With more bad behavior out of state affiliates, and more take over hijinks, I hear more and more libertarians insist that they cannot associate with the Libertarian Party.
I’m here today to state that that IF you are indeed a libertarian and IF you plan on still voting Libertarian, and if you plan to keep calling yourself a libertarian then the LP cannot be allowed to slide into a fascist sea.
The populist paleo-conservative Right overwhelmed us and forced us out of the GOP. Fusionism is resoundly dead, and with it the Ron Paul R3volution. That movement lives on in other ways, but only a couple of hold outs remain in the Republican Party. The Democratic Socialists of America do have a libertarian caucus, but my understanding is that they look about as keenly on that as the LP does of their own socialist caucus. The Democrats talk a good game about police reform and drug decriminalization but are not likely to ever make good on the libertarian promises they appropriated to win elections. Their technocratic solutions are illiberal and lead to more harm for marginalized communities while also shredding individual rights.
We are surrounded, and we have no other home in the U.S. but the Libertarian Party.
The populist Right is not content to have the GOP, they want the LP too, and we are at civil war. These interests I have been told control about half of State affiliates and many county affiliates as well. They are showing up in numbers and voting themselves in control.
In response to this I see liberal and moderate libertarians wriggle their nose that the smell of the mess and leave. I don’t suppose I blame them. Why should someone want to keep working in an organization when something like transphobic comments are made, or media accounts are sympathetic with the Capitol Insurrectionists, and nothing is done about it.
Let’s put things back in perspective though, the LP though the largest 3rd party, represents about 3% of the Presidential vote. This party is run by a very small number of unpaid volunteers- basically by whoever shows up. I am often out of sync with popular libertarian opinion and even with other leadership but I continue to have a place because I continue to volunteer and to show up. If every single libertarian that cannot be associated with the LP at the very least showed up to their county affiliate meetings as a voting member- that would be enough I think. Certainly this would stop the bleeding and I think the liberal and moderate libertarians could regain lost ground. I understand if you cannot because of harassment and threats (like Joe Bishop Henchman and others, unfortunately), but the rest of us must show up make these spaces safe, in line with the non-aggression principle, and in line with our party platform.
Afterall let’s consider the alternative. The enemy we face is not concerned with purity and non-association. The populist paleo Right are never satisfied. They appropriate symbols freely and make them icons of villainy. They take one nation, and then another. Because they do not believe in an open and pluralist world (as libertarians do), only total homogeneity is acceptable. If we flee the Libertarian Party, they will follow us where we go and then take that from us too. There is nowhere to go, no one is coming to save us, we must show up and hold space in the center.
What makes this doable is exactly what enabled this problem to get so out of hand. The LP is decentralized almost to an absurd extent. Every level of the organization has very few tools to regiment the rungs below it. The right populists exploit this when they say crazy things on Twitter and not much can be done about it, but we can literally just also show up to meetings and assume leadership too. Even if right populists control positions above us, they don’t actually have alot of power to do much.
A different objection I sometimes hear is that the LP is a waste of time. Well, we elected 150 new libertarians in the Nov 2, 2021 election. They are city and county level races mostly but that’s where it starts. So, if the purpose of a political party is to elect candidates to office then clearly the LP is time well spent.
Next I would like to demonstrate that some of the LP’s problems are unique and some are normal obstacles encountered in any political coalition. Firstly we are a libertarian party, a party for all libertarians. The word itself, libertarian, is so broad as to describe almost anything that is not authoritarian (with some specifications). All the left, center, and right libertarians all occupy the same party and each of these groups have their own interests. The LP is a huge coalition of people- twice the size of the Democrats and Republicans. When we put our differences aside and focus on agreeing on the platform we have great strength. But we also have twice as many differences to fight over if we want to. Since we really can’t split into two parties that pass issues together (wrong system, not enough numbers) we need to stick together.
Any big-tent group has this challenge though, the Dems and GOP have internal strife too.
Secondly we’re aren’t the only group with bad actors. Every big coalition has fringe beliefs that will take over if allowed. The left has neoliberals, TERFS (trans exclusionary radical feminists) and tankies, the right has the alt-right, white nationalists, and neo-nazis. Before Trump the right did a good job at not publicly platforming those interests, and even during Trump’s term when House Republican Steve King espoused white nationalist views he was stripped of committee assignments. The left (radical and even mostly the mainstream) deplatforms and disavows people that are anti-LGBT or racist. You may have also remembered times recently when they said screw the rules and elected the very worst they could find- which shows my point that all coalitions have this challenge and sometimes they also fail to contain their bad actors too. This isn’t said to give the LP excuses, just some perspective.
Despite setbacks there are gains being made. Despite the protestations of transphobes, Ashley Shade won her city council race and joins the ranks of elected Libertarians. Rules of professionalism and conduct are making traction in state affiliates as well.
I have used the term “right populist” instead of calling out a very specific caucus. This is for a few reasons.
1) I’ve had more success building dual power in the LP than fighting them directly.
2) I’ve got some alright folks in TN in that caucus and
3) I’ve noticed that this problem is broader than just one caucus. The Mises crowd bring two virtues with them, they are definitely passionate, and they share the notion that the purpose of the LP is to elect candidates. I have definite issues with some of it’s thought leaders but I think the best way to deal with bad actors is to make the LP inhospitable to bad actors and see who wants to stick around after that.
I do also want to make it clear that there is absolutely room in the LP for people that come from the right to libertarianism- most of my favorite libertarians used to stan John McCain. They just can’t come in thinking they can make the LP anti-LGBT and anti-open borders. Same way leftists can come to the libertarian movement but must leave dreams of a technocratic welfare state behind.
The right populists have totally and fully taken over the GOP, but their actual control in the LP is smaller than realized- but it is loud and damaging where they control social media accounts. The enemy of left, center, and (anti-Trumpism) right libertarians is small in number but very organized, very motivated. If space is held the center effectively, the people that just want power will leave and good faith actors will work within the institutions of our party.
All libertarians must rise to meet this challenge otherwise the very word libertarian will become unspeakable no matter what other group we run to. The LP is not a sinking ship- it is a submarine, climb aboard and let’s get to work.