I did not have this on my Friday Bingo card! As we New Hampshirites know, the Free State Project had people who put Liberty as the highest Civics value and moved to NH as it was selected to be the State where a few committed people could make a difference according to the Declaration of Independence’s purpose…:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
…and also running for elected office. Why not, as the Democrats have made it clear that they are the Party of Government (that Government is the highest value and have embedded themselves into Government to make that happen)? As it has turned out, ANYone that disagrees with that is subject to all kinds of opprobrium, scorn, and fearmongering (THEY ARE DANGEROUS to Our Democracy!!!!). Democrats desire nothing less than single Party Rule. Problem is, as we are seeing in California, their socialistic totalitarian ways that are bereft of any concern for Individual Liberty their subjects are unable to make decisions for their own lives.
So, with all that said, I was really amused and bemused to read this:
A “Free State Project” Inspired Gun Owner Migration Strategy to Win Elections
The FSP has had a noticeable impact. As of late 2021, 40 Free Staters had been elected to the New Hampshire legislature, including the House Majority Leader. Besides the electoral wins, the FSP has also had an ideological impact on the Republican Party, making it more libertarian…If you loosely define libertarianism as “fiscally conservative but socially liberal,” that’s only about 16% of the electorate according to Nate Silver. Clearly, the FSP has punched above its weight class, using a thoughtful strategy combined with persistence spanning two decades.
The proof is in the pudding:
New Hampshire entered 2021 with more liberty representatives than ever before.
– 69 of @YALiberty 2020 wins were in NH (25% of their wins)
– 74 @RebuildNH candidates won
– 91 @nhliberty endorsed candidates won
– ~40 Free Staters were elected, including to House Majority Leader pic.twitter.com/Sq83HmxjUZ— The Free State 🦔 (@FreeStateNH) December 31, 2021
And I don’t think that I am overstating the fact that NH Socialists / Progressives / Democrats hate them with white hot passion (right, Jeanne Dietsch?? And add in no small number of GOPe-ers and RINOs that have hated any Libertarian/Conservatarian as well) in keeping them from duplicating California here. Like it was a God-given right to rule or sumptin…
But I digress. So here’s the thought – what if gun owners were willing to uproot themselves in defense of THEIR value of “…keep and bear arms.”? While one can put forward the supposition that while gun ownership is only a subset of Liberty, the Left has made it a lighthouse to shoot at (yes, pun intended). So what if the 2A-ers did what the FSPers have done (reformatted, emphasis mine):
In my previous article, I talked about how the migration of just 2% of New York gun owners to Pennsylvania can change presidential elections. What if a similar strategy of concentrated fire is replicated nationwide? In other words, what if Second Amendment advocates do what Free Staters have done nationally?
There is an advantage that gun owners have: there are a LOT more of us – close to 100 million – than there are committed libertarians. Since the last presidential election, around 22.3 million people have become first-time gun owners. That gives us a lot of power nationally although our power within states varies. Some states have a higher concentration of us resulting in “wasted votes,” while others have too few of us resulting in our rights getting trampled.
For the four decades I’ve been in NH, we’ve seen the likes of Zandra Rice-Hawkins, David Meuse, and Deb “Hip Check Assault Weapon” Altschiller move into NH while assaulting Freedom type folks with great alacrity – and never admitting their hypocrisy in doing the exact. same. thing. in getting “their” people to move here. Plan?
Taking a page from the Free State Project, Second Amendment voters can embark on a political migration project as follows:
- Find swing states with the narrowest margins of victory.
- Migrate disenchanted gun owners from adjacent anti-Second Amendment states.
- Migrate some “wasted votes” from adjacent strong Second Amendment states.
And the purpose of the Plan?
This strategy should make it harder for an anti-Second Amendment presidential candidate to win an election. Candidates will need to soften their infringement proposals, stop weaponizing the executive branch, and give us a better judiciary if they want to win.
Might it work in Vermont? Maine? Dunno but it certainly wouldn’t in Massachusetts, NY, Rhode Island. Unsure about Connecticut. However, here is some musings on a couple of targets: Where?
So, which states should be targets for migration? Starting with the closest states from the past 2 elections, I narrowed it down to those that: 1) had a <5% margin of victory, 2) switched parties between 2016 and 2020. These states, ranked in the order of narrowest margins, are:
- Wisconsin (2016: R 0.77% → 2020: D 0.63%)
- Pennsylvania (2016: R 0.72% → 2020: D 1.16%)
- Michigan (2016: R 0.23% → 2020: D 2.78%)
- Arizona (2016: R 3.50% → 2020: D 0.31%)
And those are all battleground States as well. Snipping out the detailed examples, the results:
It won’t take much to swing these states in a pro-2A direction. For example, Illinois and Iowa have almost 5 million gun owners combined. Just 20,000 of those gun owners migrating to Wisconsin can change presidential elections.
…The Free State Project has shown that organized political migration can have a positive impact. It’s time for gun owners to think and act on a similar strategy.
That’s a gun owner population shift of just 0.4%. And indeed, for all of the Democrats’ caterwauling, the FSP movement has been a positive here in NH.
So, does this have any merit? I think so but what’s more important is do YOU think so?
(Note: Porcupine with AR-15 generated by Perplexity AI)
(H/T: Bearing Arms)
