A silly and irrelevant question, but I was wondering whether the plural subject in "The Free State Project have voted" (as opposed to "has voted") was a UK cultural thing...

They should have chosen Vermont! There are only 500,000 people in that state. A friend of mine ran for the legislature when he was 17. He turned 18 a few weeks prior to the election but didn't have a car, so his mother drove him to all the debates.

Running against a popular incumbent he got 40% of the vote. Vermonters have currently elected both the only avowed Socialist in Congress, and a very conservitive governor -- they vote more on personality than policy, I think.

Either way, the impact of 20,000 libertarians on such a tiny state would be huge -- just look at the difference a handfull of carpetbagging liberals have made.

This is great news - I'm guessing more than a few Samizdata readers will be watching this experiment closely.

Thank Christ it wasn't Wyoming.

Lovely place, W, but New Hampster is closer to civilization and the greater economy (hence wider variety of jobs for people who want to move there) and more likely to affect things later.

Oh, and don't worry, Vermont's next. ;-)

Fred

Wonder what Mark Steyn makes of this? He lives in NH, I think.

I think "President O'Rourke" has a nice ring to it.

The one problem with NH is that you are practically forced to work in Massachusetts, which then imposes a non-resident income tax on your wages. I'd move there in a heartbeat except for that. They support themselves chiefly with a hefty real property tax. That's kind of a neat solution, because so much of the property is vacation homes owned by out-of-staters, who cannot vote. The combination is a double whack. Trust me on this one -- I'm a Mass. CPA with relatives in NH.

Besides, 20,000 libertarians would just blend in with the rest of the electorate. They're an ornery bunch up there in "Live Free or Die" country.

Eric -- collective nouns are construed as plural in the UK, singular in the US.

Abby -- Vermont is hopeless. Howard Dean? Let's see if we can swap Vermont for Alberta. Hmmm, oil or Ben & Jerry's ice cream, that's a toughie.

Eric: it means two different things... if I said "The Free State Project has voted" then I would saying the institition called the Free State Project has voted... by saying "The Free State Project have voted", I am saying that the people who make up the Free State Project have voted. Both would be correct but the later strikes me as more appropriate.

Mitch,

I don't know if you would need to necessarily work in Massachusetts. I'm currently trying to decide where to take the bar, and I have spent quite a bit of time looking at New England. Either NH firms recruit disproportionatly at my school or there are plenty of jobs in New Hampshire.

As for Vermont, perhaps things aren't as bad as all that. I think that either "Ben" or "Jerry" has repeatedly run for the legislature as a socialist and has been repeatedly defeated. But perhaps you are right.

Damn Brits. Where'd you learn to speak/write English anyway? "have/has" is a possessive verb - I have a car. How can a project have a "voted"?

/not just a grammer Nazi, a grammar SS Stormtrooper.

But I am not a spelling stormtrooper today, it seems. :)

So "we has voted" is correct according to you, eh?

I am using TFSP to refer to 'the voters'...

There is no single correct way to phrase many things and this is a case in point. Just as in the USA if one is ill, one says "I am going to THE hospital" (i.e. that hospital over there), in Britain one would just say "I am going TO hospital" (i.e. I am going to be hospitalised).

Nazis Raus.

Who gives a shit about the merits of the wording? The FSP are a great bunch of guys and thanks for the update!

Anybody here thinking of signing up for the FSP?

As a New Hampshireman, I'm looking forward to the influx of libertarian minded folk to help offset some of the more socialist imports from the People's Republic of Massachusetts.

And while there are more jobs in Massachusetts than New Hampshire, there are still plenty here in the Granite State. Then again, Massachusetts has six+ times the population of New Hampshire in an area about 10% smaller than New Hampshire.

From some comments it appears that some have forgotten that not all of the people moving to NH because of the FSP vote will be looking for jobs. Some will be moving their businesses here as well.

Now if George Bald (Director of the New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development) can convince California businesses to move to New Hampshire during his visit out there, there will be plenty of new jobs and people from Massachusetts will be crossing the border into NH to work rather than the other way around.....

I do Bob... To be a part of such a project is sure a very interesting idea and NH seem a great place to live. It's the state with the fewer crime, one of the richest per capita, one of the less taxed, one with low unemployment and poverty rate and finally one in wich you can carry a gun without much problems...

Naturally a very important thing in my case is that it got a border with Quebec... A lot of people seem unhappy with NH because it's too cold but in my case it would be warmer =)

Jesus! I'm going to have a Cartman (from South Park) moment here.

G** D*****!!!

I grew up in NH. I thought NH had turned into a liberal hellhole before, this definitely makes the case it is so.

Thank god I hate snow. Now I have another reason not to come within 500 miles of NH.

Conservatively yours,

ed

Ed, that is excellent! If my confreres can not just assemble in NH but keep right wing socialists like you as well as the left socialists as far away as possible, that makes this project even better!

Mmmmm. Mark Steyn.

As a resident of Hudson, NH, who is living as an expat in the UK, I think all the new comers from this project would be welcomed. As a refugee from the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts, New Hampshire is a great place to live. With great state motto on the license plate, you can’t go wrong.
Cheers!

> Lovely place, W, but New Hampster is closer to
> civilization and the greater economy

Wouldn't Alaska be better, since it is remote and has vast uninhabited areas?

MARCU$

This is very groovy. We had already decided on New Hampshire as the place my wife and I are moving in a few years after we sell our New York house at good profit. We just drove though NH on the way back from Maine for the express purpose of exploration. More people like us will just make it better. And I won't have to go through the shit I have to go through in New York to get concealed carry.

Marcus, Alaska is pretty cool, but my family would kick my ass if I moved that far away from them. Plus, polar bears are very, very dangerous and as much as I have no problem walking around with a high-powered rifle, I still might not be fast enough.

Remember the red and blue maps for the 2000 U.S. Presidential election? There, alone in a New England-wide sea of idiotarian blue, stood New Hampshire, proudly decked out in Republican red. I was raised in Maine and return to visit there frequently. I can tell you from experience that there isn't anyplace in New England other than New Hampshire that has a government anyone who normally frequents this site (other than Kodiak or Scott Cattenach) would care to live under. The rest of New England seems to be doing its damnedest to replicate all the worst parts and programs of NuLabour's Old England. Those "Live Free or Die" folks are doing yeoman work in keeping the idiotarians at bay up there, particularly given their proximity to the People's Republic of Taxachusetts. If you ever get the chance, ask some New Hampshireman about "The Pledge." It's the smartest political divination tool I've ever seen and that electorate makes full use of it. Bravo New Hampshire!

Alaska was ranked highly, but not highest, probably because it's an icebox with no jobs.

I'm inclined to think that this project will fail miserably. That said, a friend of mine is part of it.

I'll have to ask him how soon he's moving.

Alfred E Neuman, I assure you that the only bear you will encounter in Anchorage is the stuffed one in the lobby of the Captain Cook Hotel. They've got cars, condominiums, all kinds of stuff up there. But summer's too short, not hot enough, and it's too remote. And it doesn't have Mark Steyn.

Sounds like an interesting plan. A quick google shows that they'll make up about 2% of the population. If half of them become politically active, campaigning on a pro-liberty agenda and winning followers, I think they have a reasonable chance of achieving some change.

Exactly how independent are the states in the USA anyway? Can they withdraw from the union by popular vote? If not, can they vote to repeal federal laws like the income tax?

In any case, I wish this lot the best of luck. America is one of the few places in the world where this kind of grass roots movement has a hope in hell of succeeding. Imagine trying it in New Labour's Britain - you'd be packed off to jail in no time!

This might be a little late for the discussion, but when I first read about this months ago, my main question was "What about the women?" I don't have any data on this, but the movement appears to be mostly male, and if you're interested in having any sort of generational impact on the state politics, you're going to need plenty of libertarian-minded women to help.

(I know that sounds terrible, but I often try to look at things from a biological perspective, and I think that population dynamics is very important--for instance, the huge birthrates of the Palestinians versus the tiny and non-replenishing birthrates of the Israelis lead to an inevitable collapse of Israel within a few generations. I ain't happy about that, but I think it's a valid concern.)

Assuming that these 20,000 men move there, who are they going to marry? Democrats and Republicans? (I've noticed a dearth of libertarian women in general--there are only so many Virginia Postrels to go around.) And how are the children going to be raised? It seems like for this project to truly work, they'd need an almost religious zeal for procreation and indoctrination of libertarian ideals. One could look to the Mormons in Utah for inspiration, though unless you can rapidly become the majority, you're going to be considered a bunch of crackpots and weirdos by the surrounding population.

All that aside, good luck, and I'm looking forward to seeing if this accomplishes anything. :)

Cheers,
Benito

The States have almost no independence. The Federal Government graciously allows them to manage the affairs which are too petty for the Imperial Bureaucracy to bother with, but always keeps half a dozen tricks on hand for dealing with recalcitrant governments.

Back in the late 1790s (when many citizens were actually hostile to an omnipotent central government), Kentucky and Virginia tried to nullify some unconstitutional federal legislation and were rebuffed. Decades later, South Carolina attempted to nullify the import tarriff and was threatened with soldiers.

When this failed and secession was tried, one of the most horrible wars of the 19th century was fought to defeat that notion. It could be however, that secession is a viable threat in this case. In the case of that war, the North needed the South financially; I am not certain the United States currently need New Hampshire that desparately.