> If and when the Free Staters who come here come to care about *New Hampshire* as opposed to any old place where they stand a chance of perpetuating their agendas, I will cease to have a problem with any of this. It has nothing to do with me getting to know anybody. I'm not blanket prejudiced against "outsiders" on principle (as some New Englanders are); my issue is why they're coming in the first place, and it reeks of a lack of respect.
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> Which makes all the difference to me. By the way, you posit that 20,000 people *will* have a significant influence on the political tides here, but then dismiss the numbers by saying we get this many every year? Do you realize who these 20,000 per year, mostly from neighboring states, are coming *from*? Massachusetts and Vermont could scarcely be further left, and Maine is pretty liberal, too. Good luck pushing all that back with a one-time influx.

Just to play devil's advocate here, Sam, but I don't think all those other 20,000 people a year are coming out of respect for New Hampshire, either. They most likely come for jobs and housing. Not out of love or caring for NH. It just happens to be the closest state that satisfies their own self-interest. Bump it up to the national level. Do people come to the U.S. because they come here to care about it? Heck no. They come to improve their socioeconomic standing, or for the freedom to not worry about being killed. Maybe over time, they *do* come to care about the country, but they don't come here *because* they do.

I personally am ambivalent towards the Free State Project. I looked into it a good while ago, but I was turned off by the "invasion" type rhetoric. I much prefer just finding somewhere else to live that happens to be freer. That's bound to incur less resistance from the locals than announcing "Here we come to your state! We're TAKING OVER!!!" Eh. To each his own.

TOM