We’re less than a month away from the Libertarian National Convention and I’ve got some good news and some bad news—and then some more good news.
The first bit of good news: thanks in large part to Angela McArdle and her leadership of the Libertarian National Committee, we’re reclaiming the term “libertarian.”
Fewer and fewer people now associate the likes of Bill Weld, Gary Johnson, or Bob Barr with the Libertarian brand; now, more and more people think of Ron Paul- or Dave Smith-style libertarianism: radical decentralists who oppose war, central banking, lockdowns, and globalism.
In other words, the LP is once again a radical voice for true liberty, as envisioned by its founding giants (David Nolan, Murray Rothbard, et. al).
But how did the LP lose its way after the era in which it nominated Ron Paul (1988) and Harry Browne (1996 and 2000) for president?
Well, at the 2006 Libertarian National Convention, the soft-headed “pragmatists” in our party pulled off the “Portland Massacre.”
As the leader of something called the Libertarian Reform Caucus said at the time:
Guided by this absolute twaddle, the prags proceeded to gut the LP platform—especially on foreign policy issues—and begin courting Republican retread politicians in hopes of appealing to “moderate” voters.
How did that work out? While the LP was plunging headlong into irrelevance, millions of Americans were turned on to libertarian ideas by the Ron Paul Revolution of 2008–2012.
So, if the Reno Reset and the better messaging of a reformed LP under Angela McArdle is the good news, what’s the bad news?
A rump of those pragmatic moderates remain in the LP—usually gathered under the banner of the Classical Liberal Caucus or The Liberal Project—and they want to drag the LP back to obscurity.
They can’t be all that bad, can they? See for yourself in a recent Tweet by one of their brave leaders (which was promptly roasted by the great Spike Cohen):
This type of “libertarian” proudly supports not only nuclear war, but US intervention in the Ukraine War, a parental “right” to medically trans a minor child, and a compliant, “trust-the-science” stance on lockdowns and jabs.
If the Libertarian Party falls back into the hands of people who support the regime on the most important issues, then there’s no need for a Libertarian Party.
So what’s the second bit of good news?
While these liberal “libertarians” have been raising money and organizing for the DC convention—after two solid years of encouraging people to stop their financial support for the LP, improperly hijack state LP affiliates, and practice malicious lawfare via frivolous legal action—many of them have said that if they can’t take back the LP next month they will leave to form—I kid you not, dear reader—the Liberal Party. Yeah, that sounds like a real winner.
If you’d like to see what the Libertarian Party can accomplish once the liberal/progressive/pragmatic boat anchor is no longer draped around our neck, there’s one thing you can do right now:
Help us make sure as many delegates aligned with the Mises Caucus—what Ron Paul calls the libertarian wing of the Libertarian Party—can get to the DC convention to re-elect Angela McArdle as LNC chair and give Michael Rectenwald the LP’s presidential nomination.
We’ve got a few hundred delegates to mobilize, so choose how many you can help here: https://secure.anedot.com/mises-pac/super/