Dec. 1st, 2012 Free State Project participants gather at a community center to strategize and take part in some activism. Chris Lopez, Carla Gericke and Paul Best give a run down on the days activities.
Don’t forget to register for 2013 Liberty Forum! Early bird pricing is in effect for a limited time. Visit: http://freestateproject.org/libertyforum
Also if you wish to learn more about the Free State Project please visit their website: http://freestateproject.org/
The night started off with a bang, as my phone buzzed with a text from a friend, with the cryptic “FTW”, which I confirmed quickly to mean he’d been elected as NH State Representative. Not bad for what started as a write-in campaign during the Republican Primary, and grew quickly with his being attacked in the press for being a freestater.
Would Election Eve be full of this sort of awesome news? I hoped so. Would Romney lead a strong Republican coat tail to help the NHGOP retain control of the House and Senate and maybe gain the Governor’s office too? Or would Obama’s organizers sweep in and help the NH Dems into victories, perhaps only some, perhaps by a great deal.
The tide was clear, though, when a sitting Republican Rep lost in a seat I figured was very safe. The bad news of loss after loss of “good” reasonably proliberty Republican Reps was bad enough, but then even not so good R Reps were losing… the “blue tide” was back.
In 2004, a blue tide slowly began crept into NH’s State House, taking over the Governor’s office and enough House Democrats to skew the House to the moderate middle for even control of the leadership. In 2006, the blue tide rose higher, and washed nearly every R who expected a easy win off the map, leaving the Democrats in firm control of both House and Senate with the popular incumbent Governor Lynch on top. 2008 remained much the same, though some pro-liberty Republicans returned, despite national Blue wins with Obama (a good sign that the tide was perhaps receding here). The fiscal woes, taxes and fees, social changes (some for the better, IMHO, like same sex marriage passing) and the many many Nanny State bills passed into law, finally caused the electorate to rethink sending so many Democrats to Concord, the New Hampshire capital, and instead send a huge Red wave of Republicans. Me among them, and thus I spent the last two years in Concord, fighting for freedom.
The 2011-2012 legislature was strongly split in many ways, (more…)
While the news is flooded with election coverage, the Free State Project is making waves.
Yahoo News, CNN and blogs are heating up with a story about how much pull liberty activists in New Hampshire are going to have over the swing state. And its no wonder when you have quotes from President Obama like, “You guys are the epicenter,” he said. “You not only determine who our nominees are, you determine who our presidents are.”
Even sites like Politico.com are playing up the prominence of the Granite State’s sway with quotes like this:
“These four electoral votes right here could make the difference,” Obama warned the small crowd gathered at a Teamsters Hall, his first stop in the state. “We don’t know how this thing is going to play out.”
The free state of New Hampshire is home to more than 1100 liberty lovers many of whom are donating time to local and national campaign efforts. Motivated partly by a desire to effect positive change and perhaps partly to disprove critics — including this 26 page booklet — the activists are having a dramatic effect.
With only days left until election madness ends, calls are being put out for any amount of last minute help. Campaigns of all colors are requesting more volunteers to make phone calls and remind like-minded countrymen to “get out and vote” or canvass yet another sought after district. A sprint to the finish.
As with each of the last elections, this one begs to be the “most important election yet” and it won’t take no for an answer. If the amount of political ads doesn’t convince you perhaps their tone will.
The Washington Post has a webpage devoted to tracking the spending race that is occurring behind the scenes and the numbers are staggering. The graph shows more than $700 million spent on television advertising with nearly 90% of that spent on negative advertising. Is that enough of a market signal for you? To reiterate, 9 out of ten times you will see an ad that asks you not to vote for the other guy instead of an ad that promotes the benefits of why you should vote for this guy.
Perhaps the reason for the trending success of the liberty movement is the alternatives offered. Perhaps the public is fed up with only two choices. Tuesday will bring resolution to the clamor and with luck a moment of peace and quiet.
This is my first episode of my new show Sedition Is Sexy where I introduce myself! Look for an episode at the least each week! I look forward to your comments and observations!
Hello Fellow Free Keeners! Ian brought to my attention that I have neglected to post the Shire TV episodes on FreeKeene.com. Here are the episodes 3 – 7 from Aug – early Sept! I hope you enjoy! Please feel free to send any comments or suggestions to news@shiretv.org!
[Thanks to Ian for reposting this, and the offer to blog here at FreeKeene. I’ll post here occasionally, with insights I’ve gained over the years, or perhaps counterpoints. I’ve evolved in my view on the Keene methods of activism. And perhaps that’ll be my next post here… — Seth]
Found a post over at BlueHampshire, and my reply is below (I copied the rest for context)
There is no right to know
by: Marjorie Porter
Fri Aug 03, 2012 at 20:02:05 PM EDT
Over the last several days, I have been trying, via Twitter, to get @FreeStateNH to tell me which candidates running for the NH House are members of the Free State Project. They have boasted there are 14 FSP members currently serving in the NH House. But they keep telling me FSP is not political. I keep asking how I will know if a candidate is FSP. I have asked and asked. I have said voters have the right to know. Tonight they told me there is no right to know. (more…)
