Free State Project: Would You Move for Politics?

So you want to live in freedom but feel there's no way it's going to happen where you live? How about becoming a porcupine and joining the Free State Project?

The FSP is organizing thousands of liberty lovers to move to New Hampshire and work there to achieve its motto - liberty in our lifetime. The plan is to get 20,000 participants to sign the intent document, stating they will move to New Hampshire within five years of there being 20,000 people committed to go.

What kind of people? Just about anyone, as long as they agree to the political philosophy that the maximum role of government is the protection of life, liberty and property. It exists at most to protect people's rights, and should neither provide for people nor punish them for activities that interfere with no one else.

The Statement of Intent is more than just saying you'll move, though. You pledge to be politically involved and to work for liberty.

The project came about as a thought essay written by Jason Sorens in 2001. He wanted to get the idea out there to see if it could be brought to life by people better suited to organize than him. And organize they did, getting the project off the ground with people signing up, choosing the state and gaining publicity.

2001
July - Jason Sorens' article Announcement: The Free State Project appears in The Libertarian Enterprise.
September - Free State Project officially kicks off

2002
July - 10 states chosen for the vote
September - 1000 members
 
2003
August - 5000 members
November - Vote taken, New Hampshire chosen

2004
August - 6000 members 

2009
January - 9000 members
April - 700 moved to New Hampshire

2010
March - 10,000 members 

Yeah, part of me isn't that thrilled with the New Hampshire idea, either. I'm a Southern girl, so the cold and I don't play well together. That said, there was good reason for New Hampshire as the choice for the Free State Project.

There wasn't a specific state in Jason Sorens' mind when he wrote his original essay laying out the idea for the project. But he did list a few criteria in picking, the first - and most obvious - being size. You can make a far bigger impact with 20,000 people in a small pond than a big ocean. And when talking about size, population numbers were important but also how many of that population actually voted.

Sorens had some other ideas for what might make a good state for the project, although not all the states that made the initial list met them all. The one I remembered the most from that time was the desire for a coastline, since Sorens' essays leaned toward the idea that this free state might eventually want or need to secede and coastal access would be key for trade.

But when it came down to it, the bar was set by looking for a state with a population of less than 1.5 million, and where the combined spending in 2000 by the Democratic and Republican parties was less than $5.2 million, the total national spending by the Libertarian Party in that year. Hawaii and Rhode Island were eliminated from this list because of their propensity for centralized government. (Dang it! Hawaii would have rocked.)

Ten candidate states eventually made the list to be voted on - Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming. Nope, no Southern states. We already have too many people, apparently, not to mention missing out on a few other criteria.

The vote took place in 2003, once the project had 5,000 people committed to make the move. New Hampshire and Wyoming had a tight race, but New Hampshire came out on top by the end. The rest were barely worth mentioning as also-rans.

Wyoming came in second in the voting, but It didn't get left out. Actually, there was an idea for a free state migration that started before the Free State Project. Boston T. Party wrote about a similar movement in his book Molon Labe!, only the movement went to Wyoming rather than New Hampshire.

After New Hampshire was picked in 2003, Boston T. Party and others got Free State Wyoming going as an alternative. It's a political migration project whose goal is to bring people of "demonstrably ethical character" to the state of Wyoming in the western United States to encourage "political liberty, free trade and voluntary cooperation."

Along with Free State Wyoming, there is also the Free West Alliance, also started shortly after the vote for New Hampshire. There were factions that chafed at the choice of an Eastern state. So the alliance is attempting to get libertarians to move to Idaho, Montana and Wyoming in order to influence their local political policy, as well as mobilizing current residents of the states who have libertarian politics.