My Background
Long ago, I was more actively involved in the Free State Project… back when we were deciding on which state to move to. I voted for NH every time and I’m delighted that NH was the winner.
When I became involved with the Libertarian Party, the FSP and LPNH were purposely kept as separate but allied organizations. FSP was not directly related to any political party and this was done on purpose, so it would be more appealing to liberty minded Republicans and Democrats.
While you and others may support liberty minded Republicans, I would rather recruit them, along with liberty minded Democrats and independents, to become Libertarians.
In 2010, I ran for US Senator in NH District 2. as an independent, supporting liberty causes. At the time I also supported the NH Tea Party up until they moved from a Libertarian organization to a Republican organization.
I’ve been involved in the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire, off and on since I think about 2008 or so. I became active some time around 2011 and in 2014, I was the Libertarian candidate for US House of Representatives (NH District 2). This went off the rails for LPNH as our gubernatorial candidate defected and declared support for the Republican Party.
In 2016, I was once again, the Libertarian Candidate for US Senate, but this time, we got ballot access, thanks to the Johnson/Weld presidential campaign. Once again, the campaign was undermined from within when Bill Weld was found to have made financial contributions to the Republican party while running for Vice President on the Libertarian ticket.
Shortly after that fiasco, I stepped back from active participation in politics. As you might imagine, I was getting a little tired of having my efforts towards a more libertarian world, nation, and state usurped at every step by the same Republican Party.
I’ve come back from time to time, but I keep finding there are people who keep coming in to try to impose their own views of libertarianism and how to implement it. Sometimes it is the Republicans working to get Libertarians to just support the Republican candidates. If we wanted to support Republicans, we’d be working in the Republican Party, wouldn’t we? Sometimes it is anarchists who want to take us from our current situation straight to a perfectly free world where we are all individually self-governed and there is no State – who will accept nothing in between.
My Stances
While, I certainly want more liberty and a government that is heavily restricted in scope, but I also want a world that I and others can live in. Right now there are millions of people who rely on their governments to stay alive. Yanking that support out from under them without having any alternatives in place only causes irreparable harm and does little good. We need to establish a Society, in the concept of Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” that will help and support these people through voluntary donations of money and service before we can completely cut the government out of it. We need to move from today to a truly free world in steps so that those who rely on a supportive government can survive the process.
As for the New Hampshire Libertarian Party, I still believe it is a useful and correct organization to make the necessary changes and progress within the State of New Hampshire. I believe it is the best third party to become viable to the general public and that we need to work in ways to win over more people to our causes.
Rather than supporting liberty minded Republicans, we need to RECRUIT liberty minded people from the Republicans, Democrats, and independents. Rather than give them the sparse resources we have as a party, we need to grow our party by bringing them over to our side. If you want to support liberty minded Republicans, you should be working in the Republican Party,.
What we need to do as the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire is create a platform that will attract the most liberty minded people from all across the political left-right spectrum; to support and sponsor liberty minded initiatives that people in New Hampshire generally agree upon. We need to champion the common grounds of Liberty in out State, in our Nation, and around the world.
Perhaps one way we might be able to do this is to create a survey asking the public’s opinion of various libertarian causes and stances. This survey would need to be sent out to a sizable number of people from all parts of New Hampshire and people from all over the political spectrum. When sufficient data is thus collected, we can find the top 10 most supported causes and from those pick 3-5 of the most impactful which we as a party would champion.
LPNH Today
Recent public communications from LPNH over the past couple years have convinced me that those who would usurp the Party for their own skewed politics have, indeed taken it over. Social media posts have been harsh, unwelcoming, skewed hard right, off-brand, xenophobic, and bigoted. They clearly do not represent the ideals of liberty but rather suggest those of Nazi Germany or KKK influenced southern US in the 20th century. There have been suggestions of political assassination and clear dog whistles for racism and antisemitism, none of which are libertarian and none of which I can support.
And yet, I have not lost hope for the Party. I still believe that the organization as established is our best hope, despite the current leadership. As you might imagine, when I was discreetly informed of a movement to take back the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire from these people I jumped at the opportunity. I re-joined the party so I might be able to vote in the upcoming State Convention. Due to an unresolved glitch in their membership software, I had not maintained my membership for some time, but now I was back and ready to vote these people out.
2025 NH Libertarian Party Convention
I came in knowing the leadership was…. distasteful at best. The de facto leader on the social level has proven as much time and again. I was not expecting it to be as bad as it turned out.
My first clue was the brochure for the event. On the inside back cover in huge writing was declaration that was worded to rephrase the infamous “14 words” of white supremacists into some sort of libertarian statement. While the meaning was innocent enough the wording was a clear support of bigotry. Coupling this were photos of Donald Trump scattered here and there in the brochure and at least one attendee wearing a red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap. But the worst was yet to come.
When the voting part of the convention began, there were about a score of people who had registered to late to have full voting credentials. The old school party members (with whom I tended to side) suggested we approve them en masse so no one would be disenfranchised. This suggestion is right along Libertarian principles of giving everyone a say in their own affairs. When that vote was called, someone held up a big, red sign with “FSB” written across it. About 70-75% of the room voted “Nay”. Interesting.
As a result, we voted for each individual and it seems that whoever had the sign and a green one with the same text, was communicating to a huge number of people how to vote. Someone had done their homework and knew which of these late registrants would vote their way and they had complete control of a substantial voting block.
So it went through every vote throughout the convention. The Party was clearly split with this faction, apparently the “Free State Block” versus ….libertarians.
When speeches were made, the FSB candidates were prepared and spoke of supporting Republicans, of “New Hampshire First” (mirroring “America First” and the Nazi, “Germany First” slogans). There were antisemitic references and white nationalist dog whistles throughout.
The Libertarian candidates made impromptu speeches supporting libertarian principles and ideals – the literal party line.
During the one auction, there were bids that seemed out of place to those unfamiliar with these dog whistles, for 14, 88, and a joke bid for 1488 dollars.
I was completely disgusted. I wanted to leave but my own principles at heart kept telling me to fight.
There were a chunk of people on my side. I knew many of them. I recognized them from before the Party was usurped and there were a few new comers who were in line with our philosophy. We put up a strong opposition, but in the end it was a losing battle.
LPNH is no longer Libertarian. It is a coalition of bigoted and racist people who claim to be united as members of the Free State Project.
I am sickened. I am appalled. I am ready to fight this situation tooth and nail. The Libertarian Party is and has been the “Party of Principle” and I’ll stand by that. This is a hill I’m willing to die on, but better yet, to let the other side have that end. This is the hill I will hold.
I’ve championed freedom,. liberty, responsibility, and self-reliance my entire life and I ‘m not stopping now when these causes are needed more now than ever.