Posted on 06/30/2009 5:33:41 AM PDT by bestintxas
1. Alaska
2. Maine
3. New Mexico
4. Arkansas
5. Texas
6. Missouri
7. Oregon
8. Idaho
9. Virginia
10. Wyoming
Oregon?! You can’t be free with an 11% state income tax amd nannyism up the wazoo.
Maine? No thanks. Full of moonbats, and the “personal freedom” they’re talking about here is the “freedom” to kill your babies and marry your same-sex “partner.” As far as REAL freedom is concerned - like property rights, etc. - Maine is pitiful.
Maine???? These “free people” elected Olypia Snowe and mini-me, Susan Collins.
Is New Hampshire such a lost cause at the “Live Free or Die” state doesn’t even make the list?
Not sure what the formula was, but if Arkansas is on it they need to adjust it a bit.
Virginia just passed a ban on smoking in restaurants. Free? not any more.
Maine ahead of Texas.....? oh my..that can’t be allowed to stand.... Corrections please....
Maine and Oregon?? If you believe in all the ultra liberal orthodoxy then I guess they belong.
Utah and Oklahoma vote Republican by the highest margins but also have a ton of laws that restrict “personal” freedoms.
I suppose it is a matter of determining what is free, and what is conservative. Obviously Republican doesn’t equal personal freedom in some circumstances.
Main, Oregon & New Mexico? Yeah, right. We once thought about moving to New Mexico eventually. But that state hasn’t lost its Democrat corruption persona, and that dream is over. As for Main, there’s too much Snowe. And Oregon is way too liberal. Madison, WI, 100 miles North would be the equivalent of that...
Compiled by the Mercatus Center, a nonprofit public policy research center affiliated with George Mason University, using a wide swath of comparative data to determine personal freedoms, including alcohol and drug laws, asset-forfeiture rules, and education regulations.
The listing above is for Personal Freedom. There are several other rankings in the report, here:
http://www.mercatus.org/uploadedFiles/Mercatus/Publications/Freedom%20in%20the%2050%20States.pdf
I wonder what their criteria are.
If they were going by economic freedom, those states wouldn’t be there.
They probably include some libertinism in their criteria. Like, license to do anything you want without consequence is a “positive” to some.
Exactly. NH made the top spot in that study, “Freedom in the Fifty States.”
PDF of the study
Not surprized that Mo.’s on the list.
Perhaps one of their standards for the list was a state should have a large rural region. It’s in those areas that true freedom (or something almost close to it)can exist. I know I’m deep in the boonies and I LOVE IT!
True....but a lot of what is considered "personal freedom" in lists like these are things like access to abortion, allowance of gay marriage and other parts of the gay agenda, etc. In cases like those, I don't view these as legitimate freedom anywise, so the list seems skewed as a result.
Maine????
You kiddin me????
This is crap....I live in Maine and you can’t even build a shed in your yard without a two year planning board process...guns are easy to have and conceal but other than that everything else is heavily regulated
Used to be Virginia would rate higher, even 10 years ago. It's turning blue around here now. Bad.
.
These are the overall freedom rankings from the report.
1. New Hampshire 0.432
2. Colorado 0.421
3. South Dakota 0.392
4. Idaho 0.356
5. Texas 0.346
6. Missouri 0.320
7. Tennessee 0.284
8. Arizona 0.279
9. Virginia 0.275
10. North Dakota 0.268
11. Utah 0.250
12. Kansas 0.210
13. Indiana 0.208
14. Michigan 0.206
15. Wyoming 0.193
16. Iowa 0.183
17. Georgia 0.146
18. Oklahoma 0.143
19. Montana 0.125
20. Pennsylvania 0.102
21. Alabama 0.092
22. Florida 0.068
23. North Carolina 0.019
24. Nevada 0.013
25. Mississippi -0.004
26. Delaware -0.008
27. Oregon -0.009
28. Nebraska -0.018
29. Arkansas -0.023
30. South Carolina -0.040
31. Alaska -0.071
32. Kentucky -0.082
33. West Virginia -0.097
34. Louisiana -0.110
35. Minnesota -0.111
36. New Mexico -0.150
37. Wisconsin -0.199
38. Ohio -0.205
39. Maine -0.214
40. Vermont -0.217
41. Connecticut -0.225
42. Illinois -0.238
43. Massachusetts -0.242
44. Washington -0.275
45. Hawaii -0.304
46. Maryland -0.405
47. California -0.413
48. Rhode Island -0.430
49. New Jersey -0.457
50. New York -0.784
MAINE??????
Typical bull from a Capitol Hill organization. Until we eliminate atheistic socialist public school indoctrinations we will never have a single free state. How can we ever say we have a free state when most of the persons within are taught to be totalitarian?
Alaska is the only free northern state. Maine? Part of New England probably not all that free.
Slight correction to your assertion.
Most students are not taught to BE totalitarian, they are taught of the superiority of, or just taught from the assumption of the superiority of, a elite led totalitarian state.
Those who consider themselves elite seek positions of power.
The sheep who want to be taken care of and not have to work or worry empower the elite to do so for them.
Looks a little more realistic to me also although I’d still make some changes.
The states that affect my family are:
Virginia:9
Illinois:42
California:47
I took my family out of CA ten years ago. Best decision we ever made. I hope VA doesn’t go completely down the hole. I doubt it (crossed fingers.)
Oregon? Where the idea of a mandated GPS tracker in your car to tax you for every mile you drive is a plausible idea? You’ve got to be kidding!
that’s a joke!
new mexico is socialist.
This list appears to be focused on something other then economic freedom and property rights freedom.
New Mexico? No way. They aided and abetted the Texas RATs who ran completely out of state and hid out in New Mexico.
If you go to the study, you will find that there are several different lists ranking the States on different criteria.
Really? How?
Isn't it rather sad (”deeply”) and depressing that we even have to have a pathetic survey about “freedom” and that it's not taken unquestioningly for granted? It used to be.
The “liberal” nanny, socialist, left wing, commie fascists are everywhere interfering with every aspect of our lives and controlling and imposing PC baloney on our lives.
The left is in control of this country and when the poo hits the fan, will simply have to be killed to wrest control of this country back to real freedom and for it's survival.
Freedom, real freedom is the most radical political idea of all time. Many, if not most people simply “can't handle freedom” and many don't want to. They want a nanny/mommy/daddy/big brother government to put them to bed and tuck them in at night and tell them what to do as long as they have “health care”, illusory “peace” and benefits, etc.
The left has brainwashed our culture into submission.
Virginia is pro-business, but not pro-individual freedom. There’s a difference, and it’s crucial. Everything in Virginia is managed by the highest level of government possible. Schools are run by counties, not districts. The smallest of local roads are maintained by the state, not counties or municipalities. Rural areas have been awash in tax dollars from Northern Virginia, while the lack of road projects chokes off Northern Virginia, so citing a low state-wide tax burden is assinine, when there are massive local taxes approved by the state to perpetuate this robbery.
But the big kicker is there is no such thing as private property. Everything is owned by the “commonwealth.” As such, moderate-income folks need to commute from West Virginia because Virginia imposes 30-acre zoning laws in the counties between West Virginia and the jobs in D.C. So how does anyone have a place to live at all? Simple: fantastically wealthy corporations pay off local boards for zoning variances, then build enormous housing projects, selling off individual homes at obscene profits.
It’s true that Virginia isn’t a socialist state, like New York or Massachusetts, two other states I’ve lived in. It’s a fascist state. And be very afraid of anyone upholding Virginia as a model of freedom, or next thing you know, America will be indistinguishable from China.
Oklahoma not making the list is questionable.
You’re nuts! Oregon, Maine, and New Mexico are run by demonrats and libtards. You can’t have freedom in a socialist state. Give me Montana’s Big Sky country for real freedom!
Now you sound like them. This would, seriously, have to be the first time I've seen a conservative calling for the death of ideological opponents. It's, historically, ALWAYS the left that does so when they gain power.
Of course, it could be argued that you're stating that the only way to get them unentrenched from power would be a violent overthrow instead of using the power of the state, as they would, to exterminate opposition. But it is not true that that's the only way, either.
We simply have to separate and not allow their foolishness to affect us. They will, of course, seek to use force to not allow us to separate from them. That's when you fight back.
I’ve read the report at the link given - the numbers in the main article represent a composite.
There are charts (page 11) more reflective of conservative definitions of freedom, and they rank more as expected - South Dakota, etc.
We just moved back to Maine after about 30 years in NH. We are much more rural now and, while I have to admit Maine is full of moonbats (really rabid moonbats) I see a goodly number of real conservatives here. It’s a long shot but perhaps Zero’s admin will be so bad that things might sway a bit. One can hope.
I think there was this thing called “The American Revolution” where guns and force were used to overthrow the British colonial government.
This list is tainted.
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