Free State Observer

LOCAL POLITICS

On the local level my learning moved on to the ins and outs of the town’s deliberative sessions. There are two of these every year, one for the schools warrant articles and one for the rest of the town’s activities. A warrant is a petition which has to be signed by 25 registered town voters in order to be considered for passage. These warrants (the term implies warning; “we’re about to spend tax money here”) are discussed at the deliberative sessions where they can be amended but not denied. Each warrant will be passed along to the voters a few weeks later. In towns using the town meeting format, the warrants are debated and voted upon on the same day.

These town meetings and deliberative sessions are like a flash from the past. This is almost identical to the way the founders made local laws over two hundred years ago. Of course, I could not restrain myself from speaking when I got the chance and hopefully did not come off sounding too addle-brained to the locals. As a rule, try to get to know as much as you can about local feuds and rivalries before choosing a position you may be attacked for holding. Relative to that, grow a thick skin. You have to be able to shrug off attacks, even personal ones, if you plan to be an effective political activist.

I ran for a minor local office last year and failed to be elected by 64 votes, which I thought was encouraging since I was still a relative newcomer. When I walked into the town hall to file to run there were only two days left in the filing period. The town clerk was on the verge of calling previous candidates to urge them to help fill out the current list, so she was delighted to see me. New Hampshire runs on volunteerism at all levels which easily explains why it’s the top rated state in volunteerism among all fifty states. There are boards for selectmen, budget, planning, conservation, library, cemeteries and trust funds to name a few. Serving successfully on one or more of these is the stepping stone to state-wide offices plus you get a platform for introducing our small government ideas to people who may never have been exposed to these concepts.

Despite losing on my first attempt I still remained active at the state and local levels. If you want to be a source of input in your town or at the state level, you just need to find the time. Become informed, make the people’s issues yours (you can always slide your own preferences in sideways once you’ve earned some credibility) and be persistent.

Persistence can pay off over time. I ran again this year and was elected to our town’s Budget Committee. Looks like its back to school time again. The human race has been fighting these battles since the ancients invented democracy and we’ve come such a long way since then. If enough Free State Project participants join the fight in New Hampshire maybe we can finish the job of achieving “liberty in our lifetime”. Hope to see more of you here sooner than later. There’s still a lot to be done.

Calvin Pratt
Goffstown, NH