Did liberty win where you live?
Eric Brakey
Free State Project, Executive Director
Did liberty win where you live this week?
Across the country, outside New Hampshire, it does not look good.
- New York City has fallen to socialism.
- Maine has fallen to gun control.
- Virginia is to be governed by a CIA operative.
- New Jersey… is still New Jersey.
Here in the Free State, at least, liberty continues winning.
Launching a New Era for the Free State Project
As torches of liberty dim all around us, our flame in New Hampshire grows brighter every election cycle.
With so many losing hope for liberty in their states on November 4th, November 5th was the perfect time to launch our new website (details below) and welcome video — inviting liberty seekers to come home and join us in the birthplace of American liberty.
Thank you to our FSP Video Strategist, Reinita Susman, for producing this new video — utilizing footage and interviews from her upcoming documentary on the Free State Project.
Free Staters Help Flip Special Election in Former Democrat Stronghold
On Tuesday, in the town of Berlin, NH (a former Democrat stronghold), Republican Marc Tremblay won a special election for state representative by 13 votes.
While Representative-elect Tremblay is not a liberty Republican, per se, his victory (1) is a sign of shifting winds in the former mill town and (2) strengthens the liberty-led GOP House caucus in Concord.
How did Free Staters help flip this race?
First, many Free Staters volunteered on get-out-the-vote efforts, including door-knocking and making phone calls with groups like Americans for Prosperity-NH.
Second, there is a strong and growing Free State community in Berlin shifting the political leaning of the electorate. Last autumn, during my first tour of the North Country as Executive Director for the FSP, I sat down with local Free State community leaders at a local diner.
They want more Free Staters joining them by moving to Berlin — and they make some good arguments to consider:
- Berlin is a modern and affordable city in the North Country of Coös County at the foot of Mt. Washington, perfect for those who want to live next to the woods (but not in the woods).
- With strong internet access, many Free Staters with remote work jobs have found it a wonderful place to live.
- With the passage of recent pro-crypto laws sponsored by NH Rep. Keith Ammon (Free Stater), there is incoming investment as the crypto companies are eyeing the old mills for affordable spaces to manufacture crypto mining equipment.
- Based on recent election results over the last several cycles, any Free Stater moving to Berlin would maximize their political impact as a voter in frequently close local state legislative races.
(Side note: there are 40 properties for sale right now in Berlin, NH for less than $200,000. See for yourself.)
On an election day when most liberty lovers around America suffered disappointment on the Road to Serfdom, here in New Hampshire, I see reminders that our concentration strategy works.
We are effectively building a free society that resists electoral tugs toward socialism and corporatism.
Maine Falls to Bloomberg Gun Control Machine
From across the border in the Free State, I painfully watched what happened in the Pine Tree State.
Maine is my home state, where my ancestors are buried, and where I spent twelve years defending liberty to the best of my abilities (as a Ron Paul liberty activist, three-term state senator, and two-time candidate for federal office).
Among my proudest achievements from that period of my life are authoring Maine’s constitutional carry law and leading grassroots pressure campaigns to defeat Bloomberg-funded “Red Flag” gun confiscation proposals year after year in the state legislature.
These Red Flag laws allow the state to target individuals for gun confiscation, based on unsubstantiated allegations, without due process, on the basis of pre-crime.
On Tuesday, NYC billionaire Michael Bloomberg finally won.
A low-turnout electorate voted to pass a referendum to enact this gun confiscation law in a state that has long-ranked among the most pro-2A in America.
With some of the highest taxes in America and tight economic controls, Maine (under Gov. Janet Mills, who says she doesn’t like New Hampshire) is already ranked the 43rd worst U.S. state for freedom — down from a recent high of #25 during the Paul LePage administration.
Despite this, liberty lovers of Maine prided themselves on the strongest protections for the right to keep and bear arms in the country — with even sportsmen Democrats taking absolutist positions on this individual liberty.
But a decade ago, Michael Bloomberg money started sloshing into Democrat party and campaign coffers and many of those tunes started changing and the camel’s nose slipped under the tent.
- First, a so-called “yellow flag” law was passed as a compromise to avoid the necessity of a red flag law.
- Then, the Democrat-controlled legislature pushed through a 72-hour waiting period on gun purchases, which has the iconic Kittery Trading Post threatening a move to NH and is currently being challenged in court as a violation of the state constitution.
- Now, a full camel stands in the tent — Red Flag gun confiscation — and New Hampshire stands as the only state left in New England with laws protecting an absolute individual right to keep and bear arms.
Mainers often ask me to come back to Maine, but I recognized the trajectory years ago. At a certain point, I also realized I was powerless to stop it. That’s why I tell them, “I am preparing the lifeboats in New Hampshire.”
On Wednesday, I was sad to declare it officially, “Maine has fallen.”
My short video has been viewed over 150,000 times across multiple platforms — driven largely by distraught Mainers (who may now want to consider taking me up on the offer of those lifeboats in New Hampshire).
Click here to watch for yourself.
Socialism Captures NYC; NH Governor Invites Fleeing Businesses
The appropriately named Empire State was already the worst state for freedom in America. One has to feel tremendous sympathy for the people of rural northern New York who are pulled along by one of the most populous cities in the world for every statist trend.
This week, New York City elected an openly socialist mayor.
With many business owners panicking, NH Governor Kelly Ayotte has cleverly decided to emulate the Free State Project — poaching the best and most freedom-loving people from other failing societies.
Using her own campaign funds, she sent a billboard truck to drive around Manhattan, inviting NYC business owners to “come to New Hampshire” and “keep more of your hard-earned money.”
It earned a fair amount of media for the New Hampshire and targets the exact people we need here in the Free State: capitalists.
Personally, I give her an A+ on this one.
A New Website for a New Era
The next time you visit FSP.org, you will also find a completely refreshed website, which we have been developing in the background for the last several months.
This new website has been redesigned to meet liberty-lovers with resources at every step of their journey (Learn, Connect, Visit, Move, Build).
Restoring legacy content, adding new resources, and creating a fresh look, I want to thank Miranda Animus (our FSP Design Strategist) for leading this element of the project.
Along with this, we have also launched community.fsp.org — a dynamic site where Free State community members can create a login to access and participate in new features. Those features include:
- A Massive Upgrade to the Free State Community Calendar —
(1) abandoning reliance on Google and switching to open-source tech,
(2) maintaining access to the traditional calendar view people are familiar with, and
(3) creating new ways to interact with events, including a geolocation map that empowers people to visualize where events are happening, get directions to them, and even see the projected weather forecast during those events.
- The Brand New Free State Forum —
A central place for online discourse between members of the Free State community (on any phase of their journey to the liberty homeland). This will be a space for both:
(1) Public-facing information — including blogs, event announcements, resources for visitors and movers, and more.
(2) Private, patron-exclusive dialogues — creating a walled-garden environment for our growing Porcupine Patron community to discuss and collaborate on ideas for building liberty.
Eventually, we plan to open up public-facing forums to posting and commenting by non-patrons. For now, however, we are opening up the Forum in an “Early Access” phase — as a benefit exclusive for Porcupine Patrons.
- Additional New Features — including a new home for the FSP Shop and the Porcupine Post (this weekly newsletter).
| Thank you to Brian Becker (our FSP IT Director) and Ben Roth, a future Free Stater planning his move from Oregon, for their leadership on these more tech intensive elements of the new website. |
FSP Outreach: Salem GOP
Each week, we continue finding new opportunities to outreach and build our Free State community — both outside and inside New Hampshire.
Last night, I spoke with the Salem Town Republican Committee — responding to the myths being spread about the Free State Project by left-wing activists across the state.
At the meeting, we signed up over a half-dozen new people to begin receiving this weekly newsletter.
Waxing or Waning?
Of course, I want to also thank the Free Haters, who are among our biggest accidental promoters.
As noted by Rep. Keith Ammon (Free Stater), during her recent anti-FSP presentation in New Boston, Democrat Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill was asked from the audience, “Is the Free State Project waxing or waning?”
Even she had to admit, “It’s waxing.”
Porcupine Patron Update
If you believe in our mission for a libertarian homeland in New Hampshire, I’d like to ask you to become a Porcupine Patron for the Free State Project.
For just $10/month, you can support our year-round efforts to build “Liberty in Our Lifetime” — outreaching and inviting new movers to join us in the Free State.
Additionally, you will receive exclusive patron benefits, including our quarterly print newsletter, access to our private Signal group, and perks at all FSP events.
We currently have 226 active patrons and we want to reach 275 by the end of this year.
As a 501c3 non-profit, all donations to the Free State Project are 100% tax-deductible. We welcome donations in USD and many forms of cryptocurrency.
Can I count you in as a Porcupine Patron?
It is my honor to serve as Executive Director of the FSP.
Please read on for more of our weekly newsletter from the Free State, prepared with assistance from our Communications Director, Mahgdalen Rose.
For Liberty!
Hon. Eric Brakey
Executive Director
Free State Project
MARK YOUR CALENDAR!
SHELL Thanksgiving Brunch
The Sunday before Thanksgiving, November 23rd, join us for the Official SHELL New Movers Thanksgiving Sunday Brunch.
All are welcome to attend, young and old, from noon to 3:00 PM at the SHELL Liberty Clubhouse (Lower Mill Room B10, Three Front Street, Rollinsford, NH.)
Bring Thanksgiving banquet related share-plates, e.g., salads, potatoes, vegetables, side dishes, and desserts. (New Movers not required to bring a share-plate.) Your host, Jack Garber, will provide the turkey, gravy, rolls, and cranberries.
(Coming to the SHELL for the first time? Finding it can be not-obvious. Click here for instructions on finding the SHELL.)
Quill Friends Giving
On Thanksgiving Day, November 27, you are welcome to gather with Free State friends at the Quill for a “Very Thankful Friends Giving” potluck dinner.
Turkey is provided. Please bring a dish to share.
All are welcome.
As Seen In the Free State
