Libertarian Jilletta Jarvis Announces Run for NH Governor in 2018
The 2018 election is over and Jilletta Jarvis, the Libertarian candidate for Governor of New Hampshire has failed to reach the 4% required for the Libertarian Party of NH to retain ballot access, which it achieved in 2016 for the first time in two decades. I want it to be clear, I really like Jilletta and she was a much better candidate than the 2016 offering from the LP, Max Abramson. Jilletta ran a good campaign and was much more active than Abramson, but didn’t even come close to Abramson’s 4%. She got 1.46%. What happened?
It’s pretty clear that 2016 was a fluke. I’d speculated then that Abramson, who barely existed as a candidate, and other “Libertarians” like Gary Johnson at the national level had benefited from people’s frustrations with Trump and Hillary being their main presidential choices. It’s pretty clear this palpable frustration benefited all third parties in 2016, with the Libertarian and Green presidential candidates getting three times their vote totals from 2012. People weren’t voting for the Libertarians and Greens, they were voting against Trump and Hillary.
Add to that the fact that major media entities WMUR and the Union Leader set their debate rules to exclude the Libertarian candidates like Jilletta, and it’s pretty clear she didn’t get a fair chance from all New Hampshire media. Shame on WMUR and the Union Leader for excluding their viewers and readers from knowing about their third choice.
Libertarians Protest Unfair Debates Outside St. Anselm College
Of course, the two-party duopoly has long been complicit in excluding libertarians politically. In the 90s when the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire got ballot access for the first time by getting over 3% of the vote, the Republicans and Democrats voted to raise the bar 33% higher to its current level of 4%.
Not all the blame can be placed on the media and government, however. While Jilletta is a wonderful person and a far better candidate than we had in 2016, she wasn’t the most principled libertarian. Doubt my claim? Even the Keene Sentinel knows what a libertarian is supposed to sound like. In a recent piece in the Sentinel, opinion page editor Wilfred Bilodeau said:
She seems enthusiastic and smart, but we were struck at how her libertarian vision differs from some of the party’s more orthodox candidates. She says she’s for smaller government but outlined several programs that would necessitate spending more money. To improve education, she pitched the concept of centralizing public education, with the state collecting all education taxes and determining how to best spend them. That strikes us as anything but a libertarian approach. Overall, we feel Jarvis has some worthy ideas, but her vision for the state seems unfocused, perhaps due to the pressure of trying to appeal to enough voters to garner the 4 percent of the vote needed to keep the party on the ballot.
The good news is the media, at least in Keene, has learned what a libertarian is supposed to say. A true libertarian should be advocating the non-aggression principle and applying it consistently across all government programs. That means eliminating coercion from the system, or eliminating the system entirely. That’s it. If Jilletta believes in some government coercion, she really shouldn’t be the party’s nominee. Watering down the message does not win over votes. Staying true to principles is what the LP is supposed to be about. Hopefully the LPNH will offer more principled state level candidates in the future so we can see how their vote totals compare to Jilletta and her similarly – as the Sentinel described it – “unfocused” predecessors. (more…)
As a libertarian, I believe in choices. Real school choice isn’t just choosing where to direct some tax money, which is typically what is considered “school choice” when talked about politically. Real school choice is being able to choose whether or not to support the government’s “education” programs entirely.
Government forces you to pay for its awful monopoly system, even if you want to unschool, homeschool, or send your children to private school. If you don’t pay their school taxes, the people calling themselves “the State of New Hampshire” will steal your home from you.
The best solution for real school choice is to end the government’s monopoly control of education. Let the current staff have ownership stakes in their schools and have to raise their operating money through consensual, voluntary means like charging tuition, holding fundraisers, or whatever peaceful means. Allow parents to decide whether to fund or not fund those schools.
Freedom means the ability choose to say no. Please vote Libertarian this November.
Thank you for reading and for your consideration,
Ian Freeman
Libertarian Candidate for NH Senate District 10
Great news! As of 2016’s election, the Libertarian Party of NH regained ballot status equal to the Rs and Ds for the first time in two decades! I’d previously been registered as a Democrat for the purposes of running for office but this year I made the switch to Libertarian, since it was the first time I’ve been able to do that since moving here in 2006.
That’s the short version of the story. There’s more, however. In addition to re-registering to vote as a Libertarian, I also modified the voter registration form to reflect my “state citizen” status and put the Keene City Clerk and Secretary of State of NH offices on notice of that.
What is a “state citizen”, you ask? Good question. Here’s my understanding, which the clerk and S.O.S. didn’t contradict. I present to you the notice I sent to the clerk and S.O.S. and the video of my visit to the clerk’s office to change my voter registration and notice them of my state citizen status, under duress. Below the video, I’ll discuss in more detail.
First, beware that there are a lot of “paytriots” out there who will sell you information purported to get you out of the state system if you just file the right papers in the right order in the right places. It’s all a bunch of crap, from what I can tell. If you try their methods and they don’t work, they’ll just claim you did something wrong. You didn’t study enough, didn’t buy the advanced course, etc. (more…)
“Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy. And ideas are bulletproof.” -V
Masked Supporters of Secession Have Gathered Multiple Times in Keene in the Last Month
For the last month, activists in Keene have been appearing at Central Square for NHExit demonstrations featuring masked participants. Many of them attend wearing V masks, from the movie, “V For Vendetta”.
Why perform masked demonstrations in favor of secession? First, ’tis the Halloween season, so masks are certainly appropriate, but more importantly, masks are just more fun. Many people love to see the V masks and some will even stop their cars to take photos or park and get out to come compliment us.
At our mid-month event, a gentleman from Chicago with a fancy camera came over to say hello and express how pleased he was to see people out demonstrating for secession. He snapped some photos and kindly sent me copies. You can see them attached to this article. Thanks, Raymond. (more…)
It’s not a coincidence that New Hampshire has arguably the highest concentration of bitcoin and crypto-friendly people anywhere. For more than a decade there have been active migrations of libertarian, voluntarist, and liberty anarchists moving to New Hampshire. Many of these movers are activists who are into alternative currencies and the bitcoin community here has exploded as a result.
The oldest migration of libertarians to New Hampshire is the Free State Project, which as of September 2016 boasts nearly 2,000 participants already in New Hampshire, with 18,000 more pledged to move by the year 2021. There’s also the more decentralized Shire Society which has been encouraging liberty-loving people to declare their personal independence and move to “The Shire” since 2010.
These early movers are not only users of bitcoin, but are also some of the key developers and creators of the bitcoin world. Liberty migrants to New Hampshire created the iconic, most-installed-in-the-world Lamassu bitcoin vending machine in Manchester. Some are developing the evolutionary “Open Bazaar” and “LBRY” software. Decentralized ride-sharing app “Arcade City” has also sprung up just this year, and within a week of it being announced, signed up 1000 drivers worldwide. Arcade City founder and liberty migrant Christopher David said, “With its libertarian leanings and an influx of free staters, New Hampshire is perfectly positioned to become a major hub for bitcoin and blockchain startups. That’s a big reason why I moved here.”
Bitcoin Outreach Booth at the Cheshire Fair
Here are some more fun facts about the burgeoning bitcoin scene in the Shire: Manchester is home to the world’s longest-running weekly bitcoin meetup, plus regular meetups are being held in Keene and the Seacoast. According to Overstock.com, the highest concentration of their bitcoin orders comes from New Hampshire. Plus, you can actually use bitcoin in real life here, at mom-n-pop businesses like “Corner News”, “Local Burger”, and multiple food trucks in Keene, plus “Pizza 911”, “Dancing Lion Chocolate”, and more in Manchester. It turns out that Keene, the Southwestern NH city of 23,000 people, even outdoes San Francisco in amount of bitcoin-accepting business per capita! Take a look at CoinMap.org to see the dozens of New Hampshire businesses that are taking crypto!
New Hampshire also boasts New England’s only public Bitcoin Vending Machines (BVM), connecting people with bitcoin from as far away as New York and Boston. (more…)
I organized an NHexit event in Portsmouth this Friday called “NH Independence Celebration“. People from Keene, Manchester, Nashua, and Portsmouth attended. Dave Ridley of New Hampshire’s #2 YouTube channel shot video from a safe distance across the street. Shire Dude live-streamed video while making commentary and chatting with curious passers by. One person waved a blue flag with a peace sign. Another waved a yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flag and a sign that read, “I LOVE AMERICA, NOT D.C.” Some conducted a 3-question poll about secession from a random sampling of Portsmouth’s downtown. Music by The Beatles played from a small portable speaker. In total the event was 1 hour.
Poll respondents were asked to read 3 short statements and rate their level of agreement or disagreement with each one. 17 people participated. The results are as follows (click image to enlarge):
