The Libertarian Party is a Joke
If you’re a true advocate for liberty, you probably call yourself a libertarian, conservative, patriot, or are at least somewhere on the dissident right. But words and labels are cheap. What matters is action, and liberty faces no greater stifler of it than the Libertarian Party.
The mind-numbing debate over LP vs. GOP in the so-called “freedom movement” is thankfully coming to a close. We can hope anyway. This palavering pablum is as old as the LP itself, but certainly Ron Paul and Donald Trump settled the controversy in every one of the past four presidential election cycles.
The Republican Party, for all its faults (which are many and weighty), is where the action is for safeguarding liberty and pushing back against what threatens it most.
For all those dues-paying LPers whose life mission is to nominate Dave Smith or Anyone But Weld/Jorgensen in 2024, now is a time for choosing. Not so much to “join” the Republican Party, but to choose to do real battle in the political arena.
Duverger’s law and its consequences are real and unavoidable. What this law of politics states is that in an electoral structure such as ours, where a sole winner in a race is determined by a plurality of voters who cast only one vote, a two-party system will rule.
Nowhere recently was this reality laid more bare than in Kentucky’s November 2019 gubernatorial election. It was the closest race of its kind in that state’s history by percentage and closest by tally in 120 years. The Republican incumbent Matt Bevin, perhaps the most libertarian governor in America, lost to Democrat Andy Beshear by less than 5,000 votes. The LP candidate took over 28,000 votes, spoiling the race.
Not only did the LP spoil that race, but of course it left Kentuckians immeasurably worse off when the Covid leviathan swooped in the following Spring. Businesses shuttered, churches were raided, and the rest of the well-known despicable fallout of the “pandemic” hit the state as it did much of the rest of the country.
So, when people ask why didn’t more states besides South Dakota and Florida offer any substantial resistance to the Fauci gang in 2020, part of the answer is the LP in Kentucky.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul once stated, “The Republican Party is an empty vessel unless we imbue it with values,” and he was basically correct. That vessel is summed up in its capital, the databases, campaign technology, branding, etc.
In this way, the LP can’t honestly be even considered a vessel. It’s just a gaseous milieu of people just as corrupt as anyone in the GOP but less politically competent.
Third parties never win, and their influence is always exaggerated. Liberty activists would never waste their strengths, unless they were under some delusion. The LP thrives on delusion.
It should go without saying that participating within the Republican Party does not mean you endorse all of its policies. It’s just about exploiting factions within it to promote your cause. The reach of the LP to do this is still infinitesimally small, despite shows like the Joe Rogan Experience and other alternative media.
If the LP wanted to stir pot, they would focus more on controversial stuff at the local level and ride the growing trend of nullification. Perhaps it would make more sense to pursue single issue lobbying or push the envelope by moving forward with secessionist movements. That’s about the best they should hope for.
Politics is about dealing with harsh realities, not wishful thinking. The LP may fancy itself “purer” than the GOP, but it’s in fact only more puerile.
The inevitable consequence of growing the LP’s “right” flank, which reliably acquiesces to the left anyway, is the perpetuation of the culturally radical oligarchical march through what remains of our civilization.