Editorial: Libertarian vision: Crash go the chariots

Tuesday, April 29, 2003 | 8:59 a.m.

Nevada's record of making the top 10 on national lists of dubious achievements is legendary. Teen pregnancy, smoking, drinking, high school dropouts, cholesterol counts ... we're there. That's why we were surprised, although overjoyed, to learn that we didn't make a new list of dubious distinction. It's a list of 10 sparsely populated states being considered for takeover by the Free State Project, a movement started by a Yale student whose goal is to "secure liberty in our lifetime."

The "free-staters" -- numbering 3,373 at last count -- are looking at Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Maine, Delaware and Vermont. Before the year is out, they hope to have chosen one as a destination for 20,000 devotees of limited government. Once settled in, according to their vision, they will unite at the ballot box and succeed in creating the laissez faire land of their dreams.

All we can envision is the crash scene at the end of "The Blues Brothers" movie. Figuratively, because the state would be chaotic. And literally, because traffic signs and signals would conflict with libertarian notions of "individual sovereignty." Civil rights? Restaurant inspections? Municipal water? Sewer bills? Electrical codes? Away with such government!

It would all end, of course, with sensible farmers using their tractors to pull down the statues of John Locke and Ayn Rand, and voting once again for statutes. Laws and regulations may irk individuals at times but as a libertarian state would quickly show, they do serve the best interests of a sane society.