Free State Project founder finally moves to New Hampshire, with the help of 5 dozen others

[Keith and stuff]

Love him, hate him or even just think his idea is interesting, Jason Sorens changed the way modern liberty lovers think about creating more liberty. Dozens of 'move here' projects where people are encouraged to vote with their feet have been created, inspired by his idea called the Free State Project. 1 of the complaints about the project he created is why hadn't he actually made the move to New Hampshire as part of the project? That complaint is finally dispelled as Jason Sorens made the move from New York to New Hampshire this month as part of the Free State Project. He put his money where his mouth already was, so to speak.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PMKHGjN9rw


A lot of people took a liberty bus from Manchester. https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1011429_10201085049621205_454390045_n.jpg


Then there is the group of people that came from Concord and stopped at a brewery along the way. It only took about 20 minutes to upload the moving truck. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10201085050181219&set=a.10201085043221045.1073741869.1017488029&type=3&theater


Then there was a several hour party featuring guns, state reps, streak, pizza, watermelon, GMO-free cookies, sausages, cheeseburgers, coleslaw, ballon hats and a whole lot of fun! https://sphotos-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/282965_10201086102967538_1069084952_n.jpg


https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/988297_10201092259481447_1389099810_n.jpg


Here is a write-up about the move, the reasons behind the move and the future of liberty in the world by Jason Sorens. A few sections are posted below but click on the link to read the rest.
Free State or Bust
August 15, 2013 by Jason Sorens
http://pileusblog.wordpress.com/2013/08/15/free-state-or-bust/


On Saturday I moved with my family to Lebanon, New Hampshire. I am teaching for a year in the Government Department at Dartmouth College. Although my reasons for leaving my tenure-track job at Buffalo were several, I decided last year to apply almost exclusively to jobs in New England so that I could fulfill (early) my Free State Project commitment.

Fifty-nine people greeted us when we arrived at our new home, unloaded the truck in 20 minutes, and then held a party.


The things that really matter in life are family, friends, community, a sense of purpose. Financial security is secondary. In the United States today, we enjoy unparalleled wealth, access to technologies inconceivable until just a few decades ago. There is much that we can give up financially while still enjoying a decent life.


But my daughter also played in a river for the first time, throwing rocks and trying to catch tadpoles. We can walk to the
The view from our living room

The view from our living room

town green. You can see the stars at night and the hills of the Upper Connecticut River Valley during the day. Most importantly of all, we’re participating in a historic effort to create a society of free and responsible individuals, which would be an impossible dream almost anywhere else.

[FSP-Rebel]

Definitely some familiar faces there.

[Keith and stuff]

Definitely some familiar faces there.

Oh come now. Many of those people were even new to me ;)

[Peace&Freedom]

All the years the FSP has had now to make progress in NH, and where is it? The "Free Town Project" some have advocated seems to me much more promising, as it's probably much easier to take over a well selected small town or city council and forward a liberty agenda, than it is to permanently change a state. It will probably be much easier for true liberty sheriffs to get elected and operate in free towns, as their actions would not be overruled or defeated by a statist town council.

[FSP-Rebel]

All the years the FSP has had now to make progress in NH, and where is it? The "Free Town Project" some have advocated seems to me much more promising, as it's probably much easier to take over a well selected small town or city council and forward a liberty agenda, than it is to permanently change a state. It will probably be much easier for true liberty sheriffs to get elected and operate in free towns, as their actions would not be overruled or defeated by a statist town council.
FTPs usually create animosity amongst the locals which then dig in their heels even more. It works out better if it's spread over the course of a state. Regardless, the FSP is still in its infancy as it hasn't cleared the 20k threshold and only a little over a thousand have moved. Despite that, there's lots of community activism and plenty of freestaters elected to the state house among others which I'm sure Keith can point out.

[Keith and stuff]

All the years the FSP has had now to make progress in NH, and where is it?
The FSP is a crowd project. The move doesn't trigger until 20,000 people sign the statement of intent. The original idea that it would be hard for 1 person to make a difference but if 20,000 other liberty activists relocated to 1 low populated, somewhat free state, they could make a difference. Anyone that has made the move, such as the FSP founder, is an early mover. They are under no obligation to move to NH early or do any activism once there. So yeah, progress is slower than we would want. That progress is on getting signers; though, and not on action in NH.


The "Free Town Project" some have advocated seems to me much more promising, as it's probably much easier to take over a well selected small town or city council and forward a liberty agenda, than it is to permanently change a state. It will probably be much easier for true liberty sheriffs to get elected and operate in free towns, as their actions would not be overruled or defeated by a statist town council.
Yes, this was a New Hampshire project. The project started in Grafton, New Hampshire. 1 of the original creators of the project was hardcore about openly showing freedom to the point of absurdity, though. I beleive he had crazy ideas like putting up a giant statute of um, something in the center of town. He also frequently talked about prostitution and scared some of the locals. He never moved to Grafton and to end any connection to him, officially, the Free Town Project was ended. Now the locals in Grafton usually get along with the free staters. Though, since liberty folks due control some of the local government and have worked somewhat successfully to reform the Grafton government, some of the local statists are pretty mad. It has the highest percentage of free state movers of any town in NH. The fire chief is the best known Libertarian Party member in NH. There are yearly events in Grafton such as the 6 year running Burning Porcupine Festival. http://burningporcupine.org/

There is no effort to take over Grafton or New Hampshire. That's a misunderstand. Jason's original essay mentioned the idea of libertarians taking over a state. That was before the FSP was created, though. The FSP has never been about taking over anything. Taking over would likely means 100s of millions of dollars brought into NH from out of state and perhaps 100,000s of voters brought in. Less money and voters would be needed if it was a town. Anyway, it's not something I support or something that is even needed.

As for some of the recent changes in NH, I think everyone here is well aware of some of them. 19 free staters elected to the New Hampshire House. Free staters have won 100 elections. Free staters have helped defeat new government schools, town spending increase, school spending increases and so on. Free staters have written bill that were signed into law. Governors meet with free staters for photo opens. State Senator Andy Sanborn, endorsed by Ron Paul and also a co-chair of Ron Paul's 2012 campaign in New Hampshire, won't not have been elected if it wasn't for the help of free staters. The 2011-2012 NH state budget was cut (an actual cut) by 10%-15% depending on how you look at it. The largest cut to college and university funding by any state government in the US happened in 2011 in NH, a 48% cut. Free staters helped led the effort to make sure that NH didn't enact an adult seat belt law when the Democrats controlled the government. A free stater led the effort to remove all knife laws for non-felons in NH when the Democrats controlled the government. Free staters led the effort to make NH the only state when a judge cannot prevent a defendant from bringing up jury nullification in court. Keene, NH is now the liberty media capital of the world. More pro-liberty people ran for office in NH last year than in any other state. NH was Ron Paul's best state in 2012. The list goes on and on.

http://burningporcupine.org/sites/default/files/images/burnin_porc_13.jpg

[Keith and stuff]

FTPs usually create animosity amongst the locals which then dig in their heels even more. It works out better if it's spread over the course of a state.

Usually? I thought it was an official thing called the Free Town Project. I thought it was based in Grafton, New Hampshire and was disbanded. Yeah, there is still a website run by that crazy guy that doesn't live in NH but it hasn't been updated in years since a slight modification in 2010.

There has been talk of copycat projects. Like Seabrook, NH or the fictional Paulville, TX. Think those silly ideas were long since given up, though ;)

[Peace&Freedom]

If the NH FSP was ever going to catch fire, it would have reached the 20,000 threshold within 12 months, not the 12 years and counting scenario that has actually played out. It talks about decentralized decision making, but runs off one guy's top-down template about how to proceed. The free town model I suggested is more loosely structured, and more likely to succeed, being focused on local counties and towns, a more accountable metric (control a local council within a few years), and not based on a major migration to another state for most participants.

Instead of one perpetual lab experiment, we should be having 100 such projects going on, as each state should have at least 2-3 towns that are ideal candidates for it. A local, much more doable town takeover campaign (yes, takeover) actually can concretely accomplish something in 1-2 election cycles, as opposed to this endless, lazy paced "waiting on NH" process. It is NOT a copycat concept, as it does NOT seek to replicate the original FSP, as FSP is a failed model that has not led to major change legislatively in a liberty direction anywhere.