New Hampshire likes to trumpet “local control” as the basis of how we govern ourselves. If only it were so. According to Leonard Witt in indepthnh.org (2/19), there are 100 NH state representatives associated with a nationwide ALEC-like right wing organization out of Texas called the Hazlitt Coalition. You know, Texas, where the NH National Guard is being deployed to support Gov. Abbott’s usurpation of the Mexican border. Hazlitt’s parent organization, Young Americans for Liberty, pays political operatives to come to New Hampshire and run on the ground campaigns for it’s libertarian candidates. They have been involved nationwide in movements such as the anti masking and vaccine mandates during the Covid-19 pandemic.
This year, their focus is on public education, which if they had their way, would be cancelled. Hazlitt members in our legislature are behind the unconscionable expansion of education vouchers to bleed money out of our public schools. In the long run, YAL would like to cancel out social security, Medicare, and Medicaid too. As the next election approaches, we need to become very familiar with the candidates seeking our votes for both local and state offices before we vote.
Fred Portnoy
Canterbury