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@ f0fd6902:a2fbaaab
2025-06-09 13:04:07
In Support of the Free State Project
https://mises.org/power-market/support-free-state-project
NBC Boston’s multi-episode coverage of the Free State Project included a naysayer complaining that the movers to New Hampshire are only doing so because they are minorities in their home states. I ask, does this make the project illegitimate?
This seems to be the way of the world in my estimation. Here’s a sampling of several similar minorities who moved in some coordinated mass of one kind or the other:
The Pilgrims – These separatists were looking for religious freedom by first abandoning England for the Netherlands and then to the new world. They were certainly in the minority in England and the Netherlands in the early 1600s.
The Amish – The Amish were a minority in their home countries in Europe and then migrated to Pennsylvania in the 1700s because of the absence of religious persecution in the colony of William Penn. This is directly analogous to the New Hampshire “porcupines” picking the state which was already one of the freer states in the union.
The Mormons – After the founding of the religion in the 1820-30 era, the existing Mormons started to move from New York and elsewhere to Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri where they were in the minority. They abandoned their focus there and eventually settled into their most substantial community of today—Utah.
Blacks – After WWII there was a significant migration of blacks from the South to the Midwest and Northeast. Blacks were the minority population in their home states. They moved to seek opportunity and better treatment—exactly paralleling the move to New Hampshire with the Free State Project.
Cubans – Following Fidel Castro’s 1959 Cuban Revolution, many freedom-loving Cubans headed north to Florida. This migration was further intensified with the Mariel Boat Lifts in the 1980s. The minority of Cubans who objected to communism and who were physically and financially able to make the trip did so.
Texas and Florida – Conservatives have begun a near-exodus to Texas and Florida seeking to escape their minority status in California and the overbearing progressive government policies there. Like New Hampshire, Texas and Florida are among the 10 states without a state income tax.
Massachusetts residents have fled to Florida, Texas, and New Hampshire in recent years, given their minority position of citizens objecting to the policies, particularly the high taxes in their home state.
Oregon – During the first half of the 1800s, thousands of settlers followed the Oregon Trail to migrate from the East and settle in Oregon. They were the minority among the many Indian tribes—again like the libertarians moving to New Hampshire.
Manhattan – A European settlement was established on the island in 1624—they were surely a minority when compared against the Carnisee Tribe owners—just as the Free Staters are a minority in New Hampshire. The Island was sold two years later to the Dutch and then to the English in 1626.
The Jews – After the escape from Egypt and their minority status there, Moses led his people to the Promised Land—today’s Israel. Throughout history, Jews have moved to avoid mistreatment and persecution.
Critics of the Free State Project should direct any animosity, not at those moving to their state, but to the other 49 states for failing to be freer states. It’s these overbearing states that are the cause of the need for yet one more migration. But let’s be sure to note that, unlike some of the world’s migrations, the Free State Project migrants are not moving to New Hampshire to exert coercion on the existing population but are moving to reduce the practice of coercion in general there as embodied in the American Dream.
https://stacker.news/items/1001466