NH Rejects Liberty

CONCORD, NH - Last night, NH voters, in their "First in the Nation" primaries, chose the status quo over "the animated contest for liberty;" preemptive interventionism over MYOB; warmongering over peace; fascism and collectivism ("We are Borg. You will be assimilated.") over sovereignty; the political machine over original intent; force over freedom; even theocracy over religious liberty for all. Their next objective was not clear at press time.

As I stood, darkly contemplating these implications in the shower this morning, and again as I sat in on legislative hearings with the NH Liberty Alliance in Concord this afternoon, it occurred to me that perhaps Ron Paul's message of liberty didn't actually fail in NH (I'm grasping for a "benefit of the doubt" here, in case it's not obvious). Perhaps, just perhaps, the problem is with the messenger, or more accurately in this case, the delivery boy.

Liberty activists in NH are becoming increasingly effective at getting the correctness, the consistency, the "honor" of the message across to powerbrokers and advocacy groups. But we're still ignoring -- well, perhaps that's too strong a word -- the masses: the far too high percentage of the population that's still so abysmally unaware of the principles and the stakes, of the original design of this Constitutional Republic, who, as NH Public Radio reported last night, still can't make a choice until they're standing in the voting booth. And then with an arbitrary coin flip, they choose McCain and Clinton. Name recognition. Comfy.

*sigh* I certainly don't know what the answer is. But I deeply fear we're rapidly running out of time, and we need to come up with something. Soon. I shudder at the conventional wisdom -- and I do accept it -- that NH is one of the most liberty-minded places in what is continually billed as "the freest country in the world." Empirically, that ain't sayin' much. Not much at all...

1/10/2008: Here's a partial answer. Thanks, Jim...