New Hampshire’s state motto is ”Live Free or Die.” For reasons explained in this article, New Hampshire became a magnet for libertarians whose goal was to abolish government. Last year, The New Republic published a delightful article by Patrick Blanchfield about Grafton, New Hampshire, a town that went libertarian and was soon overrun by a hungry and bold bear population. Certain conveniences are sacrificed in a town, and now a state, where the highest ideal for large numbers of people is the lowest possible taxes.
While Grafton strived to be a Free Town, free of regulations, with low taxes, and a limited government. other libertarians had a bigger dream: to turn NewHampshire into a Free State. The article cited here describes this project and attributes it to a young academic named Jason Sorens. His idea was that a relatively small number of libertarian activists could move to a small state, take over its government, and implement their ideas. it has happened in New Hampshire. The libertarians now control the Republican Party, which controls the state.
In 2003, libertarians formed the NH Liberty Alliance, which rates legislators based on their adherence to libertarian principles.
The Liberty Alliance has since shed its nonpartisan guise to become the dominant bloc within the House Republican caucus. This year, the alliance gave 150 representatives “A“ grades and another 45 received a “B” for voting as recommended on between 87 and 100 percent of 49 tracked bills. All were Republicans.
In fact, among House Republicans, only eight received the lowest score. In other words, 195 members of the caucus, which numbered 213 when the session began and 211 when it ended, aligned themselves closely with the alliance. The “nonpartisan” alliance has placed itself at the forefront of the partisan contest.
Meanwhile, of the 177 Democrats, 18 were given a “D” grade and 24 received an “F,” while the other 135 were graded “CT,” or “constitutional threat,” and “considered unfaithful to their oath of office to uphold the New Hampshire Constitution and the principle of liberty.”
Candidates endorsed by the Liberty Alliance have received financial support from national political committees — Make Liberty Win and Americans for Prosperity — which together spent some $1.4 million on New Hampshire legislative races in 2020.
Americans for Prosperity is the name of the Koch network.
“The liberty movement has made a lot of progress,” Sorens said, highlighting the reduction in both business and property taxes, repeal of the interest and dividends tax and introduction of an expansive school choice program in the last legislative session. He also pointed to legislation repealing the certificate of need process, granting the right to carry a firearm without a license, deregulating home-schooling, reforming civil asset forfeiture, restricting eminent domain, decriminalizing marijuana possession, allowing medicinal marijuana and easing regulation of micro- and nanobreweries.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Once again, Corporate Libertarians, whose aim is not to abolish government, which is not actually possible, but to replace Government, Of, By, For The People with Government By And For Corporations.
In other words replace with Fascism.
Don’t forget the Walton Foundation’s role:
“Today the Walton Family Foundation announced plans to invest $6 million in the Alliance for School Choice in support of an effort to double the number of students nationwide who attend private schools with the support of publicly funded scholarships. There are now nearly 300,000 students attending private schools with the support of public funding. The Alliance for School Choice is a leading national organization promoting, defending and implementing school choice programs around the country. The Walton Family Foundation invests in programs and organizations that expand parental choice and promote equal opportunity in education and is ASC’s largest donor.”
The Walton Foundation does absolutely no productive work on behalf of public schools or public school students yet they have an outsize role in public school policy due to the huge sums of money they give to ed reform groups. We get lockstep, anti public school policy out of ed reform because they’re all funded by the same billionaires.
Why should public school policy be directed by people and organizations that don’t support public schools and offer nothing of value to public school students?
The Walton Foundation has a numerical “goal” of enrolling X numbers of students in priavte schools. Why are we allowing them to set public school policy? They don’t do any work for our students. They contribute nothing to our schools.
walton schools = walton materials, walton trainings, walton tests…
Sounds really great….until it isn’t. People will start revolting when their public roads become rutted and their bridges crumble or when the gun toting thugs start shooting and killing kids for doing stupid kid stuff. But it’ll be OK because God will keep their stomach’s full and their heart pure. Some folks just have to learn the hard way.
They are already crumbling. I can tell when I cross from a NH state road to an MA one because it smooths out and there’s suddenly lines and reflectors.
Understanding WHAT a system is and
is NOT in central…
I fail to understand why an organization
called the “Alliance for School Choice”
would be expected to work on behalf of
schools outside of “School Choice”.
Of course, they do absolutely no productive
work on behalf of public schools. They are
a COMPETITOR, like GM vs FORD.
I doubt GM does any productive work on
behalf of Ford, or direct policy for
Ford. If Ford allowed GM to direct their
policies, would they still be Ford?
IOW, if public school policy is directed by
“organizations that don’t support public schools”
what’s the point of calling them public schools?
What’s the point of blasting LESS
titled mortals when the “high” titled
are complicit in the sham?
What’s the point of pretending we “hire”
these schmucks, when policy, for the most
part, is a function of UNelected
dictators?
What’s the point of calling “auctions”
“elections”? Auctions in the sense of
97% of the time, whatever candidate
spends the most WINS.
Understanding WHAT a system is and
is NOT in central…
Libertarians hate democracy. If you so much as mention democracy in front of a libertarian, he/she melts down into a puddle of angry boiling pus. Libertarians don’t believe in a commons or a common good, it’s every man, woman, chipmunk and turtle for her/himself. Public schools funded by taxes?! Surely you jest, everything “public” must be privatized, defunded, decimated and obliterated from existence.
Sorens is a sociopath little piece of excrement who wants everyone to live in an Ayn Rand novel.
His movement destroyed New Hampshire, changing it from a gentrifying part of the Greater Boston area to a backwoods backwards laughingstock that money is starting to flee. I work in biotech, and many people I know have moved to Massachusetts for sanity. Unless Hillsborough breaks off and becomes part of Massachusetts, I am likely to as well.
Despite arguing that government benefits constitute an immoral redistribution of wealth, Ayn Rand received Social Security payouts later in life.
And also died bitter and friendless, because it turns out objectivists are horrible selfish people that make terrible friends.
“The God who made New Hampshire
Taunted the lofty land with little men.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Ode, Inscribed to William H. Channing”
And what Stephen Vincent Benét wrote in “The Devil and Daniel Webster” is no longer, clearly, the case:
“But they say that whenever the devil comes near Marshfield, even now, he gives it a wide berth. And he hasn’t been seen in the state of New Hampshire from that day to this. I’m not talking about Massachusetts or Vermont.”
These days, he’s dividing his time between the legislatures of New Hampster and Flor-uh-duh.
Benét . Now THAT GUY could write a story! His “By the Waters of Babylon” invented the post-apocalyptic fiction. Imagine being the INVENTOR of that genre!!! It’s one thing to write one for a new Netflix release. It’s another to invent the genre to begin with. And to do it with such artfulness. Genius. True genius.
Thanks for this, Bob. I never knew Binet gave us the first post A,nor had I read this.
This was a breathtaking piece of imagination/invention. In 1937!!!! On the eve of the Second World War.
Glad you enjoyed it, Roy!
One of my favorite short stories; I read it during freshmen year in high school.
It’s nowhere to be found at the current district I’m at.
Sigh
Why did the libertarian cross the road? He didn’t. No taxes, no roads.
Maybe the people of New Hampshire will look at the dystopia they are in and wonder why the people in Vermont have a better quality of life.
They’re poorly informed. All the papers are paywalled, and WMUR kisses Sununu’s arse. Unless you look at NHPR or WCVB 5 Boston, you don’t see how bad things are getting in New Hampshire or how it’s becoming the backwards joke of New England. John Olivier calling it “Florida with trees” should have been a hint.
LMAO, LCT!
Well, my comment is in moderation. What was the trigger? Ralph Waldo Emerson? Stephen Vincent Benét? Oh the mysteries of WordPress, rivaling those of the Trinity, the Virgin birth, and the appeal of government that ignores the needs of the populace.
My theory is that there is a small black hole at a certain location in the comment box and if your comment happens to cross it, your comment gets swallowed up, but due to Hawking radiation, the information eventually gets back out, although maybe much later (in our frame of reference) in sometimes in a mangled state.
If this comment makes it through immediately, we will know the black hole is not in this part of the box.
And since your comments tend to be long, it makes me wonder whether it is down quite far in the box toward the bottom.
Confirmed. definitely toward the bottom.
Although writing Brett K. ‘s last name seems to create its own black hole no matter where in the comment box you put it, so there may be a similar principle involved.
There do seem to be trigger words, phrases, and websites that are sucked into a Word Press black hole. Every time I attempted to post a link from Center for American Progress (CAP), poof, spontaneous combustion, gone. Not even a small pile of ashes.
Trying to figure out why the moderation algorithm is messing with you is like trying to figure out why a VAM algorithm caused a great teacher to jump off a bridge, or why Pearsonalized educationey software algorithms have your star student reading see Spot run. Some things aren’t designed to make sense.
indeed
Sounds like the failed Brownlow experiment in Kansas a few years back.
?
A libertarian walks into a bear. The free market doesn’t save him.
A libertarian walks into a bar. The bar owner sues the libertarian for damaging the bar’s reputation.
A libertarian walks into A. Burr. His honor insulted yet again, the former vice president challenges the Ayn Rand fan to a pistol duel. One of them cheats because he just doesn’t care whether or not it’s ethical or permissible to use an assault rifle.
A libertbearian walks into a bar
The cocktail waitress says
“Hi, I’m Mary. Can I get you a drink?
The libertbearian pawses, sizes up the waitress for a moment, and then replies
“Yes, I’d like a bloody Mary”
A libertarian drives in the wrong lane, swerves to miss a car, and crashes into a bar. Live free or die!
A libertarian drives in the wrong lane, swerves to miss a car, and crashes into a sidewalk tie-dyed T shirt stand. Live free or dye!
Jill Filipovic wrote about the “Greatest Generation”, “how such a fortunate generation left so little behind.”
The term for ” a town that went libertarian and was soon overrun by a hungry and bold bear population” is “Libertbearian”
Libertbearian
Libertarian
Governments that suck
Libertbearian
Bears that run amok
LOL
Libertarianism in a nutshell
“One woman, who prudently chose to remain anonymous save for the sobriquet “Doughnut Lady,” revealed to Hongoltz-Hetling that she had taken to welcoming bears on her property [in Grafton] for regular feasts of grain topped with sugared doughnuts. If those same bears showed up on someone else’s lawn expecting similar treatment, that wasn’t her problem. ” — from The Town that went Feral
https://newrepublic.com/article/159662/libertarian-walks-into-bear-book-review-free-town-project
And I use “nut” in the sense of “kook”
Alternative spelling
Libertburying”
Aarchy is effectively the end of liberty.
Anarchy
I’m on the side of the grizzlies. Have been since the DeVos confirmation hearing. I also root for bees that sting Michelle Rhee when she flies around on her broom, screaming, “I’ll get you, my pretty!” Oh yeah, speaking of the Wicked Rhee of the West, I additionally support students, and their little dogs too.
Reich wing Frank Edelblut, the education commissioner appointed by Governor Cookie, is a DeVos and NRA devotee.
This state is becoming North Alabama quickly.
I have always been on the side of the Libertbearians.
In my opinion that have gotten a raw (meat) deal for far too long.
And having to maintain a 1000 pound body weight on grubs, voles and berries is just cruel.
Even if we don’t let them shop at our supermarkets, at a bear minimum, the Libertbearians should have access to our garbage cans.
Some may consider them to be little more than Welbear Queens, but letting them eat our tossed ham bones and broken eggs is the least we can do.
At a bear minimum indeed. Chuckle. I really shouldn’t enjoy puns as much as I do.
Aren’t there libertarians in people’s personal lives, which stresses personal liberty in those choices, and economic libertarians, who are for minimal government intervention in economics? Aren’t people who are for abortion rights, sexual freedom, and the right to smoke pot and drink alcohol personal libertarians? I thought libertarian was a good thing in 1980.
When you start treading on individual rights for the social good, who defines the social good? Should we all go to church on Sunday? Should we all be mandated to be vegetarians to save the planet? Seems like a slippery slope, but when you are on the losing end of liberty with the conservative or woke mob on the other side, I would say those who mock liberty and personal libertarianism do so at their own peril.
We are talking about Corporate Libertarians here. They preach Rugged Individualism but the “Individuals” they are talking about are CEOs, Corporate Personhoodlums, and of course Individual One. It’s a good line as long the suckers buy it.
The term Libertarian has become so misused and twisted that it has lost much (if not all) of it’s original meaning.
Sadly, this true of many of the terms for political groups: Conservative, Liberal, Republican and Democrat.
We now have people claiming to be Conservative Republicans who have supported a slash and burn environmental policy and people claiming to be Liberal Democrats who have supported a get tough on nonviolent drug offenders policy.
The words not only no longer mean what they originally meant, but they now often mean just the opposite.
Ted-
When conservative Catholic power brokers and the Koch network coalesced to gain power, all of us should have recognized the threat to the rights of average Joe’s and Janes.
Jefferson said, in every age and in every country, the priest aligns with the despot.
The recent WSJ article by a conservative professor at an elite college, in which he advocated for school choice, was retweeted by the Minnesota Catholic Conference. In 2020, Bishop Hebda prohibited his priests from voting in the Democratic primary, citing the state Catholic Conference as his authority to do so.
The priest aligns with the Vestment.
Only if it’s fully vested.
The only thing Corpulent Libertarians care about is ROV (Return On Vestement)
Ted,
Libertarian policy has created Catholic organizations as the nation’s 3rd largest employer. Research found there were parishes where more money was generated from tax-funded education vouchers than from worshippers. Conservative Catholics who were employed to affect public policy have taken credit for the school choice legislation in their states. State Catholic Conferences have co-hosted with Koch’s AFP, school choice rallies in state capitols.
Private hospitals, with Medicare and insurance-funded patients, have the opportunity to generate income over and above their expenses. One in 6 U.S. hospitals are owned by Catholic organizations. Research in 2015 found that Catholic hospital charity care was about the same as other private hospitals (2.8%). Public hospitals provide charity care at 5.6%.
Libertarians seized an opportunity from history to enable the growth of conservative Catholic political power today. White supremacist organizations from the past like the KKK were anti-Catholic. Those today who write or speak about the coalescence of conservative Catholics and wealthy libertarians in state and federal governance get tarred as anti-Catholic. Christian nationalists (protestant) are the lone religious targets of scrutiny by both liberal and conservative media and public influencers.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops spent $2 mil. on a clinic that
is a model replacement for Planned Parenthood. The clinic promotes a calendar method to the exclusion of pharmaceutical birth control. Those who seek “freedom” and think that the right wing will stop after fighting against abortion are fooling themselves. There is too much money and too much control of citizens at stake.