover libertarian and voluntaryist intentional communities and free private cities including Prospera (Honduras), The Free State Project (New Hampshire), Liberstad (Norway), Montelibero (Montenegro), Los Propietarios, (Argentina), Liberland (Croatia/Serbia border), Network States in general and Sea Steading (The Oceans). I am also covering secession movements including Greater Idaho, Please send details of any new happenings, projects or projects I am missing!
By Genevieve Morrison — The Nation
In the summer of 2022, 13-year-old Anthony Henry often pedaled 25 minutes on his bike through the leafy streets of Derry, New Hampshire. It was a tiring effort for an unlikely destination: his local school board meetings. There, he was determined to rail against mask mandates at his middle school.
At the time, he was three years away from getting his driver’s license and five from launching his first political campaign. “It was really just an exciting time to be involved, to be able to fight for something you believe in,” Henry said. “It kind of taught me that if people can take a middle schooler’s voice seriously, then that’s pretty cool, and that’s kind of why I stuck around.”
Henry is now 18 years old and a Republican candidate for the New Hampshire State House. And he’s not the only teenager vying for political office. There are a handful of college-aged politicians campaigning for the state House this fall, battling with the Republican trifecta currently holding the state—either to uphold it or break it down.
With 400 seats, the New Hampshire House of Representatives is the second-largest lower house in the country, behind only the US House in DC, despite being the 41st most populous state. Each member of New Hampshire’s House represents just 3,304 residents. If the US Congress had that proportion of representation, its House of Representatives would have 99,000 members.
That abundance of seats makes it easier for a wide range of candidates who might struggle elsewhere to win office, from teenagers like Henry to succession-minded libertarian activists descending on New Hampshire from coast to coast. And that ease of access is what drew in a new wave of political actors across the past few decades—a movement that has defined New Hampshire politics since.
In 2001, then–Yale grad student Jason Sorens wrote a letter that sparked a migration. Frustrated by the lack of political power libertarians were able to attain while dispersed coast to coast, he reasoned that if enough of them relocated to the right place, they might have a chance at consolidating power. From there, the plan was simple. Migrate. Run for state and local office. Secede from the United States. Since Sorens launched the “Free State Project,” an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 people have migrated to New Hampshire under its mantle.
There are no official metrics tracking how many of these so-called Free Staters hold elected office. However, the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance, a libertarian advocacy organization, grades lawmakers based on how closely they align with libertarian principles, offering a close estimation of who shares their ideology. According to its rankings, 166 of the state’s 400 representatives receive grades of 85 percent or higher. Jason Osborne, the House majority leader in New Hampshire, is closely linked to the movement, having moved to the Granite State from Ohio in 2010 and has earned a 94.7 score according to the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance.
In the state House, they’ve championed everything from gun rights to school choice to expanding access to investing state coffers in precious metals and cryptocurrency.
One reason why Free Staters are tough to spot is that many people reject the label publicly, simply running as Republicans and attracting partisan votes on the basis of party affiliation. That’s part of their strategy.
“If you believe in libertarian ideas, then the Republican Party is the most effective vehicle to be able to win elections and to be able to actually put those things into practice,” Free State Project executive director Eric Brakey said.
That tactic works, according to Dante Scala, a political scientist at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). “The Free State Project has tended to bat above their weight when it comes to the legislature,” Scala said. “They’ve made inroads into the Republican party at the state legislative level that is greater, I think, than their impact on the state’s population as a whole.”
But the marriage of traditional Republicans with libertarian politics leads to influence that cuts both ways—the New Hampshire Republican Party advances some libertarian interests, like the aggressive push for cryptocurrency access. In the same way, libertarians join their Republican colleagues on culture-war issues like banning transgender people from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender.
Continue Reading at The Nation Website with free subscription…
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