As was reported previously here, Free Keene blogger Darryl W Perry was recently elected as chairman of the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire. A member of the LP’s “radical caucus”, Darryl holds a supposedly “radical” belief: he does not support or advocate the use of the initiation of force to achieve political or social goals.
That belief, which is still the statement one must sign to join the national libertarian party, has made Darryl into an enemy of many within the national LP. There’s a whole group of so-called “libertarians” who disagree with this “Non-Aggression Principle” and have called for the party to eliminate it from the membership requirements.
Darryl was recently blamed by these party-over-principle people for the Seacoast LP’s resolution to ask their representative on the Libertarian National Committee “to remove Gary Johnson and Bill Weld as the LP candidates for President and Vice President”. However, Darryl was not attending the Seacoast meeting. The motion was made by Rodger Paxton, who was recently elected to vice-chairman of the LP of NH along with Darryl being elected chair.
A couple of days ago, Darryl announced he is reviving his libertarian campaign for president, this time as a write-in candidate. He says people frustrated with the LP’s embarrassing presidential and VP picks of former republican governors of New Mexico and Massachusetts Gary Johnson and Bill Weld had contacted him asking him to run again to give true libertarians a choice. Johnson and Weld’s public statements since their nomination have frequently been unlibertarian and at odds with the party’s own platform. Weld has even appeared to endorse Hillary Clinton rather than his own running mate!
The sad, unprincipled Libertarian Party
Now, rather than do the principled thing and follow the Seacoast LP’s request of officially withdrawing Johnson and Weld as their candidates, the LP’s National Committee has issued press release attacking Darryl by calling him a “rogue” and saying further that they are, “committed to fully supporting the nominee of the delegates at convention and will continue to do so with all available resources.”
No one should be surprised to see the national LP double down on their unprincipled hack candidates. It’s the lowest point for the party in more than a decade of falling away from their principles. In 2008 I publicly resigned my life membership in the national Libertarian Party out of frustration with their lack of principle – then they nominated Bob Barr (another republican who has since re-joined the republicans) as their presidential candidate.
The LP of New Hampshire, long in a membership and activist slump, recently received an injection of much-needed new blood in the form of Darryl W Perry and Rodger Paxton’s elections to chairman and vice-chairman, respectively. This is the first real exciting news to come out of the LP of NH in the last decade I’ve been here.
Hopefully we’ll see the LP of NH separate eventually from the ridiculous national LP. Goddess bless those who have tried to save the national Libertarian Party, but the patient’s been dead for years. If you’re a real, principled libertarian, just give up on the national LP, move to New Hampshire and get active to help us achieve liberty in our lifetime. With the thousands of libertarians moving here for the Free State Project and Shire Society, you won’t want to miss the fun!
Keene, NH – Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate, Darryl W. Perry, announced today his intention to launch a limited write-in campaign for the 2016 US Presidential Race.
When radio personality, libertarian activist, and CEO of Liberty Lobby LLC, Darryl W. Perry, embarked on his Presidential Campaign, he did so with three goals in mind: 1) to run the most libertarian presidential campaign in history; 2) to proclaim the ideas of liberty as boldly and as often as possible; and 3) to give as many people as possible the opportunity to vote for an actual libertarian in November.
After the 2016 Libertarian Party National Convention in Orlando, Florida, Perry issued a statement saying he had “accomplished two-thirds of the goals I set for my campaign. I ran the most consistent libertarian campaign to date, and I took every opportunity, including my well-received Concession Speech, to promote the ideas of liberty.”
Perry, who was officially endorsed by the NH Liberty Party at their convention in February, added, “While my original intention was to either continue my campaign through the November election or support an LP ticket with actual philosophical libertarians, the Libertarian National Convention left me emotionally drained. I will not be continuing my campaign through November.”
Since then, numerous people have asked for a way to give people the ability to vote for a philosophical libertarian for President. Due to the numerous instances of the Libertarian Party Presidential ticket running in opposition to the LP Platform, including supporting limitations of the 2nd Amendment rights of people on secret lists, new forms of taxation, and statements against freedom of association, Perry decided to file declarations of intent to be a write-in candidate in a handful of states where a slate of electors is not required. (more…)
All speakers were pro-liberty and against regulation.
A half-dozen liberty activists from Keene carpooled up to the Legislative Office Building in Concord yesterday for the first publicly-attended meeting of the New Hampshire state house “Commission to Study Cryptocurrency”.
The audience was filled with mostly liberty-friendly folks. There were a few lobbyists present, but the only one who spoke was Darryl W Perry of the new Liberty Lobby LLC. The overall message from the speakers was against any regulations whatsoever, and the chairman of the committee, Representative John Hunt of Rindge, spoke favorably of the free market and seemed against any regulations. There was only one real proponent of regulation, Maryam Torben-Desfosses. She was representing the NH Banking Department and it’s her job to regulate, so it’s no surprise she was there speaking in favor.
The goal of the commission is to either recommend for or against regulation of cryptocurrency. After hearing from several speakers, the commission scheduled its next meeting for October 6th at 10am, room 302 of the Legislative Office Building in Concord.
As we have for the past few years, the Keene Liberty Alliance conducted an exit poll on state primary day asking the question, “Is government too big, too small, or just right?”. This year we polled for about two hours in the evening outside of Keene’s ward four and seventy people responded to the question, with 42 of 70 (60%) choosing “too big” and 28 (40%) choosing “just right”. No one who responded thought government was “too small”.
Also, thank you to everyone who voted for me in the Democratic gubernatorial primary this year. I ran under the NH Liberty Party banner again as I did in 2014 and received 1,069 or 1.47% of the votes cast, putting me in fourth place out of five. That’s not quite as many votes as the 1,719 I received in 2014, but I likely got some protest votes then against Maggie Hassan who was the incumbent at the time. Given my 2016 campaign spent all of $5 on postage and a few bucks on gasoline to drive to media interviews, that’s a pretty good dollars-spent-to-votes-received ratio.
In 2012, Darryl W. Perry was frustrated with New Hampshire’s embarrassingly ineffective Libertarian Party and its unwillingness to promote the idea of New Hampshire declaring independence from the United States. He joined me and Conan Salada in founding a competitor to the Libertarian Party of NH, which we called the New Hampshire Liberty Party. Darryl has served a key role on our state executive committee ever since, running the yearly conventions and handling the member rolls, in addition to running for office.
This year, Darryl ran for the presidential nomination from the national Libertarian Party and sadly did not receive it, as the LP for years has been compromised on its principles. They proved it yet again with this year’s nomination of Gary Johnson, a former Republican – not a libertarian and definitely not a secessionist.
Darryl followed up his presidential run by launching a principled lobbying firm to focus on NH called Liberty Lobby, he’s lost over a hundred pounds in the last year or so, and just this weekend was unanimously elected to the position of chairman of the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire, ousting the previous no-show chairman who held the seat for years.
It’s a positive sign for the Libertarian Party of NH, which has been floundering for years. The LP of NH has long been a black mark on the otherwise vibrant libertarian community we have here in the Shire. Hopefully Darryl’s election to chair with Rodger Paxton, also a member of the NH Liberty Party, being newly elected to the LP’s vice-chair position will bode well for the future of the LP in New Hampshire. If we’re lucky, we’ll see them add a plank about NH independence into the LP of NH’s party platform in 2017.
Darryl has put in his resignation as a co-chair of the NH Liberty Party as a result of his election to the Libertarian Party chair role, as his time is already limited due to his many activist projects. I wish him the best. We’ll continue our role as New Hampshire’s only pro-secession political party, fielding candidates, and actively seek a new co-chair, though filling Darryl’s shoes is a tall order.
I could technically still be in jail today for the “crimes” from the movie.
Derrick J’s Victimless Crime Spree, a full-length feature documentary about my five arrests in Keene, New Hampshire, unleashed itself to the world in Keene Cinemas four years ago today. It’s been viewed on YouTube over 175,000 times.
The world has changed since then. Recording law enforcers is now commonplace. Enforcers in a dozen more states now leave peaceful pot smokers alone. The top series on Netflix is a show about prison overpopulation. Everyone knows that the people calling themselves “the government” spy on their computers, emails, phone calls, and texts, but digital privacy is now possible for all thanks to new apps and devices with built-in encryption. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are now beginning to come into wide use.
There’s a lot of reason to be hopeful. Now more than ever, the world is ready for you to question your obedience. Dozens have told me the movie inspired them to move to New Hampshire. That’s the most rewarding part of the experience. In the end, I was facing 9 years if convicted of all charges (none involving a victim). I was sentenced to 540 days in jail, and I ended up serving 60 for my “crime spree.”
Friends made it possible: Ian Freeman (producer), Beau Davis (editor), and the people of the Shire Society who inspire action. I hope Victimless Crime Spree inspires you to achieve more freedom, peace, happiness, and the object of your dreams.
As was reported previously here, Free Keene blogger Darryl W Perry was recently elected as chairman of the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire. A member of the LP’s “radical caucus”, Darryl holds a supposedly “radical” belief: he does not support or advocate the use of the initiation of force to achieve political or social goals.
