My arrival in the Granite State predates the Free State Project, but from time to time, I’ve been included as an accomplice. Ideologically, it makes sense. We agree on most things, and the details come down to how much or how little government.
As a keeper of the flame of our founding principles, I am certain we need some form of limited government to ensure our natural rights are protected. As little as possible, and there is debate about what that means or looks like, which is plenty of fun for all. There are free state anarchists with whom I disagree, at least on the no-government thing. They like to tell me I don’t understand what Anarchism is, and I explain that it doesn’t matter because I wholly grasp the wrecking ball that is human nature.
You can slice it anyway you like, but people are why it can’t work the way you’d like at scale. It’s the same problem with Marxist utopianism, which has had far more real-world tests at scale and always failed to do anything but make a few people rich and powerful, most everyone else poor and miserable, and some number in between graveyard deaths.
I’d take anarchy over Communism, but neither is the answer, nor is either the solution.
Elected Democrats and their activist supporters are convinced they can make Democratic Socialism work, and their policies always move you toward their goal. More government, more government control, and the increased spending and wealth confiscation required to sustain it.
To Democrats, there is no such thing as too much government or too much of other people’s money to fund it. Free Staters, the NH Liberty Movement, Conservatarians, and at least a majority of Republicans object in varying degrees to this view. They believe free markets and free people produce the best outcomes and that the Constitutional Republic, Federalism, States’ rights, and recognized Natural rights may deliberately constrain interference in this journey.
In other words, their missions are diametrically opposed, and I’m generalizing here. You do not need to send me your dissertation on the Free State Project. I pay attention. I know. This is a 30K foot “drive-by,” so keep your powder dry.
It has therefore become the NH Dems’ Alinsky-esque obsession to target Free Staters, smear them, and link anyone who disagrees with Democrats to them.
The problem here is that the mission of most, if not all, of the associated groups (Free Staters) is to maximize human flourishing. The government, especially one working the progressive agenda, stifles growth, productivity, and opportunity. Interest and investment wane under Left-wing rule, while the use of political or police force necessarily increases to manage outcomes. Frauds, schemers, and opportunists crowd the space once occupied by job creators and entrepreneurs looking for access to other people’s money.
Everything about that is true. Look at any blue city or state. They are the poster children for the failure that NH democrats want you to experience.
Seriously. How do you save anyone anything by rearranging the deck chairs on a ship that wants more money? And when did adding new layers of bureaucracy ever make life more affordable?
Never.
The Democrat agenda is bad for Granite Staters. We can see it in California, New York, Massachusetts, recently in Virginia, and with increasing speed in Vermont. The left has one playbook. Grow government, raise taxes, spend even more, and infringe on natural rights.
If anyone forgot how that looks and those examples aren’t enough, revisit the Obama malaise or the Biden anything, or don’t, because here’s the thing. Even if you don’t know what a free stater is, you know what a Democrat is.
You don’t have to love everything Republicans or the NH Liberty Alliance, Free Staters, or ‘Grok authors think. They all trust you more to make the right decisions for yourself and your family than Democrats. We think you know better how to spend your money on what matters to you, and that the government should take as little as possible. That if you donate, it will be to causes you trust and that represent your values. That you are better able to identify value, whether in an investment or a shopping choice and these decisions improve the marketplace and need no government intervention.
Nearly every personal choice you can make as an adult is better off in your hands than in the hands of some progressive majority of the army of bureaucrats they will hire to get in your way.
The government’s role is limited to ensuring that private individuals or interests honor their contracts, and do not get away with robbing you, ripping you off, slandering you, or killing you, and not much else.
Democrats see the government’s job as controlling and managing every aspect of everything at your expense, whether you agree or not. And if you disagree, they will slander you, call it misinformation, and if they have the juice, convince banks and tech platforms to censor you, disarm you, get activists to Doxx you, and maybe even harm you.
That’s not speculation or supposition. They’ve already done it or tried. The only thing keeping them from trying that (and the rest of it) again is you and all the people the Democrats are calling Free Staters.
