A clear statement of Free State philosophy

They may be able to fool NH once, (4.00 / 1)

but now that these anarchists are fully out of their faux Republican guise, the rational citizens of New Hampshire (including longtime traditional Republicans) won't fall for it again.

Hanging out with the class bully may give you a false sense of power in the short term, but it inevitably leads to remorse in the end.

I have faith in my fellow citizens that they will cut off the air supply for this self-serving den of weasels.

2012. Or sooner, in some cases.

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by: GreyMike @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 07:36:32 AM CDT

Not only do they espouse this (4.00 / 3)

but they move HERE to foist it on US.  What did they see in NH that made them think we were this kind of people?  They say it was this.

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 07:45:43 AM CDT

Doesn't That (4.00 / 1)

just drive you nuts?  Most of the things on that list are the result of people behaving, and expecting others to behave, like responsible adult members of a social system wherein people make occasional sacrifices of their own desires in order to produce common benefits.  The "Free Keene" contingent are even worse, as almost all of their list of reasons these asshats should move to Keene are things that wouldn't exist if these asshats had been running things here all along.

Sure, I voted for less government and less government spending...just NOT the parts that I benefit from!

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by: Ref @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 16:54:57 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Libertarian Totalitarianism (4.00 / 2)

The problem with churches is, they are a competing center of power. They must be destroyed or crippled.

The same with public TV and radio. The same with unions.

The "Free" State movement cannot tolerate any center of power except the State, under its control.

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by: elwood @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 08:03:57 AM CDT

small gummint hah (4.00 / 1)

These people say they want smaller, less centralized government. What they really want is to set themselves up as tin pot dictators, free to exercise their form of fascism over the rest of us.

They're attempting a coup - nationwide.  

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by: susanthe @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 08:26:51 AM CDT

What they want is rule without responsibility. (4.00 / 1)

The predatory mode of existence appeals to them.

The social mode depends on give and take, trade and exchange, over time and distance.  It's how an individually vulnerable species has managed to survive and thrive around the globe.

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by: hannah @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 11:00:49 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

They don't get (4.00 / 1)

"individually vulnerable" but we have always lived in groups, we evolved from creatures who lived in groups.  But I guess if you don't believe in evolution, that wouldn't matter, would it?  
I prescribe some courses in biology and anthropology.  These should be required before we let anyone touch our government.  

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 12:30:55 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Yes, the ignorant and incompetent do not deserve (0.00 / 0)

to be represented by the ignorant and incompetent. We can do better than that.

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by: hannah @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 13:08:03 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

They're Really (0.00 / 0)

just a bunch of ignorant, overgrown three-year-olds, demanding what THEY want without reference to anyone else's needs.

Sure, I voted for less government and less government spending...just NOT the parts that I benefit from!

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by: Ref @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 16:56:36 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Rep. Thomas Keane on the budget cuts (he misses the point, btw) (0.00 / 0)

Also check his column in the UL this week: "No need to reduce mental health services for eligible recipients" http://www.unionleader.com/art...

From NHPR: http://www.nhpr.org/life-and-d...

"Representative Thomas Keane says history shows that people are exaggerating about potential tragedies.

"Did we see huge increases in homicides? Did we see large numbers of people committing suicide? Actually we didn't. I looked at the data and it's been pretty stable. So we have had cuts. We've survived them before. We will survive them again."

HHS Commissioner Nick Toumpas doesn't doubt society will survive this next round of cuts.

But individual citizens, people with names and families may not.

"I think that people need to understand at the end of the day, it's going to be your friend, your neighbor, your work colleague...somebody will be impacted by this in a life or death situation. There's no question in my mind."

Toumpas says that's the message he's going to deliver as state Senators build their budget."
 

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by: Putney Swope @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 08:28:35 AM CDT

All individuals die. Societies have the potential of (0.00 / 0)

lasting for a very long time.  But, if they permit their members to die off in the prime of life (witness the epidemic of juvenile suicide), then that society will not long survive (witness any number of African societies, as well as the Maya).

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by: hannah @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 11:05:20 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

We should be judicious in blaming/ascribing too much credit to the FSP. (0.00 / 0)

As of today, 901 individuals claim to have moved to NH as part of the FSP. Of them, a significant chunk in Keene disavow making change through 'the system,' and refuse to vote (this is the general 'Free Keene' contingency, who believe in their version of civil disobedience rather than political activism to produce change.)  901 individuals is not enough to effectuate the changes we have seen by themselves, for certain.

A far bigger problem are the native-born granite staters, and conservatives who have left Massachusetts seeking to impose a socially conservative environment.  Dan Itse's cadre of of Constitutionally-Disfunctional Theocrats, police chiefs intimidating people who look Spanish, and much of the anti-public school contingency do not originate with the FSP, but are home-grown.

Do these groups get in bed together?  Absolutely.   Do the local GOP right-wingers encourage, train, equip, and help organize those who have moved as part of the FSP?  Absolutely.  
When the FSPers move and get political, and morph into the NHLA, does the NHLA turn a blind eye to the uneduated, mean-spirited, theocratic bent of the Right in order to create a winnable coalition?  Absolutely. Hence, my complete dissasociation with the NHLA.  

But there is a careful line we walk here.

Make no mistake that the lunacy we see in Concord is largely home-grown, though they are leveraging the passion of FSPers.

The good news, is that WE KNOW that their extreme philsoophy does NOT represent the typical Granite Stater in any way. Not yet...

...Right now, one of the biggest complaints that the 10,000 people who have signed onto the FSP (but who have NOT moved here) lodge is that they dont see any 'success.' We still have public schools, we have to register our cars, blah, blah, blah.  Jason Sorens, the FSPs founder, doesnt even live here.  If we all start actively promoting the idea that the FSP has been successful, we may well encourage these fringe wackos who live elsewhere to move here, exacerbating the problem.

Yes, we need to win back our state, and communicate to the voters the extreme, childish, and kooky nature of this legislature. But I am concerned that if we give the FSP too much credit for what is largely the result not of the FSP or a handful of legislators, but of a larger group of conservatives within the state, we send a problematic message to the outside and fool ourselves as to the real nature of our opposition.

 

(I'm the poster formerly known as Thomas Simmons)

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by: Tully Fitzsimmons @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 09:51:14 AM CDT

Yes, (0.00 / 0)

the Free Staters provide some propaganda, but the danger is done by the immigrants from MA (who are very far from being liberals), and some homegrown NH natives who are poorly educated enough to buy their nonsense.  
Most of the rest of the impetus comes from national astroturf organizations who co-opt our elections, and have a racist and pump-up-the-rich-some-more agenda.  

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 10:16:29 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

better not to underestimate the FSP (0.00 / 0)

I believe it's important to focus on the fact that the FSP has provided much of the political as well as social structure for what is now the Republican party in this State. Most people in NH, including many Republicans are still unaware of this.

The FSP has had an inordinate influence recently based on clever strategy, and stealth. They were well positioned to benefit from the Tea Party movement, disgruntled native NH conservatives/libertarians and MA tax avoiders over the past few years. They had a plan, and they are following it.

Democrats need to shine a light on this, and equally important, we need to come up with an alternative "plan" for NH's future. If we can do this, we don't have to fear the FSP being successful, - for more than a very brief period of time.
 

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by: vparmele @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 15:23:45 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I like (0.00 / 0)

"an alternate plan," because their plan won't work, unless we become a separate country.  It is impossible to run a state of the union the way they want to, and they won't like the results any better than the rest of us.  
They couldn't run a country, either, unless they like the Somalia model.  Can you see the pirate ships off the coast of NH?  

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 16:18:16 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Volunteers to America (4.00 / 1)

Please don't confuse these criticisms with their belief in this poppycock. Free Staters believe this stuff, self contradictory though it is. The point is to let them feel that nothing is their responsibility unless they want it to be. Every man for himself/herself. The obvious contradictions when they use public services are not seen as contradictions by them. There is a wide variety of things which they see as some sort of exuding of stuff for their use and benefit though they don't wish and don't believe they should pay for it. Roads, bridges, social comity, is a condition they deserve, not one which requires money, planning and cooperation unless they feel like it. That is the nexus of the volunteer stuff. I think they expect some dumb lunkhead to do the work to have budgets, work crews, supplies, plowing etc. It is just not them that are required to do these things. Though the US gives less that .7% GDP in foreign aid, they think it is between 20% and 30% and wish to cut it. This too should be voluntary - by someone else.  

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by: xteeth @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 09:53:45 AM CDT

Exactly (4.00 / 1)

And the MA tax cutters who moved here and, despite the propaganda about liberals moving here from MA, are the greater part of the influx from that state, are the ones who came here for lower taxes and then can't figure out why they have to go to the "dump" with their trash.  Why can't we have trash collection, they whine.  But cut the school budgets because our kids got educated in MA before we moved here.  We even had one who bought a house next to a wetland and then complained to the town that they let turtles come and dig holes in their manicured lawn to lay their eggs.  The town should have done something about that.  

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 10:12:07 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Freebagger demographic? (0.00 / 0)

I wonder how many Medicare and Social Security eligible people count themselves amongst ranks of the Free Staters?

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by: dooper @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 10:17:24 AM CDT

I don't know (0.00 / 0)

but my sense has always been that they are 30-40-ish mostly male, and immature enough to buy the line they have been sold.  The Tea Party tends to be the SS-Medicare crowd, who simply don't want people they disapprove of to get help from the government.  

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 10:20:24 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Very few. (4.00 / 2)

Your demographics may be more accurate for the Manchester/Concord crowd.

In Keene, the overwhelming majority are 20-30-ish, maybe a little more male than female. I would guess that a majority consider themselves to be free market anarchists of some kind.

Progressive-ish Free Stater Democrat, Free Keene blogger

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by: Will May @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 10:38:49 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Amanda Marcotte, (0.00 / 0)

who is one strong woman, had a post on her Pandagon blog about the relationship between Ayn Rand and our new libertarian/free state rulers. (Reading her always brings out the snark in me!)

At the end of the day, a purely transactional view of human relationships just doesn't work.  Objectivists...fancy themselves as purely logical, but they're not.  It's a philosophy rooted completely in emotion with no empiricism or rationality to it.  It's strictly due to a childish desire to kick and scream and have your needs met without having to contribute anything to anyone else.  It's about closing your eyes to the demonstrable fact that humans are pack animals and interconnected with each other, because you're so narcissistic that you want to believe that you fly alone.  And it's often about situations like this, where the libertarian wants an excuse to avoid basic grown-up responsibilities like taking care of your minor children or paying your taxes.
What's alarming is that this kind of narcissism is spreading like wildfire amongst conservatives...

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 13:53:26 PM CDT

These prickly anarchists are caught up in a myth. (4.00 / 1)

The myth that the size of government is inversely proportional to freedom.

Bad government is bad for freedom. You know, the kind of government we get when Republicans win elections.  Good government, however, increases freedom.  And while nobody likes taxes, a reasonable degree of taxation with representation is not an issue of liberty.

(they have a porcupine in their logo, hence "prickly")

--
Hope 2012

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by: Douglas E. Lindner @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 14:04:10 PM CDT

Prickly? (0.00 / 0)

Is it too obvious to just say that they're a bunch of pricks?

Sure, I voted for less government and less government spending...just NOT the parts that I benefit from!

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by: Ref @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 17:01:07 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I don't want to call them names, I'm making a point. (4.00 / 2)

I refuse to indulge in their narrative that they are the ones promoting freedom, and we're not. When I think of an organization that protects my freedom, I think of the American Civil Liberties Union, not the misleadingly named Free State Project.

--
Hope 2012

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by: Douglas E. Lindner @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 18:09:49 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Amen and Amen again. (0.00 / 0)

(I'm the poster formerly known as Thomas Simmons)

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by: Tully Fitzsimmons @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 18:41:10 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Adding: (4.00 / 1)

I am a libertarian. Truly, I am. I just don't think it means what they think it means. I'm against the Patriot Act; they're against the federal income tax. I'm against torture; they're against pubic schools. I'm against censorship; they're against trains.

Libertarianism, to me, is about liberty.

--
Hope 2012

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by: Douglas E. Lindner @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 18:25:48 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

How do you govern... (4.00 / 3)

When you believe "all taxation is theft"?

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by: BeGreener @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 14:40:46 PM CDT

We are seeing the answer to your question in Concord right now. n/t (4.00 / 1)

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by: Mike Emm @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 17:18:34 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

You Don't (4.00 / 1)

That is the whole point of anarchism, on paper: No rulers, no governors.

But it is a naive proposition (unrealistic).  Right-wing anarchists, such as most the ones in NH via the FSP, believe, as Douglas pointed out, that freedom is inversely proportional to the size of government (ah, if only politics were THAT simple, eh?).

Left-wing anarchists, generally, are more concerned with the abolition of hierarchy (both in government, and the workplace, and the family, etc.), and I've seen them support propped up government regulation and mandates if they believed it was conducive to that end.

I do not consider myself a right or left wing anarchist, but I am familiar with the philosophy.

I would ask you all, for your own sake, for NH's sake, to keep in mind that anarchism will become more and more politically relevant in NH, as time goes on.  It is best you try to understand it.

Will May is a former anarchist.  Reading his blog about how he came to the left (which you can find here on BH), would be useful.

Similarly, I consider myself in line with the ideals of "no one ruling over another", "ni dieu, ni maitre", etc., but that gets very fuzzy in reality, and I do NOT believe that simply destroying government is conducive to human freedom (in fact, quite the opposite, as we shall soon see here thanks to our Republican friends).

Reading my blog here entitled "Our Priorities Define Us", may help you understand where I come from.

pragma supra ideo

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by: Andrew Carroll @ Sat Apr 09, 2011 at 22:57:33 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I am continually puzzled (0.00 / 0)

by the inability of so many to get the idea of a cooperative community as a model for human living in groups.  Unless you make the choice to be an absolute hermit, you are going to live in a community of humans.  It is how we evolved, and our preferred organizational model.  
The whole idea of the USA, which has been a work in progress for our entire history, was to find a way to include everyone and have them represented fairly in a government of the people.  While it's perhaps one of the most ambitious projects of any group of people, it is not a pipe dream.  But when you turn corporations into people and money into speech, you poison the community.  
Community organizing, community building are huge parts of our history and remain the most important political tools and goals in human history.  We ignore them at our peril.

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Sun Apr 10, 2011 at 06:01:42 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

You are correct... (4.00 / 1)

...and much of nuanced left-wing anarchism and left-wing libertarian literature is saturated with concepts such as mututalism, labor-owned & managed enterprise, etc, rather than right-oriented corporate privilege.

Notice, that for all of the current breast-beating in Concord about liberty, you dont see the GOP or the rightists rushing to dismantle the state-granted beer distribution monopolies, do you? You don't see them advocating for the union rights of truck drivers or warehouse workers within those state-granted-monopoly employers, do you?

Community organizing, mutual organization, enfranchisement of the disenfranchised, civil liberties, and breaking the back of the State-Corporatist relationship that amasses wealth and power in the hands of the few is a place where Progressives and Left-Libertarians have much in common.  Think Noam Chomsky.  

(I'm the poster formerly known as Thomas Simmons)

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by: Tully Fitzsimmons @ Sun Apr 10, 2011 at 06:34:13 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

one little hurdle that is hard to get over after "all taxation is theft"... (0.00 / 0)

so-called "right-wing" anarchists and some "left-wing/left-libertarian" anarchists actually don't believe in social contract theory (vs. monopolistic statutory law) but instead believe in market-based, poly-centric law with private, defense/insurance agencies vying for customers who contract direct with them (no implicit "social" contract).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

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by: BeGreener @ Mon Apr 11, 2011 at 10:17:21 AM CDT

[ Parent ]