Do you have a good understanding of what libertarianism is? It matters because both our state and national Republican parties have been captured by libertarians, and their control of all three branches of each has given them enormous and disproportionate power.
In New Hampshire, the hidden faces of Libertarianism are the Free State Project, the Liberty Alliance and Charles Koch’s Americans for Prosperity. The Free State Project was started in 2001 by Jason Sorens as a political migration movement. New Hampshire was chosen as the target state in 2003, with the goal of getting commitments from 20,000 out-of-staters to move here to create a libertarian utopia. Liberty Alliance is a group that supports/enforces the libertarian agenda.
Their ideology champions individual freedom over the common good. This translates into low taxes, minimal regulation and government small enough that it can be drowned in a bathtub (Grover Norquist). The fatal flaw in this ideology is that it assumes humans act rationally (i.e. not guided by greed, power, lust, ideology, racism, etc.).
Libertarians believe that public services should be privatized, given over to entities whose primary purpose is to maximize profits, not serve the public. Combined with a small government and lack of regulations to protect people, Americans will be at the mercy of rich and powerful interests, who have the money and power to impose their will.
The Libertarian Party’s goal of abolishing public schools is an example. Libertarian legislators proposed Education Freedom Accounts to send public tax money to private, religious and home schoolers with minimal accountability. When the EFA bill received very strong public opposition, they tabled the bill and slipped it into the state budget where further public input was avoided. Well-to-do families celebrated while public schools had to do with less.
Their contempt for public school equity is evident in their continued foot-dragging in meeting their constitutional obligations set forth in the Claremont I and II mandates as well as overseeing the lowest funded public university system in the U.S. Then there was the Croydon school coup, where a group of Free Staters orchestrated the slashing of Croydon’s school budget by 50% at a poorly attended school meeting. The community rallied at a special meeting to restore the budget, 377 to 2.
Of course, the Free State Project and Liberty Alliance are all about tax reduction, proven in the abolishing of the of the Interest & Dividends Tax and reductions in the Business Enterprise Tax and the Business Profits Tax. It’s a great strategy to create a budget crisis so they can defund public services and reduce government.
They’re also masters of downshifting financial responsibilities to towns and cities. They reduced their contribution to retirement funds for school, fire, town, and police from 35% to zero, which triggered an increase in property taxes. Then there are the Education Freedom Accounts. By all rights, this state mandate should have been totally funded by the state, but they’re proud of their status as spending the lowest amount on public education of all 50 states. So property taxes went up to the dismay of middle-class property owners and seniors on fixed incomes. Libertarians sponsored initiatives to empower citizens to cap or cut property and school taxes; after all, they’re not interested in fair taxation, just no taxation.
The Free State Project and Liberty Alliance have captured the New Hampshire Republican Party, controlling both houses of the state legislature. They can dictate what people can be Republican candidates in state elections. Curiously, they do not proudly and publicly call themselves Free State Project and Liberty Alliance members. In fact, the Liberty Alliance bylaws ban the release of member names. They simply don’t want you to know who they are.
Nevertheless, you can discover partial lists of which New Hampshire legislators are members of these groups by going to Granite State Progress, Granite State Matters or by going to the Liberty Alliance website and finding the highest rated legislators.
How much do we sacrifice when we prioritize individual freedom over the common good? Think climate change, vaccines, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and regulatory agencies which protect Americans, such as EPA protecting clean air and water, FDA protecting food safety and the U.S. Park Service protecting precious public lands from exploitation by mining, lumber and oil interests.
As the midterm elections approach and we still have the remnants of democracy, we must take a hard look at groups that gerrymander our state for political advantage and, based on election fraud lies, pass legislation to suppress voting and restrict voter access. Using the Project 2025 blueprint, Libertarian interests are steadily dismantling our federal government. Expect the same in New Hampshire.
Do you want a Constitutional democracy or do you want to be controlled by unregulated oligarchs, powerful and wealthy interests which can buy and control a small government? Vote accordingly.
Allan MacDonald is a retired public educator and small businessman living in New London.