“The oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices among the oppressed.” – Simone de Beauvoir

We saw a vivid manifestation of this observation from the 1940s for a few hours on January 6th, 2021. Amassed on one side of the big Plexiglas shield were people from all over the country who had been radicalized by a well-orchestrated, well-funded Big Lie propaganda campaign. On the other were the millionaires in Burberry coats and Gucci shoes whose leader instructed them to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell.” The foot soldiers did just that, but where were the millionaires who had promised to be right with them? They were sitting in a warm suite of rooms, watching those deadly events unfold from a safe, comfortable distance.

Jan. 6th was to be the glorious climax of a methodical, decades-long effort to undermine democracy. The fact that it was a chaotic disaster doesn’t mean the plan has failed, though. It’s very much alive in several states, including here in New Hampshire, with the help of the Free State Project. Last week’s article in the Telegraph about CACR32, the secession bill now under consideration in the NH Legislature, illustrates how the FSP has been co-opted by forces with less benign goals than just wanting to be left alone. Jason Sorens has backed away from his secession scheme, but radicals clothed in the symbols of the Civil War South are keeping it alive. He’s disavowed the moral and organizational support the FSP is receiving from neo-nazis, but the Proud Boys have been conspicuously present in local and state campaigns and at hostile takeovers of government meetings.

They may disagree on tactics, but both peaceable libertarians and alt-right groups have been willing accomplices for well-heeled anti-constitutionalists since Grover Norquist announced his goal was to “shrink government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub.” Norquist was born into wealth in Weston, Massachusetts, and has spent his career, beginning in the Reagan era, finding ways to erode the power of public institutions to work for the people and keep an eye on the moneyed class. In 2012, in response to President Obama’s re-election, he vowed to tear democracy apart state by state: “We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals, and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship.” So the guys in the Burberry coats and Gucci shoes are funneling funds through Political Action Committees (PACs) to train anti-government activists in disruptive tactics and how to clothe every wedge issue in the language of patriotism (“family values,” “tyranny vs. liberty,” “heritage,” “socialism,” etc.).

The wealthy anti-constitutionalists’ most effective tactic has been funding Free Staters’ campaigns for public office. They are like the parasitic wasps that deposit their eggs inside another insect. When the eggs hatch, the offspring feed on the paralyzed host insect, and the

host dies. As of 2020, self-identified Free Staters hold majority power in all branches of state government. All of them ran and most serve as Republicans. These “liberty Republican” candidates received over a million dollars in donations last year from national Republican PACs like Make Liberty Win and Americans for Prosperity. The Liberty Alliance PAC gave over 150 members of our 400-member House of Representatives an A rating for their support for legislation that defunds public education, public works, and city and county governments. Their plan to disrupt and defund the structures that unite us is proceeding nicely. These are stories from a single day last week, reported in the InDepthNH newsletter.

• “State taxpayers paid about $4.2 million for legal costs associated with what is known as Senate Bill 3, a [voter restriction] bill the courts declared unconstitutional.”

• “A bill to update a Cold War teacher loyalty law drew a crowd in opposition Thursday…. A tally of people signing in to the public hearing on House Bill 1255 before the House Education Committee was 2,232 opposed, 26 in favor, and 1 neutral. Only one person beyond bill sponsors spoke in favor of the bill…while the remainder of people testifying opposed the bill saying it will ultimately hurt students who will not learn the good and the bad history of this country.”

• “New Hampshire could be its own sovereign nation under a Constitutional Amendment proposed by state Rep. Mike Sylvia, R-Belmont, and now making its way through the halls of Concord, and if successful, to the ballot box.”

Also this month, the journal NH Business Review reported, “Nowhere have so-called ‘liberty-Republicans’ gained a tighter grip on power than in Belknap County, where their zeal for lowering taxes and shrinking government has sown dissention and turmoil and put the quality of operations and the stability of its finances at risk.” FSP Representatives, who also serve as the county convention, which is in charge of fiscal appropriations, have forced frivolous investigations of already transparent county operations. These have cost taxpayers $25,000 in legal fees. That is a big hit for a sparsely populated rural county and the departments it funds, including Sheriff, Maintenance, County Attorney, and the County Nursing Home. If Belknap County government is “drowned in a bathtub,” who will maintain county roads so people can get to work and support their families? Who will protect public safety or hold people accountable for crimes? Where will low-income older people in need of care go? These questions profoundly affect every Belknap resident, and the FSP and its funders profoundly don’t care. Norquist would be proud.

Libertarians reject our Constitutional model because it requires the sacrifice of a certain amount of personal liberty for the good of the Common. Right-wing authoritarians reject it because it requires power-sharing with people they don’t want to share with. But why would the 1% who already control as much wealth as the bottom 50% of Americans want to destroy the very institutions that have enabled them to become so wealthy? Abigail Disney, an heir to the Disney Empire, spoke the obvious in an interview a couple of years ago (npr.org, 12/30/19): that level of wealth corrupts, and it makes those who have it afraid of everyone they can’t control with it. Democracy means power-sharing and regulations that impinge on their ability to keep funneling wealth and power toward themselves, until they have it all. Over the last 30 years, they’ve come close to establishing the oligarchy – rule by a group of wealthy elites – our Constitutions were created to prevent.

This can all feel pretty hopeless, but the oligarchs love nothing better than to hear people either say, “What’s the use? They’re all crooks, anyway,” or, “If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em.” That’s when even those who aren’t actively working on behalf of oppressors become accomplices by default. We don’t have to be accomplices. We still hold power. More on that next time.

Jean Lewandowski is a resident of Nashua.