Copy-pastes of my posts on the Facebook discussion group:
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' Carla you are president of NHIndependence.org, which means you have the power to strike at the root of our problems. Please exercise that power! Do stuff! Unless there's some obvious reason not to, we'll support your activity!
To: Ana Stanic (redacted)@(redacted)
Ana: In answer to your question about the status of the NH independence movement, it's good to try and quantify things numerically if possible...rather than subjectively. This is going to be a little out of control in terms of length, but:
Reuters reports that roughly 24% of U.S. Americans favor independence for their states.
http://blogs.reuters.com/…/one-in-four-americans-want-thei…/
The number is lower in New England overall, but I don't think a scientific poll has yet been conducted of libertarian-leaning New Hampshire specifically. A non-scientific poll by New Hampshire's top newspaper, the Union Leader, concluded with 41% of responses favoring independence. That was the week after the Brexit...and a scientific poll would surely show the numbers to be much lower.
There are three entirely-secessionist organizations here averaging probably about three years in age.
NHIndependence.org
The NH Liberty Party
https://www.facebook.com/NHLibertyParty/?fref=ts and my own NHexit.com
The first two have received some media coverage reaching an audience of perhaps one-and-a-half million globally in their lifetimes. The Liberty Party is running someone for governor in the Democrat primary, not very actively campaigning and polling under 4%.
The number and size of media articles mentioning NHexit is perhaps 80 percent documented at
http://nhunderground.com/forum/index.php…
...reaching an audience of perhaps 15 million globally in its lifetime.
However turnout at NHexit demonstrations is usually disappointing even by the standards of little New Hampshire, averaging about 8 per event... NHIndependence.org gets much better turnout by holding panels and speeches at libertarian conferences, perhaps three per year. Because of the Free State Project, NH has a constant trickle of incoming libertarian political migrants. Almost all of these favor secession...about 1700 are officially listed as having migrated to the state for the purpose of affecting change here. Most of these anti-Federal dissidents are not directly involved in independence efforts, but their number of "active activists" is comparable to that of the Republican Party. They tend to operate outside the system or run as Republicans and Democrats.
FreeTalkLive.com, an outspokenly pro-secession radio broadcast from NH, reaches an audience of perhaps 100,000 Americans per day and, in its own version of the Mladina incident, was raided by Federal police this year. The courts seem to be interfering in favor of Free Talk Live, however. The Federal "Secret Service" essentially had me arrested in 2011 for filming interviews near the Vice President's speech ("criminal trespass" was the charge). A judge found me not guilty.
https://freeconcord.org/…/not-guilty-verdict-in-ridley-tre…/
NH, as you may be aware, has various other similarities to 20th century Slovenia...hilly, pleasant tourist destination, peaceful, ethnically homogeneous (for better or worse), richest/freest/most successful part of the country, sends a lot more to the central government than it gets back, part of a Federal "nation" arguably in a state of slow collapse, subsidizes poor southern states, has roughly 1.4 million population, international border, tiny coastline, similar geographical size. Polling indicates New Hampshirites are generally (perhaps inappropriately) content with their state government. But our state system does not really allow for referendums generally, only for constitutional amendments. Those have to receive a 2/3 majority from the voters.
I guess you must have been a teenager or younger in the late 80s... but you perhaps you saw enough to have a sense how 1988-era Slovenia would compare with what I've described above (hopefully without to much partiality). What did *you* see and hear, then Ana? Do you have any advice for us? Do you ever travel to the U.S? You'd be a great speaker to have at one of the free stater events. Past speakers have included Ron Paul and Gary Johnson, but they like to have speakers who aren't necessarily libertarian:
http://FreeStateProject.orgDave Ridley
http://RidleyReport.comNew Hampshire's #2 YouTube channel
One in four Americans want their state to secede from the U.S., but why?
For the past few weeks, as Scotland debated the wisdom of independence, Reuters has been asking Americans how they would feel about declaring independence…
BLOGS.REUTERS.COM
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Our allies at Laconia had concerns about the press yesterday. I tend to think liberty folk are lucky to have media attending whether they got their facts straight or not. Generally they should be welcomed and treated with transparency. You may want to record your interactions with them, openly...and upload. Here's my article on how to deal press.
"Our Local Media Relations" article
http://forum.freestateproject.org/index.php?topic=1421.0 '
