Simpatico: Tea party lawmakers woo young, male, slim-legged pants wearing Free Staters
Thursday, Concord Monitor reporter Nick Reid tagged along with a group of prospective Free Staters on a State House tour led by state Reps. John Burt (R-Goffstown) and Dan Itse (R-Fremont). “As compared with state averages,” Reid noted, “the group appeared younger, more male and more likely to be wearing slim-legged pants.”
As New Hampshire residents who share the group’s libertarian philosophy, Burt and Itse refer to themselves as “pre-staters.” They wooed the visitors “noting freedom-minded tidbits” including the right to carry guns on the House floor and to receive a taxpayer-funded copy of the Constitution.
Itse described the Free Staters as “reinforcements” is his fight to establish a “strict constitutional republic.” It’s not surprising that he would feel simpatico with those who might be lured to the Granite State by the Free State Project ”strategy of secession.“
In 2009, Itse introduced a House resolution that identified acts by the federal government that would "constitute a nullification of the Constitution.” The list included “[a]ny act regarding religion; further limitations on freedom of political speech” and “infringements on the right to keep and bear arms including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition.”
“The objective of this resolution is not secession,” he told conspiracy buff Alex Jones. “That said, if the general government should choose to aggress in a manner that nullifies the Constitution, it is impossible to secede from something that doesn’t exist.”