By Weldon Bosworth
In the 1970’s, Murray Rothbard, the revolutionary economist, suggested libertarians use right wing populism to push their agenda. We have only to look at the recent Gunstock debacle for a glimpse on how this plays out. The Free Staters on the Belknap Delegation subverted others with conservative leanings on the all-GOP delegation to follow their lead in slashing the County nursing home budget and stacking the Gunstock Area Commission with fellow travelers sympathetic to their agenda, i.e., either leasing or privatizing the ski area.
The New Hampshire Free Staters don’t find it difficult to disguise their true intentions. Some like Representative Aldrich, support secession and yet, hide behind patriotism by attaching an American Flag to their campaign posters. The New Hampshire Free State Project’s website claims their success stories include passing constitutional carry, expanding the castle doctrine (no duty to retreat), repealing all knife laws, reducing the state budget by 11% and blocking countless bad bills, including a bump stock ban, from becoming law. Accomplishments, depending upon your thinking, perhaps, but not likely due to Free Staters and listed only to ingratiate them with the GOP majority upon whose coat tails they are clinging.
While the Belknap County Free State contingent had been operating under this right-wing camouflage, the skirmish over Gunstock has brought their hidden agenda into the sanitizing light of day. Belknap County residents who, heretofore, did not get too excited about Belknap County politics, when faced with the Free Stater’s plan for one of Belknap County’s crown jewels, arose and through their collective efforts and that of Gunstock’s senior management changed the trajectory of the Free Stater’s take over.
Who are these Free-Staters and what is their agenda? In 2001, Jason Sorens, the founder of the Free State Project, describes their agenda thusly: “Once we’ve taken over the state government, we can slash state and local budgets (emphasis provided), which make up a sizeable proportion of the tax and regulatory burden we face every day. Furthermore, we can eliminate substantial federal interference by refusing to take highway funds and the strings attached to them. Once we’ve accomplished these things, we can bargain with the national government over reducing the role of the national government in our state. We can use the threat of secession as leverage to do this (emphasis provided).”
Some New Hampshire communities have already seen the results of the Free Stater’s invasive strategy. As reported by The New Republic (October 13, 2020), in “The Town That Went Feral”, “the Free Towners [in Grafton NH] spent years pursuing an aggressive program of governmental takeover and delegitimation, their appetite for litigation matched only by their enthusiasm for cutting public services. They slashed the town’s already tiny yearly budget of $1 million by 30 percent, obliged the town to fight legal test case after test case, and staged absurd, standoffish encounters with the sheriff to rack up YouTube hits.” More recently, Croydon NH had to gather together to combat an effort by Free Staters to cut their school budget by half. The latter, clearly an example of how Free Staters take advantage of an inattentive public.
We’ve seen this reliance on litigation take place in the Gunstock fiasco. Are you tired, like me, of reading about the Free State contingent on the Belknap County delegation filing frivolous lawsuits at the drop of the hat? Even more ludicrous was Representative Sylvia’s threat at the most recent September 1, 2022 county delegation meeting of filing federal RICO charges against Gunstock management. This type of belligerence and disregard for its effect on societal values separates the Free Staters from conservatives on the delegation.
There are many in our community who want lower taxes and less government interference and anyone can cherry pick examples of wasteful government spending. However, rather than address these issues in a conventional manner, the tactics of Free Staters are more like those of parasites that invade a community and squeeze the “good” out of it in the name of “efficiency” and “meritocracy”, leaving the community disabled. While those of a conservative bent believe that without laws setting boundaries on the actions of individuals that are enforced by the state, society would fall into social chaos, the Free Staters believe that individuals and individual liberty are the keys to a free society and that these rights are inalienable even though they may lead to the consequences witnessed recently in Grafton, NH and were similarly targeted on Gunstock.
Don’t let a belligerent and irresponsible minority hijack our community. This September 13th and November 8th vote wisely!
Weldon Bosworth, Ph.D.
Retired Environmental Consultant
Former NH business owner
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