Those who don’t support National Divorce often make the argument “Why should I have to move?? I love America and I like it here!” And… they have a point.
Why should those of us who wish to secede force those who disagree with us to relocate to get out of the territory we wish to take? Even if, in a valid democratic election, a majority voted for secession… or even two thirds voted for it… it seems unfair to impose that decision on hundreds of thousands of people who disagree. Democracy is, as they say, two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Also (and I may aggravate some politically active friends by pointing this out), political victories are often short-lived. Think of all the delighted Democrats who got Obama elected to the U.S. presidency, only to be followed by… Trump. [insert leftist screams of outrage] Or all the MAGA Republicans who were overjoyed to get Trump elected, only to have him followed by… Biden. [insert rightwing wailing and gnashing of teeth]
I’ve played the political game. I’ve labored to get bills passed, or defeated… only to have a bill on the very same subject reverse the victory a few years later when a new set of people are in office.
Right now, in Great Britain, there’s an effort to reverse BREXIT and have the UK rejoin the EU. This shouldn’t surprise anyone, because BREXIT passed with a very narrow margin. A huge swath of the British people did NOT want it in the first place.
So, as a thought experiment, let’s consider a different path. Let’s say that, rather than having the entire state of New Hampshire secede and become an independent country, we carve out a portion of the state. Those of us who want independence would take Coos County***. Those who wish to remain in the U.S. would take the rest of the state.
Obviously, this would still require a certain number of Coos County residents who don’t want to secede to relocate. See our article What About People Who Don’t Want to Secede? for possible ways to accommodate these loyalists.
Elon Musk’s recent purchase of Twitter highlights another possibility. What if one (or a small group) of extremely wealthy people simply BOUGHT all of Coos County! Then, the properties could be resold to those who wish to join the new nation.
Current Coos County residents who don’t want to secede could be offered a generous price for their property. This would be a strong incentive to get them to relocate. Realistically, not every single loyalist would accept the offer on their property. There would still be an unknown number of residents unhappy about the secession. But it seems likely that this number would be FAR lower than a statewide vote that passed by 50.1%, or 66.67%.
Coos County is in northern New Hampshire, which is far more sparsely populated than the southern part of the state. It’s colder. It has no cities of any significant size. There isn’t an international airport. It has no coastline. It borders Vermont, Maine, and Canada.
Forming a nation out of Coos County might pose more challenges than forming one out of the entire state. However, by removing the burdens of Federal taxation, regulations, enforcement of victimless crime laws… and with an enormously greater amount of freedom granted to business owners, entrepreneurs, investors, and self-employed remote workers… it may be entirely doable. Coos County could become a “Yankee Hong Kong”, demonstrating to the world the benefits of freedom.
So, I put the question to those who do support New Hampshire Secession. If you currently live in any other part of New Hampshire, or have plans to relocate there in the future (perhaps as a participant in the Free State Project), would you be willing to locate in Coos County if it meant leaving behind the burdens of involuntary until-death-do-us-part membership in the U.S.? Let us know via our Contact form or on Twitter!
***Note that this is purely a thought experiment. No effort is currently underway (at least that I’m aware of) to form a country out of Coos County! And Elon Musk has not expressed an interest in purchasing a significant portion of New Hampshire. The point is to gauge the willingness of those who support secession to “put some skin in the game” by doing more than simply casting a vote.
