President of Free State Project speaks at Paulfest [vid]

[muzzled dogg]

[Karsten]

Here's my problem with the free state project.

Too many freakin anarchists who are opposed to voting, grassroots campaigning, running for office themselves, etc. How the hell are you supposed to take over the political process of an entire state if you are not willing to participate?
Ron Paul didn't even do too well in Keene, the capital of the free state project.

[FSP-Rebel]

Here's my problem with the free state project.

Too many freakin anarchists who are opposed to voting, grassroots campaigning, running for office themselves, etc. How the hell are you supposed to take over the political process of an entire state if you are not willing to participate?
Ron Paul didn't even do too well in Keene, the capital of the free state project.

There really isn't a capital of the FSP, it's just a vehicle that people participate in and once they move to NH, you're just an NH resident. There is a more agorist bent to the NH scene as of late but that doesn't mean all agorists don't help in political campaigns or donate money. Their root argument against voting is that it is violence on someone else but many of them have moved beyond that simplistic view as they've seen how effective politics can be in a low volume state like NH. Instead of a rep representing ~50k people or more in most states, each rep in NH only reps around 3k folk and thus the cost per seat is way lower. Now, there's like 14 FSP in the state house and 1 in the senate but the house has like 120 NHLA endorsed reps in the house which is a solid libertarian veto at about 30%. We're excited in most state if we can have 1 or 2 decent reps but NH beats all combined and it increases every year. Those of us that are more limber should consider giving the FSP a try.

[Keith and stuff]

Here's my problem with the free state project.

Too many freakin anarchists who are opposed to voting, grassroots campaigning, running for office themselves, etc. How the hell are you supposed to take over the political process of an entire state if you are not willing to participate?
Ron Paul didn't even do too well in Keene, the capital of the free state project.

That may be a problem but it isn't an accurate picture of the FSP.

Sure, there are some anarchists in the FSP. However, most of the ones who have moved to NH do vote.
Most of the anarchists who have moved to NH do political campaigning, though, many of the anarchists do very little of it.

Of course, the FSP have zero to do with taking over a state politically. The FSP isn't even about politics. It is about what the Liberty Forest is about, but about concentrating those diverse people and activities in 1 pro-liberty leaning, low populated state.

The vast majority of the people who have moved to NH as part of the FSP do some politics.

Ron Paul did much better in Keene than most of the US. He won 1 of the 5 wards, for example. While the FSP PO BOX is located in Keene, the FSP doesn't have a capital. Maybe 10% of the FSPers in NH live in Cheshire County, the county Keene is based in. I think Romney won 13 towns in Cheshire County and Paul won 8. There are 9 other counties in NH and around 90% of the FSPers in NH live in those counties. Ron Paul won the town with the most FSPers per capita. He won around 60 towns/cities or about 1/4 of the communities in NH. Taking 2nd and winning 1/4 of the towns isn't bad for a candidate when there are 28 candidates on the ballot.

[mport1]

Here's my problem with the free state project.

Too many freakin anarchists who are opposed to voting, grassroots campaigning, running for office themselves, etc. How the hell are you supposed to take over the political process of an entire state if you are not willing to participate?
Ron Paul didn't even do too well in Keene, the capital of the free state project.

From what I can tell, there is a very small percentage of voluntaryists in the FSP who don't vote.

Also, the FSP doesn't have a "capital." It is mearly a vehicle to move liberty loving people to New Hampshire. Once they are there, they can choose what activism to do as individuals.

[Keith and stuff]

Here's my problem with the free state project.

The Washington Times did an article on PAUL Fest. It also interviewed Carla of the FSP. She said she helped with both the 2008 and 2012 Ron Paul campaigns.

[muzzled dogg]

updated for full vid

[Keith and stuff]

Thanks for posting the video, Shem.

Carla, thanks for including the info about plenty of parts of NH not even having property taxes. I wanted Carla to include that in her speech because some people think property taxes are high in NH because there isn't a general sales or personal income tax. Of course, propery taxes aren't high in NH. We jut happen to have more choices than people in other states.

Let's say for example that my rent (including property taxes) was $205 last month. If my rent was so low, how much could my property taxes really be?

[Elwar]

From the research I did on voting in NH back in the day, Keene and most of the larger cities leaned Democrat and were where most of the anti-liberty house members come from.

Just like the FSP tries to concentrate on one state instead of spreading ourselves thin throughout the nation, it works the same way at the state level. Concentrating on winning in one of the larger cities would take a large quantity of individuals whereas changing a dozen house members from anti-liberty to pro-liberty only takes a few voters in the smaller areas.

I ran a calculation using the liberty ratings for all of the house members and found that it would only take around 2200 people strategically placed in many of the smaller towns to have a 51% majority in the state house. and that is just considering single votes, not activism. Trying to get those numbers in the large towns would require the full 20,000 slate strategically placed.

It is good to hear that they are at 120 pro-liberty house members which is just over a quarter of the house. I am sure it will reach the tipping point as more people join the FSP and they hit that 51%.