What do ya'al think?
There are now 3,945 *porcupines* as of 6-6-2003 pledged to give it a good try, including a couple of dozen or so FReepers. But I don't think we'll be doing it by ourselves; I don't consider myself a Libertarian/libertarian, though I figure they'll make better neighbors than most Democrats and some Republican's I've known.
But these are not the apathetic or lethargic throwing in their lot with the FSP- you need only check out some of the exchanges in the FSP discussion groups to realize that pretty quickly. There's a high concentration of young college libertarians, military veterans and business professionals with all sorts of skills and backgrounds, and for the most part, they're the ones who have NOT given hope that the American political process remains of value and have instead settled down to a future of watching *Survivor* and *American Idol* on the idiot box.
I think the 5000 *first wave* porcupines will be voting sooner than Jason conservatively estimated...and there are those early birds in their number planning to make their move within 30 days of the announcement of which state it's to be. That choice will influence the initial numbers, of course, but I'd expect to see the first few hundreds in their new home before the end of this year, with a thousand sometime early in 2004. And they may very well be a factor as soon as in the upcoming 2004 election, particularly in the goal state's capital city.
Neither do I think that the FSP *magic number* of 20,000 will remain a static one, though it'll be a fine start. And I think there'll be less of a *takeover* of the state's political and electoral direction than a pendulum swing of direction in it. I bet there'll be common cause with existing political leaders from existing parties who'll be able to redirect their own parties goals once some deadwood and corruption in their leadership is replaced. We'll see.