I don’t know about you, but I was surprised to learn about the Free State Project and the power they wield in New Hampshire. I had heard many years ago that there was this group of people who were looking to create a libertarian (free) state and had chosen New Hampshire as the perfect place to make it happen. Ha ha, isn’t that cute. Well, having officially started in 2016, there are now over 6,000 Free Staters living here and another 20,000 have pledged to come. And their idea of a wonderful life is to have almost no government regulations, no public education, and no taxes. I’m serious.
And they have been busy. There are now 25 Free Statists in the New Hampshire Legislature, and a total of 151 Republican legislators have been endorsed by the Radical Libertarian Alliance. These far-right lawmakers are very well placed in the Republican administration of Sununu (the House Majority Leader and 10 of 22 committee chairmen). These people are responsible for the new abortion ban, public education funds going to private and religious schools and home-schooled students, and laws that would heavily suppress voting. They even introduced a bill to secede from the United States. I am not joking.
I used to think that believing in democracy was a non-partisan issue, but not anymore. Right now the Republican Party is doing everything it can to destroy the democracy I once took for granted. Governor Sununu, Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut, Speaker of the House Sherman Packard and Senate Speaker Chuck Morse are fully behind – if not driving – the far-right movement.
It’s not enough to roll your eyes or wring your hands. If you believe in democracy and its democratic institutions, you should be aware of what your state representative, senator, and executive adviser are doing on your behalf. If they don’t vote the way you think they should, tell them how you feel. Do you know anyone who could run against them in the next election? Could this person be you? It’s time to get involved.
John Brown
Hanover
A February NPR poll showed Biden’s freshman year a failure. Of those polled, 56% said Biden failed in his freshman year and only 39% said he succeeded. Not only that, but “54% said he failed to deliver on his campaign promises, and 52% said he did more to divide the country than unite it.” Some of the reasons people feel the way they do are below.
Biden’s ill-advised departure from Afghanistan, in defiance of his general’s advice, has left behind many of our Afghan and American allies. We left the Taliban with billions of dollars worth of military equipment. Girls and women above 6th grade have no educational opportunities, no job opportunities and are mostly housebound. Did Russia, Iran, China and North Korea see in this surrender to the Taliban a sign of American weakness?
We all know that inflation, running over 8.5%, is a huge problem. Gasoline and food prices are going up a lot more. Even if you believe in protecting our environment, Biden shutting down pipelines and restricting oil drilling before we have enough green solutions isn’t helping most of us.
More than 2 million illegal immigrants were apprehended or surrendered after crossing the Mexican border in 2021. This was in addition to those who went undetected. Biden has never been to the border. How can a sovereign nation not have a secure border? This is a security threat given the cartel’s control over drugs and criminals entering the United States
In schools across the country, there is a social revolution going on, and those who disagree with the direction of the revolution are cancelled. The US Department of Justice is investigating parents who disagree.
Defunding the police, abolishing ICE, catch-and-release policies, and district attorneys not prosecuting have led to a huge upsurge in crime. The murder rate has increased by 30% nationally and crime has increased in all major cities.
In Ukraine, Biden is allowing war criminal Putin to dictate what we will or will not send to President Zelenskyy. It’s time to send the weapons President Zelenskyy is asking for in the quantities he wants, including fighter jets, tanks, high-altitude anti-aircraft systems, drones and more.
This month of November will be the hour of reckoning for President Biden. Dont forget to vote.
Stuart Richard
Norwich
As an American citizen originally from El Salvador, I follow the country’s news because my sister and my nieces still live in dangerous neighborhoods in San Salvador.
The actions of the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, are controversial. He has jailed more than 10,000 men in the past 17 days for taking control of gang members – the “maras” – in the country.
What impact can this have in the United States? Government officials from Guatemala and Honduras have joined the efforts of the president of El Salvador, which means there will be fewer homicides, robberies, extortion and violence in Central American countries once that these gang members will be imprisoned. This may mean that fewer people will try to escape violence in Central America and, therefore, there could be less immigration to the United States.
The question is, what will the GOP base its platform on, if Donald Trump doesn’t need to build a wall after all? Syrian refugees have been prevented from coming to this country for so many years, while European countries seem to have handled the exodus of Ukrainian refugees very well.
What’s left? An aging American population trying to zoom in and work into 80 to compete with the rest of the world? The “Make America Great” thing has aged in the last 17 days.
Zonia Watroba
Reading
