Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog post are mine and may or may not reflect the views of other Free Staters. I respect that most people feel very passionately about this subject. Even if the reader disagrees with anything written here, I especially hope we can at least agree on the last section of the post. Enjoy the read!
As 2020 began, assessments of the situation slowly trickled into the public eye. Then, with the combined destructive power of a Florida hurricane and the suffocating effect of a New Hampshire blizzard, governments started taking unprecedented actions.
Seemingly all of the sudden, politicians and bureaucrats all over the world rejected calls for personal responsibility and quickly went into Full Nanny State Mode. They started shutting down entire economies, limiting rights, and forcing people to stay in their homes.
Once the panic began to spiral, some people protested government actions. Meanwhile, other people supported the decisions of politicians and bureaucrats and still others demanded that the government take even more control over their lives.
What are they thinking?
After a while, it seemed like everybody had an opinion on what governments should do or – to most FSP supporters – not do!
To that end, many pollsters frantically started working to find the pulse of Americans. The questions that pollsters asked would’ve seemed ludicrous to most people only a short time ago. Sadly, in this new age, those very questions are on the minds of many. So, what are average people thinking, anyway?
Enter The Atlantic, a mainstream news publication. With their poll, The Atlantic presented eight possible government actions to a nationally representative sample of 3,000 average Americans.
After viewing the results of their poll, only one thought went through my mind: “How would supporters of the Free State Project answer these questions?”
And so with that, we created a near-identical online poll, posted it on our website, and offered our supporters an opportunity to speak their mind. Not surprisingly, nearly 3,000 supporters of the Free State Project wanted their voices to be heard and responded to our poll!
The FSP’s COVID-19 coronavirus poll results are in
As the results came in, the answers to our poll were closely monitored. Throughout the duration of the poll, on any given question, the opinions of FSP supporters only swayed two or three percentage points up or down. In fact, with some of the poll questions, the answers consistently settled within one percentage point from the beginning of the poll to the end.
Below are the COVID-19 coronavirus poll results. As you can see, we’ve compared the results of The Atlantic’s poll of average Americans vs. the Free State Project’s poll of our supporters (taken between April 12th and May 7th).
The comparison is unmistakable.
Percentage of support for the following government actions during the COVID-19 coronavirus panic:
[table id=5 /]
A Stark Comparison
As you can see, there are plenty of different opinions out there, even among Free State Project supporters.
To further illustrate those differences, while some of us protest, others don’t. While some of us wear masks, others don’t. While some of us encourage folks to stay at home, others don’t.
Still, no matter how we decide to react to the news, Free State Project supporters share one, simple, passionate dream – to live in a place with a culture that embraces the freedom to choose.
In New Hampshire, we feel that we’ve found that place.
Often, FSP supporters like to cite New Hampshire’s pre-existing, pro-liberty culture – which goes hand in hand with its world famous state motto – as one of the many reasons why we love the state. But where did the state motto come from?
During the War for American Independence, John Stark was a heroic General from New Hampshire. Long after the war ended, Stark inspirationally wrote:
“Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.”
To match the spirit of the people of New Hampshire, “Live Free or Die” was later chosen to be the iconic state motto of New Hampshire. Since then, that phrase has helped to influence the character and backbone of our state.
Upon reflection of the historic events in early 2020, perhaps the phrase “A Stark Comparison” could take on an additional meaning – a comparison between those who support liberty and those who don’t.
The Free State Project’s COVID-19 coronavirus poll results prove there is a wide gap between the beliefs of average Americans and those who support the Free State Project (FSP).
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog post are mine and may or may not reflect the views of other Free Staters. I respect that most people feel very passionately about this subject. Even if the reader disagrees with anything written here, I especially hope we can at least agree on the last section of the post. Enjoy the read!
As 2020 began, assessments of the situation slowly trickled into the public eye. Then, with the combined destructive power of a Florida hurricane and the suffocating effect of a New Hampshire blizzard, governments started taking unprecedented actions.
Seemingly all of the sudden, politicians and bureaucrats all over the world rejected calls for personal responsibility and quickly went into Full Nanny State Mode. They started shutting down entire economies, limiting rights, and forcing people to stay in their homes.
Once the panic began to spiral, some people protested government actions. Meanwhile, other people supported the decisions of politicians and bureaucrats and still others demanded that the government take even more control over their lives.
What are they thinking?
After a while, it seemed like everybody had an opinion on what governments should do or – to most FSP supporters – not do!
To that end, many pollsters frantically started working to find the pulse of Americans. The questions that pollsters asked would’ve seemed ludicrous to most people only a short time ago. Sadly, in this new age, those very questions are on the minds of many. So, what are average people thinking, anyway?
Enter The Atlantic, a mainstream news publication. With their poll, The Atlantic presented eight possible government actions to a nationally representative sample of 3,000 average Americans.
After viewing the results of their poll, only one thought went through my mind: “How would supporters of the Free State Project answer these questions?”
And so with that, we created a near-identical online poll, posted it on our website, and offered our supporters an opportunity to speak their mind. Not surprisingly, nearly 3,000 supporters of the Free State Project wanted their voices to be heard and responded to our poll!
The FSP’s COVID-19 coronavirus poll results are in
As the results came in, the answers to our poll were closely monitored. Throughout the duration of the poll, on any given question, the opinions of FSP supporters only swayed two or three percentage points up or down. In fact, with some of the poll questions, the answers consistently settled within one percentage point from the beginning of the poll to the end.
Below are the COVID-19 coronavirus poll results. As you can see, we’ve compared the results of The Atlantic’s poll of average Americans vs. the Free State Project’s poll of our supporters (taken between April 12th and May 7th).
The comparison is unmistakable.
Percentage of support for the following government actions during the COVID-19 coronavirus panic:
[table id=5 /]
A Stark Comparison
As you can see, there are plenty of different opinions out there, even among Free State Project supporters.
To further illustrate those differences, while some of us protest, others don’t. While some of us wear masks, others don’t. While some of us encourage folks to stay at home, others don’t.
Still, no matter how we decide to react to the news, Free State Project supporters share one, simple, passionate dream – to live in a place with a culture that embraces the freedom to choose.
In New Hampshire, we feel that we’ve found that place.
Often, FSP supporters like to cite New Hampshire’s pre-existing pro-liberty culture – which goes hand-in-hand with its world famous state motto – as one of the many reasons why we love the state. But where did the state motto come from?
During the War for American Independence, John Stark was a heroic General from New Hampshire. Long after the war ended, Stark inspirationally wrote:
“Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.”
To match the spirit of the people of New Hampshire, “Live Free or Die” was later chosen to be the iconic state motto of New Hampshire. Since then, that phrase has helped to influence the character and backbone of our state.
Upon reflection of the historic events in early 2020, perhaps the phrase “A Stark Comparison” could take on an additional meaning – a comparison between those who support liberty and those who don’t.
You realize that you took a left biased publication , exaggerating the gap. Which I suppose is your right, but I would hypothesize that you have found the two opposite ends of the bell curve.
Hi, Daniel. I’d invite you to click the link to The Atlantic’s poll that I provided above. The Atlantic didn’t poll their readers. They polled a random sample of Americans.
love when people comment when all they had to do was look at the source material. that lazy.
Did only Free State Project supporters answer your poll? If not, where are their results?
Hi, Susan. Our biggest fan! 😉 Welcome!
Only 63 respondents (1.9% of the total) answered that they don’t support the FSP. I’d assume any polling company would consider that to be statistically insignificant.
However, just for you, because you’re our #1 fan, I looked up the results from those 63 respondents who answered that they do *not* support the FSP. Here are those results:
1) Ban Movement Outside of Homes: 62%
2) Ban All People From Entering U.S.: 40%
3) Ban Non-Citizens From Entering U.S.: 43%
4) Prohibit Spreading Misinformation: 65%
5) Takeover of Business and Property: 37%
6) Suspend Religious Services: 67%
7) Conscript People to Work: 25%
8) Detain Violators in Government Facilities: 43%
On a side note, this may be an opportunity for you, GSP, and others – design a similar poll, ask people who do *not* support the FSP to respond, and get a much larger sample size than 63.
I think both you and I would find those results quite interesting!
I hope you have a great weekend, Susan. Take care!
Thanks, Vince.
If by fan you mean: “someone relentlessly critical and mocking of my little band of armed miscreants,” you are correct!
Have fun prancing around the State House tomorrow with your guns. Only a good guy with a gun can stop a pandemic.
You’re very welcome, Susan.
I don’t know what your State House reference is about.