The Free State Project

[S.Eden]

States mulled for 'Free State'

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Associated Press writer Thursday, April 24, 2003


COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -- Limited-government advocates have their eyes on Idaho. Or Montana. Or New Hampshire.

All are among 10 lightly populated states known for small-government politics that could end up being a Libertarian utopia.

A movement called the Free State Project has registered some 3,100 people who would help choose a "candidate" state and move there in hopes of canceling laws against drugs, prostitution, guns and other individual liberties, while privatizing current state functions such as schools.

"Rather than change the whole nation it makes sense for all of us to gather in one place," said Elizabeth McKinstry, 33, of Hillsdale, Mich., the project's vice president.

The project identifies 10 candidate states -- Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Maine, Delaware and Vermont. All have current populations below 1.5 million.

The project is the idea of Jason Sorens, 26, a doctoral candidate in political science at Yale University. After the 2000 elections, he said, he felt Libertarians needed a new way to promote their cause.

When the number of registered Free State supporters reaches 5,000, likely by the end of the year, they will vote on which state to target. Then supporters will have five years to move, with a goal of 20,000 Free Staters living there.

Sorens said he believes 20,000 committed activists in a state of less than 1.5 million is enough to sway the minds of residents. That is necessary, he said, because "we're not going to be a large enough group to take over."

McKinstry said the group was "mostly anti-regulation."

"We are not an anarchist group at all," she said.

Which state is a favorite? Project officials say a major downside for Idaho is its Mormon population, which isn't likely to support legalizing prostitution and drugs or drop taxes on booze and tobacco.

Montana? A small economy.

Wyoming? Maybe too rugged.

Ben Irvin of Pocatello, Idaho, who calls himself the project's lead promoter for the Western states, also figures North Dakota won't win because "no one wants to go out there."

Mark Snider, spokesman for Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, said he was sorry to learn that Idaho was on the list. He warned the Free Staters not to confuse Idahoans' love for small government with a desire for nearly no government.

"The majority of Idahoans want safe streets, and not to be under the threat of drunk drivers, drug addicts or criminals," Snider said.

Chuck Butler, a spokesman for Montana Gov. Judy Martz, said Montana is a huge state that welcomes newcomers. But he encouraged the Free Staters to take a closer look at Idaho.

"Idaho is more inviting," Butler said.

[Tanager]

Bozos.

[Ron Thorne]

If there are any "Free Staters" reading this thread, you definitely don't want to come to Alaska, unless you're interested in Amchitka, perhaps. See, it's really, really cold here all the time, snot freezes in your nostrils, your eyelids sometimes get stuck, there are lots of ferocious animals, and we only have one road into and out of the state.

Oh yeah, and our state bird is a mosquito!

[mke]

I can see it now: "Operation Idaho Freedom".

CNN: "The Free State troops are only 15 miles from Boise."

Dirk Kempthorne: "There are no Free Staters in Boise, or in Idaho. They are not even close to Boise. We have massacred them all, and there bodies are rotting in our mountains. Those that we have not slaughtered are committing suicide or watching re-runs of 'The Bachelor'. We are helping them to watch re-runs faster."

[MRS]

Coincidentally my favorite bar in the world. . .

http://www.freestatebrewing.com

Your welcome for the free publicity, Chuck!

[Gary Sisco]

The hilarious thing is that they include Vermont, where the state is the largest employer *by far,* no competition in sight, followed by "non-profit corporations," most of which are merely extensions of the state by another name.

[Nathaniel Catchpole]

"We are not an anarchist group at all," she said.

Bloody Randians.

baaaaah

[jesus marion joseph]

As a former resident of New Hampshire, I can tell you that unless your last name is
Bush, there ain't too many people waiting for instructions from Yale grads...........

[MRS]

Doubtless the single greatest state motto ever put into place.





Live free or die, baby

[Gary Sisco]

Michael -- Back in the days, we used to like to fly New Hampshire plates for that motto, whenever we could, because it was also the motto of the Black Panther Party For Self Defense!

A little known bit of historical irony.

Live Free or Die, baby.

There was also the Sandinistas' "Patria Libre O Morir!" Another good one.

These people are clearly out of their minds if they think they can do this in Vermont. Hell, even if every one of their 20,000 moved here, there are more hippies than that in Chittenden County alone, never mind the zones around Goddard College. And if all of them voted, it would raise the Libertarian Party here, at best, to fifth party status, as it's already a multiparty state, not a two-party state.

Never mind the fact that carpetbaggers get their asses soundly rejected in these parts, as a megarich Massachusetts Republican has found out, several times, now, after moving here because he thought it an automatic ride to political office. Even the Repubs mocked his ass, and still do. He's a spoke for the minority minority within his own party.

Clearly, they don't know much about the place at all. Vermont likes to talk about small government but making one would send the unemployment rate up to numbers that haven't been seen since the 1930s, and maybe not even then, once the "non-profits" are factored in (who would necessarily lose much of their funding).

Ain't much of a "strategy," if you ask me.

Finally, given the groups that they buddied up with here and use as examples of allies, if this is a "libertarian" attitude, it is libertarian the way the Nazi party was "socialist." You couldn't find more bigoted and reactionary groups anywhere in the US than the VT groups they're yacking about. I call them the Klan in red-and-black plaid. Xenophobes, homophobes, racists, fundamentalist Protestants and Catholics, and "property rightists" (a la the Montana survivalist movement of some years past), all. One of the spokespeople of one of those Vermont groups called, publicly, in the largest daily newspaper, for an armed insurrection against the state government over the civil-union law. If those are perceived now as Libertarian allies, the Libertarians had better come here armed because they'll be mighty surprised with their reception. The groups they want for allies are *hugely* authoritarian and believe me when I say they'd never hesitate to force their laws down anyone and everyone's throats, with force if necessary. Which it would be, here.

This ain't Idaho, baby, and if youse don't believe me, come try it out.

[Gary Sisco]

A funny story from yesterday's local paper about all of this:

Apparently, they had a meeting with Peter Clavelle, Progressive Coalition/Democratic Party mayor of Burlington (he has both endorsements). (The Progs have been in power in Burlington since 1981.) They took out a map of Vermont with him and asked him to mark the areas on the map he thought would be the ones most congenial to their views. Clavelle took his pen out and drew an arrow from Burlington, across the state of Vermont, across the Connecticut River, to New Hampshire and handed the map back to them.