Forum, April 17: Unmasking the Free State Project

I don’t know about you, but I was surprised to learn about the Free State Project and the power they’re wielding in New Hampshire. I’d heard, several years ago, that there was this group of people who were looking to create a libertarian (free) state and had chosen New Hampshire as the ideal place to make that happen. Ha ha, isn’t that cute. Well, having started officially in 2016, there are now more than 6,000 Free Staters living here with another 20,000 committed to coming. And their idea of a wonderful life is to have almost no government regulation, no public education and no taxes. I’m serious.

And they’ve been busy. There are now 25 Free Staters in the New Hampshire legislature, and a total of 151 Republican legislators have been endorsed by the radical Libertarian Alliance. These extreme-right legislators are highly placed in the Sununu Republican administration (the House Majority Leader and 10 of the 22 committee chairs). These people are responsible for the new abortion ban, public education funds going to private and religious schools and home-schooled students, and laws that would sharply suppress voting. They even put forth a bill to secede from the United States. I’m not kidding.

I used to think that believing in democracy was a non-partisan issue, but not anymore. Right now the Republican party is doing everything it can to destroy the democracy I once took for granted. Gov. Sununu, Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut, House Speaker Sherman Packard and Senate President Chuck Morse are fully behind — if not driving — the extreme move to the right.

It’s not enough to roll our eyes or wring our hands. If you believe in democracy and its democratic institutions, you need to be aware of what your state representative, senator and executive councilor are doing in your name. If they’re not voting the way you believe they should be, let them know how you feel. Is there someone you know who could run against them in the next election? Could that person be you? It’s time to get involved.

Jean Brown

Hanover

A February NPR poll showed that Biden’s first year was a failure. Of those polled, 56% said Biden failed in his first year and only 39% said he succeeded. Not only that, but “54% said he’s not fulfilling his campaign promises, and 52% said he has done more to divide the country than unite it.” Some of the reasons why people feel as they do are below.

Biden’s ill-advised departure from Afghanistan, disregarding his general’s advice, left many of our Afghan allies and Americans behind. We left the Taliban with billions of dollars worth of military equipment. Girls and women above the 6th grade have no educational opportunities, work opportunities and are mostly housebound. Did Russia, Iran, China and North Korea see this surrender to the Taliban as a sign of U.S. weakness?

We all know that inflation, which is running at more than 8.5%, is a huge problem. Gas and food prices are increasing much more. Even if you believe in protecting our environment, Biden shutting down pipelines and restricting oil drilling before we have sufficient green solutions is not helping most of us.

More than 2 million illegal immigrants were apprehended or turned themselves in after coming across the Mexican border in 2021. That was in addition to those not detected. Biden has never been to the border. How can any sovereign nation not have a secure border? This is a security threat given cartel control of drugs and criminals coming into the U.S.

In schools across the country, there’s a social revolution underway, and those who don’t agree with the direction of the revolution are canceled. The U.S. Department of Justice has taken to investigating parents who disagree.

Defunding the police, abolishing ICE, catch and release policies, and district attorneys who don’t prosecute have led to a huge upsurge in crime. The murder rate is up 30% nationally and crime has surged in all major cities.

In Ukraine, Biden is allowing war criminal Putin to dictate what we will or won’t send President Zelenskyy. It’s time to send the weapons that President Zelenskyy is asking for in the numbers that he’s looking for, including jet fighters, tanks, high altitude anti-aircraft systems, drones and more.

This November will be a time of reckoning for President Biden. Don’t forget to vote.

Stuart Richards

Norwich

As an American citizen originally from El Salvador, I follow the news of the country because my sister and nieces still live in dangerous neighborhoods in San Salvador.

The actions of the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, are controversial. He has put over 10,000 men in jail in the last 17 days to get control of gang members — “maras” — in the country.

What impact can this have in the United States? Government officials of Guatemala and Honduras have joined the efforts of the president of El Salvador, which means there will be fewer homicides, robberies, extortions and violence in Central American countries once these gang member are jailed. This may mean that fewer people will try to escape violence in Central America, and therefore, there could be less immigration to the United States.

The question is, what will the GOP base its platform on, if Donald Trump does not need to build a wall after all? Syrian refugees have been blocked from coming to this country for so many years, while European countries seem to have handled the exodus from Ukrainian refugees very well.

What is left? An aging American population trying to zoom and work until 80 years old to compete with the rest of the world? The “Make America Great” thing has aged in the last 17 days.

Zonia Watroba

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