New Hampshire’s 1784 Constitution: “All men are born equally free and independent; therefore, all government of right originates from the people, is founded in consent, and instituted for the general good…. When men enter into a state of society, they surrender up some of their natural rights to that society, in order to insure the protection of others….” (emphasis is mine)

Free State Project: “Once we’ve taken over the state government, we can slash state and local budgets…. 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.” (Jason Sorens, founder)

NH 1784 Constitution: “Every member of the community has a right to be protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty and property; he is therefore bound to contribute his share in the expence of such protection, and to yield his personal service when necessary, or an equivalent.”

FSP: “Taxes are theft.”

New Hampshire has a big decision to make in the next year: do we keep our Constitutional form of government and the ideals it represents, or do we give it all up to a small, out-of-state group of extremists? Anti-government activists calling themselves the Free State Project (FSP) decided a decade ago to move 20,000 like-minded people from all over the country to NH, to take over and dismantle all levels of state government. They describe themselves in their recruiting material as “…neighborly, productive folks…,” but we’ve had a taste of their “neighborliness” at our own school board meetings, where adherents have disrupted, shouted, cursed, and threatened elected officials. They claim to be 20% of the way to their numerical goal, but they’ve already made strides toward creating an anarchic territory for this tiny minority of residents. Sadly, the state Republican Party has allowed them to gain control of the House and Senate, and our weak Governor has enabled them.

Just in the last few weeks, a couple of NH House committees, led by GOP Representatives, advanced schemes that would raise Nashua’s property taxes, impose state mandates about vaccines on all local entities, public and private, gerrymander away our ability to choose the state and national representation we want, and impose vague but onerous restrictions on what can be taught in public schools, and even business trainings.

The House Education Committee approved an amendment to skim money from taxes raised for public education, and give it to private, for-profit, and parochial schools, and homeschooling, with no accountability to us taxpayers who are footing the bill. Already, the number of people requesting “Education Freedom Account” vouchers from the state requires 5,000 times the amount of tax dollars budgeted for the program. Even worse, a recent amendment mandates

local districts–our towns and cities– must raise property taxes and must not means test applicants to prevent public dollars from going to those who can afford private schools. This means much less funding for public education and astronomical tax hikes for Nashua property owners. Free Staters chant “Taxes are theft,” but if this stands, they and their GOP enablers are the ringleaders of the biggest heist on record. The effect would be to bankrupt cities, along with public education, which, as they’ve stated, is their goal.

Earlier, radicals slipped an amendment into the budget bill making it illegal to teach “divisive concepts,” and an FSP-sponsored group has already offered a $500 bounty to anyone successfully reporting a violation of this law to the Department of Education, which now has a handy form for just that purpose. So is it illegal now, when teaching about Thanksgiving, to talk about the Wampanoag Indians who were living here when European settlers arrived, including their tradition of incorporating gratitude into their daily rituals? Would that result in students asking difficult questions? If discussions ensued, could the teacher be reported to the NH thought police? The unanswered questions are meant to discourage people from even wanting to teach in public schools.

FSP extremists really don’t want any but the most irresponsible among us to gather together in community. The GOP has passed a non-germane amendment to HB255 that forbids any entity, public or private, profit or non-profit, to institute vaccine requirements. Just one example of what this means: there are dozens of town bands in NH, many of which are the voice of traditional communal festivals and celebrations. Because there is no activity germier than blowing through a sweaty wind instrument, some directors have taken the precaution of requiring members to be vaccinated before joining rehearsals. This keeps members, many of whom are older adults, safe (“protection of others”), and also preserves and helps rebuild a beloved part of small-town NH that has been deeply impacted by the pandemic (“general good”). Because of radicals’ adolescent understanding of what freedom means when people “enter into a state of society,” town bands, the towns they celebrate, and innumerable other communal activities, have no way to protect the health and safety of members or the audiences who go to hear them.

Neither last nor least, the Special Committee on Redistricting held a public hearing to get input about the proposed new Congressional districts. A grand total of zero people testified in favor of the plainly gerrymandered proposal. Nonetheless, the committee adopted it on a party-line vote. This is disheartening, but not surprising. The GOP leadership, now the mouthpiece of the FSP, has been outspokenly proud of their efforts to wall Republican and Democratic districts off from each other, increasing the divisiveness they pretend to abhor and rigging the outcome for both. Instead of government originating “from the people,” this small group of anti-constitutional anarchists is well along in the process of deciding which communities in our state will have Republican representation, and which will have Democratic.

A quick re-reading of the FSP statement above shows that the recent dustup over the Executive Council’s refusal of federal relief dollars isn’t an accident; it was completely in keeping with this anti-American, anti-New Hampshire group’s agenda. But the Council’s reversal of its decision is also instructive. It means that if we continue to raise our voices in opposition to destructive, toxic, extreme individualism, and in support of our communities and Constitution, the rule of law, and “the general good,” we will get to keep our state.