Not until the late 1890’s did Socialist-led workers attain voting rights in “advanced” European countries.
NH settlers had already declared themselves the independent nation of the Indian Stream Republic in the 1800’s. They established a constitution, a bicameral legislature, courts, laws and a militia.
Frost said the glorious bards of Massachusetts want to make the people of NH over. He said he chose to be a plain New Hampshire farmer. When he rejected “New Deal” programs, saying farming and banking don’t mix, he was called a “reactionary” by the leftists at Harvard. Frost called them “Sapheads”.
I wonder what he’d call the Regional Planning Commission (RPC) which imposes an additional layer of government over the people of NH with board members who are unelected and unaccountable to the people.
Maybe he’d say they were the new Ruling Political Class?
It certainly is applicable, because nothing they do is from the people of NH nor is it grassroots; as with Saul Alinsky, a Marxist community organizer, all that matters is the illusion of democracy.
Jeffrey Taylor, a former Regional Planning Commissioner and former director of the Office of State Planning, received “grant” money from the Tillotson Trust to prepare the Land Use Regulation and Policy Audit for Lancaster, NH. He wrote an article titled “Shaping the Future” published by the NH Historical Society and Society for the Protection of NH Forest.
In the article, Taylor describes how difficult it was for planners to convince citizens at local Town Meetings to adopt planning and zoning in New Hampshire. He said:
“How many have stood before their town meeting and urged, in relative isolation, that the town adopt a zoning ordinance, or join the regional planning commission? I have a friend who has participated as a volunteer on his local and regional planning commissions for many years. One of his first jobs in the 1950’s was to visit towns in the northern part of the state to explain the planning process. Before speaking to a local service club he was approached by a member of the community and advised in no uncertain terms that it would be appropriate for him to catch laryngitis, leave town, and never return to discuss this zoning business. To his credit, my friend gave his speech, and many others.”
“It is the zoning and regulatory system that we have in place that has produced the built environment that frequently has so little to do with our stated goals and objectives. While master plans speak of preserving our communities’ rural character, we slice the landscape up in three, four, and five-acre lots; the beautiful compact village centers of Walpole, Amherst, Sandwich and others would be unbuildable under most current local ordinances. Something is wrong here. If the process won’t produce the products we desire, it is time to revisit the process.”
According to Taylor, the planners used urban planning models for New Hampshire’s rural landscape:
“The bulk of New Hampshire’s local land use regulations reflects an urban origin. We have taken urban models and transferred them to the rural landscape. This was a necessary first step. It was a model that my friend could take to the service club up north in the 1950’s and have them understand, if not accept. They have served us well, to a point. It is time to move on.”
There’s no mention of the people’s goals and objectives, just those of the planners!
If the unelected planners didn’t get paid, they just might take Taylor’s advice and move on and out of NH.