(2003-10-21) Macomber Free State Project Nh

Shawn Macomber on New Hampshire's reception of the Free State Project. The strain of conservatism in New Hampshire is more libertarian than Puritan. The 400-member state legislature is the fourth largest deliberative body in the world and in some districts, representatives can be elected with as few as 700 votes... Of course, many barriers lie in the path to small government bliss, not the least of which is the activists themselves. These are, after all libertarians: a famously fractious and doctrinaire group... A libertarian delegation, even a small one, in the state house would deliver what has become the last refuge of small government: gridlock. Free Staters could hold up votes, cancel out the moderate Republican votes that always seem to favor the Democrats, and generally wreak havoc with the process of the government spending people's money.