Live Free or Fly
Marylanders Among the Effort Aiming to Get 20,000 Libertarians to Move to
New Hampshire
by Brennen Jensen • 10/15/03
 |
| Your Own Private New Hampshire:
Free State Project Mid-atlantic coordinator Keith Murphy says that most of
those signing up to move are "small 'l' libertarians."
Photo By Christopher Myers
|
Maryland is known as the Free State, a moniker earned back in the 1920s when
many in our state protested the federally mandated prohibition of alcohol.
Despite the carping from those who thought alcohol control was a state issue,
Maryland went dry just like everywhere else. Though Prohibition was ultimately
repealed, throughout the 20th century government at all levels has made deeper
inroads into our personal lives and pocketbooks.
Some citizens now say enough is enough. Indeed, some folks from around the
country are so fed up with what they consider excessive taxation, regulation,
and liberty-restricting legislation that they are planning to move en masse to
New Hampshire. A dramatic influx of like-minded, politically active people,
they figure, could effectively work within the electoral process of this
relatively unpopulated state to downsize government's size and authority, at
least at the state level.
The initiative is called the Free State Project. It was first conceived by
twentysomething Yale University political science doctoral graduate Jason
Sorens in 2000, and it has been borne along by the Internet ever since
(www.freestateproject.org). The project asks participants to sign a "statement
of intent" to move to the designated state. Once unpacked in their new locale,
signers further pledge to "exert the fullest practical effort toward the
creation of a society in which the maximum role of civil government is the
protection of individuals' rights to life, liberty, and property." The goal is
to have 20,000 people signed up by 2006, at which time folks would have five
years to complete the move. About 5,000 people signed up as of this summer,
and, participants have selected New Hampshire as the state to which to
relocate. New Hampshire beat nine other states up for consideration, including
runners-up Wyoming and Delaware. Among the thousands pledging to go to the
Granite State are some 101 Marylanders, nine of them from Baltimore.
"Maryland used to be the Free State--now it's the Mommy State," says Mount
Washington's Keith Murphy, the project's Mid-Atlantic coordinator. "We want
people to run their own lives instead of being told how to run them."
Murphy, a 28-year-old legislative researcher and graduate student studying
urban planning at University of Maryland, says the project has 120 members in
the region (which includes Washington, Maryland, and Delaware). The Free State
Project is not formally connected to or endorsed by any political party, but
its philosophy and goals mesh most closely with those of the Libertarian Party.
While many Free Staters are members of the Libertarian Party, Murphy says there
are Democrats, Republicans, and Green Party affiliates on board as well.
(Murphy collectively refers to Free Staters as "small 'l' libertarians," as
opposed to "big 'L' libertarians," who are formal member of the political
party.)
"Libertarianism is not just a party--it's a philosophy," he says. "The basic
premise is that we want to be left alone. If you think that people should be
able to do whatever they please as long as they're not hurting anybody else--if
you can agree with that statement--then you're a libertarian, regardless of
party."
The project's logo incorporates the image of a porcupine, which is a nod to the
Colonial era's "Don't Tread on Me" snake flag.
While the Free State Project's Web site notes that it is not a "lockstep"
movement requiring participants to agree on a litany of issues, Free Staters
are generally against gun control and for the decriminalization of drugs. They
are pro-choice and pro-school choice. They are opposed to a wide swath of
government limitations on personal freedom, which means they are in favor of
everything from legalizing prostitution to ending cigarette smoking bans,
lowering the drinking age, and doing away with motorcycle-helmet and seat-belt
laws.
Though Free Staters come from both ends of the political spectrum, Murphy says,
they do have some demographic common ground. Most participants are young (under
40), well-educated (bachelor's degree or above), and financially stable
($40,000-plus a year in income).
Towson resident Adam Schadt, a 24-year-old contract background investigator for
the federal government who heard about project from a friend six months ago,
says he thought long and hard before he signed the "solemn intent" to relocate.
"It's a huge commitment to move up to another area of the country," he says.
"But I'm willing make the sacrifice for the benefits I think we'll get out of
it."
Schadt sites the decriminalization of drugs as an issue he and many other local
Free Staters support. "The war on drugs is not working," he says.
"I'm gay, and another thing I hope to achieve in going up there is to get rid
of any restrictions on gay marriage," Schadt adds.
The Libertarian Party is starting to achieve greater recognition in Maryland.
In the 2002 gubernatorial election, the Libertarian Party overcame Maryland's
harsh ballot-access laws, which require third parties to engage in extensive
petition drives to achieve party recognition and to place candidates on the
ballot, and managed to get its candidates listed on the statewide ballot. While
the Libertarian candidates came in a very distant third in the election
(garnering less than 1 percent of the vote), the Libertarian Party was the
first third party to place candidates on the statewide ballot in nearly 40
years.
And getting on the ballot should become easier in future elections. This summer
the Maryland Court of Appeals, responding to a suit brought by the Maryland
Green Party, struck down certain aspects of the state's ballot-access laws,
easing the way for third-party participation in future state elections. By
sending would-be Libertarian activists out of the state, Murphy acknowledges
that the Free State Project could--at least initially--weaken Libertarian Party
efforts in Maryland.
"I want the Libertarian Party to succeed in Maryland," he says. "It's just that
the party might succeed better here by succeeding somewhere else first. If we
go to New Hampshire and it works, then Maryland has somewhere to look."
The Libertarians' 2002 candidate for governor, Anne Arundel County businessman
Spear Lancaster, endorses the Free State Project and has signed on as a
participant. "Not that I'm going to stay up there in the winter," Lancaster
says of the potential nothward move. "But I do plan to get an apartment or a
little condo up there if they go through with it."
Lorenzo Gaztanaga, Lancaster's running mate and a private security officer from
Cedonia, also backs the project, but he doesn't plan to participate.
"I wish them all the best," he says. "But I, for one, need to keep working in
Maryland with the same goals in mind."
Murphy says New Hampshire, where the state slogan is "Live Free or Die," is an
excellent choice for the experiment, as he feels its citizens already have a
libertarian streak. The state has no sales tax or personal income tax, for
example, affording New Hampshirites one of the lowest tax burdens in the
country. Even though its just over 1.3 million population is less than a
quarter of Maryland's, New Hampshire has the largest legislative body in the
country (424 members, as compared to Maryland's 188). Free Staters figure this
will make it easier to field candidates.
"This isn't about forcing the libertarian vision on anybody," Murphy cautions.
"It's about just getting people to talk about issues."
And what do New Hampshirites feel about the potential arrival of some 20,000
libertarian refugees to the place they call home? Murphy, who says he reads
four New Hampshire newspapers a day, feels the response from up north has been
"overwhelmingly positive."
Daniel Szczesny, associate publisher of Manchester, N.H.'s alternative weekly,
the Hippo Press, is neither surprised nor concerned about the Free Staters'
possible arrival. "Why wouldn't they want to come here?" he says. "Politics are
a hobby [in New Hampshire]--a way of life--and there's more than enough room
for them up here."
More media articles about the FSP
These media articles are maintained on a non-commercial basis by
The Free State Project,
a non-profit organization, for historical, educational, scholarship,
and research purposes. (For information regarding "Fair Use", see
US Code Title 17,
Chapter 1, Section 107).
Ready to vote with their feet
Editorial • 10/01/03
THIS CENTURY'S first potential large-scale political experiment takes its
next baby-step today. The 5,400-some folks in the Free State Project will find
out which of 10 low-population U.S. states their majority picked to conquer by
persuasion. If the Free Staters can swell their ranks to more than 20,000 by
2006, all have pledged to move in (but not live together) across the favored
state by 2011.
The goal for this small-government-loving cadre is classically American: to get
their voices heard by tipping the political scales in their favor. Active and
activist members across the chosen state would support like-minded candidates
for the legislature. Their candidates wouldn't win, though, without the backing
of many of the natives. Their expected tactics would be less like an invasion
and more like a revival meeting.
This yearning for a place of one's own is eternal. Pilgrims tried to set up
their own utopia in the 17th century, as did Mormons in the 19th. Just 30 years
ago, Vermont attracted scores of back-to-the-soil types.
The message, too, is classic. Free Staters base their creed - to promote "a
society in which the maximum role of civil government is the protection of
life, liberty and property" - on the theory and phrasing of 17th century
constitutionalist John Locke.
The postmodern twist is the composition of the faithful, and how they heard the
call. People leading the movement live in Connecticut, Michigan and Nevada; the
best-represented states among the signatories are California and Florida. The
message came to most of them via the Web musings of then-grad student Jason P.
Sorens in 2000, and was debated and refined via chat rooms and e-mail - and at
e-speed.
Of course, there are a boatload of ifs. Would the cerebral, chatty East Coast
contingent really pack up and head to Wyoming, should it win - or could
taciturn, open-sky Westerners face hunkering down in New Hampshire?
Free Staters - many of them Libertarians -want to slash government and repeal
laws that punish nonthreatening behavior, but the specifics are fuzzy. The
nonprofit project will not set up a political platform; the plan is to leave it
to the immigrants. But if 20,000 "rugged individualists" do move in somewhere,
would they really be able to agree on everything? Plus, the states on the
chosen list may be "liberty-friendly," but it's not clear how persuadable the
locals would be.
Still, it's heartening that those so dissatisfied with this country's politics
believe they can work within the system to change it. Perhaps more will be
inspired to participate in their country's business by watching these practical
idealists try to seed a state.
More media articles about the FSP
These media articles are maintained on a non-commercial basis by
The Free State Project,
a non-profit organization, for historical, educational, scholarship,
and research purposes. (For information regarding "Fair Use", see
US Code Title 17,
Chapter 1, Section 107).
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