> Of course, at this point it's not even a given that any of this will happen. They need another 14,500 people to agree to participate, first. But that just leads me to more lines of reasoning. Who, other than a professional politician or campaign manager, cares enough about a particular political party to MOVE to a particular place, all to further a party's political goals?

I think you're sort of missing the point here, Sam, which is that the Free State Project *isn't* all that interested in furthering the national aspirations of the Libertarian Party (the two have no official connection or anything). I've been semi-following these guys for a while, just because I think they're funny, and the conclusion I've come to is that they want to live in a state relatively unencumbered by governmental regulations and taxes.

The rules you mention regarding federal funds for elections apply, as far as I know, pretty much only to national elections and it's what Ralph Nader tried to do in 2000. Basically, if a party can get five percent of the popular vote across the country, it will get federal matching funds in the next election. These votes do not have to be concentrated in any specific state, so I really don't think the Free Staters are overly concerned about that. Likewise, the 4 measly electoral votes and few Congressional seats they'd pick up even if they controlled a state would be insignificant.

No, what they want is a state that doesn't rely heavily on the federal government (NH receives a relatively low amount of money from the feds) as well as one that is already fairly anti-government. They intend to make the decision to move to that state because they genuinely want to live in such a political climate.

Insofar as having an effect on the rest of the country goes, I think they hope that others will follow their lead once we see how well the project turns out. I'm not holding my breath on that one.

> Hey, I have pretty strong political feelings, but there's no way on earth I'd make large personal lifestyle decisions based on them. Most of my political beliefs have to do with how government can stay out of my way in the first place, not shape my life.

Well, right. This is essentially what all these people believe as well, so they see themselves as fleeing from oppressive governments, I guess. Hell, in California we've got a state income tax that goes as high 11.5 percent and our car registration tax just *tripled* (to an average of like $400/year). Moving doesn't sound so bad, sometimes.

>What kind of nutjobs believe strongly enough in Libertarianism to sign up for this thing?
>
> "Libertarians, that's who," is the answer that echoes in my head.

Yeah, exactly.

Stephen