Last week, every pundit from writers at the American Conservative to Mother Jones explained how the Libertarian Party, which everyone had forgotten about, was suddenly “in the news” again.
The Libertarians are holding their presidential nominating convention at what we in DC call the “Hinkley” Hilton on Memorial Day weekend. Originally the headliners were meager: Chase Oliver, the Libertarian Senatorial candidate who threw the Georgia Warnock-Walker race into a runoff (now seeking the LP presidential nomination); comic Dave Smith; and Julian Assange’s brother Gabriel Shipton.
In the past few election cycles Libertarians persuaded former Republicans like New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson or Congressman Bob Barr to run as Libertarian presidential candidates, and have had Congressmen like Republican-turned-Independent Justin Amash or former Democrat Sen. Mike Gravel pursue its nomination.
The Libertarian Party was recently “taken over” by a faction, the Mises Caucus, named after Ludwig von Mises, an economist, Austrian Jew, and critic of rising Nazism, who was forced to flee Vienna and spent his final years as a professor of economics at New York University. As the intellectualoids and commentariat have discussed all week, the Mises Caucus is “right wing,” elected on a platform of ending “woke” messaging from the party, which sounds to many ears like Trump. Back in 2016 when I was a regular contributor to Breitbart, I spent my time pretty evenly covering the Gary Johnson’s Libertarian campaign and pointing out how Donald Trump had many libertarian themes. During Trump’s presidency I pointed out his libertarian aspects at The Federalist. The overlap between constitutionalist conservatives who believe in federalism and libertarians who believe in severely limiting government is obvious.
Many of us believe this similarity extends to Trump and that his goals are achievable by libertarian means (e.g. excluding immigrants who need to parasitize the American taxpayer or cutting back regulations so that manufacturing can return to the U.S.) Humorist Mrs. Peachy Keenan, not herself a libertarian, observed about Trump and the upcoming election: “One candidate is a classical liberal whose positions are squarely in the middle of the political spectrum. On nearly every issue, his views are anodyne, conventional, mainstream—positions that were the norm, nationwide, in every state, on both sides of the aisle, within recent memory (not including a few fringe strongholds in Berkeley and the West Village).” In interviews this week, Angela McArdle has used the notable locution that her "fiduciary responsibility" as the chair of the Libertarian Party's national committee prevents her from endorsing a candidate not nominated by the Libertarians at the convention.
Pundits have caught up with me, eight years later. They’re now paying attention because within the space of about a week the Libertarians have announced new headliners at their convention: Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., former rapper Vivek Ramaswamy, and current rapper Afroman (singer-songwriter of Hunter Got High). No word yet on whether Vivek and Afroman will have a rap-off. Kennedy announced his appearance to the media before he confirmed to the Libertarians that he was coming. And he then challenged Trump to a debate—because part of what’s going on is a fight for libertarian-leaning and other independent voters.
Angela McArdle, a slim blonde Californian recently relocated to Texas, is the chair of the Libertarian National Committee and a leader of the Mises Caucus. Under her reign the LP has lost donors and members, as the more “woke” Beltway libertarian-style Libertarians left (or refrained from paying dues) to wait to see what happens next. The LP is considering selling its commercial townhouse on Duke Street just outside historic Old Town in Alexandria, Virginia.
This wasn’t as dangerous for the LP as it would’ve been for Democrats or RINOs, since the LP has no billionaire donors like George Soros or the Tides Foundation. The LP had one wealthy person leave them his estate, but the Federal Election Commission won’t let them have the money. They can only withdraw from the trust account the amount equal to the maximum donation allowed to party committees each year, which I believe is only in the low five figures.
Back to what the pundits are missing. After the boring political correctness of Jo Jorgenson’s 2020 LP campaign and the misfortunes of Gov. Johnson’s energetic and earnest efforts, the Mises Caucus people announced their strategy was to elect local people and not concentrate on federal, especially presidential, campaigns. They have in the past two years elected a few hundred people to very local offices, mainly in rural and suburban areas.
How then to get national attention from the corporate Democrat media, which mainly spins narratives about national issues? The anti-Mises Beltway libertarian types (who are often journalists, think-tankers, or political consultants who depend on similar income sources as the uniparty political consultants) have taunted McArdle and her Misesians with this question.
She’s answered them. McArdle is now the Libertarian Kellyanne Conway. At least for Memorial Day weekend the Libertarians should be getting all of the media attention.
—Bruce Powell Majors writes “The Insurrection,” @ brucemajors.substack.com.
