Eric Brakey: How Libertarians Can Attain Political Power

The director of The Free State Project and Maine legislator talks about the free state movement’s history, accomplishments, and future.

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Eric Brakey: How Libertarians Can Attain Political Power

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Today's guest is Eric Brakey, the new executive director of The Free State Project, a nonprofit that has been working since 2001 to get small-government diehards to move to New Hampshire and make the Granite State a stronghold for libertarian ideas. Prior to becoming head of the Free State Project, Brakey was a Republican state senator in Maine, where he authored successful legislation that expanded gun rights, legalized over-the-counter birth control, and enacted Right To Try legislation. Reason's Nick Gillespie talks to Brakey about the state of the libertarian movement, how Ron Paul and Young Americans for Liberty shaped his worldview, and how he hopes to concentrate what he calls "the libertarian diaspora" in New Hampshire.

Related:
Revolt of the Porcupines! The Free State Project wants libertarians to take over New Hampshire. Is this a revolutionary plan or a pipe dream? December 2004
Keeping New Hampshire Awesome: Q&A with the Free State Project President Carla Gericke, November 27, 2011
Is the Libertarian Migration to New Hampshire Having an Impact?
Q&A with Free State Project President Matt Philips, August 22, 2016
Meet Rachel Goldsmith, the Woman Running the Free State Project, September 18, 2018

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Comments

[Rick James]

I would refer you to Nick Gillespie's interview with P.J. O'Rourke where O'Rourke said (wisely) that libertarianism will never be a major political force because libertarianism is an anti-political philosophy.

[MJBinAL]

^THIS^

[LIBtranslator]

PJ, typical Grabber Of Pussy, thinks libertarian means communist arnychist. Easy to equivocate, then dis.

[Social Justice is neither]

So looking at the Free State Project goals, seems good. Looks at Libertarian party candidate and positions, seems very very bad. Gee, wonder why this thing isn't catching on.

[The Mysterious Edwin Dunkel]

Probably because their major accomplishment so far appears to be turning a formerly moderate red state blue, if the current polls are to be believed.

[The Mysterious Edwin Dunkel]

It also helps to understand the FSP are not exactly Rothbardian anarcho-capitalists, they're the Reason style "immigrants, pot and ass sex" type libertarians. So the question should probably be, How Do We Drive These Assholes Out Of Our State?

[MJBinAL]

Like many who claim to be libertarians, they are anarchists.

[Don't look at me!]

Fortified elections are the true path to power.

[Longtobefree]

There are two ways libertarians can obtain political power:
1. Become republicans.
2. Become democrats.

That's all folks!

[SRG2]

I think their better bet, unsatisfactory thought it be for a party trying to acquire power, is to try instead for influence by getting or helping to get individual policy ideas implemented. After all, abortion rights, gay marriage, and drug legalisation are all libertarian policies.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Gay marriage isn’t a libertarian policy. Abolition of marriage licensing laws is a libertarian policy. Abortion rights is also not a libertarian policy, as libertarians are fairly split on the subject.

[I, Woodchipper]

^this

[Mark U]

You are wrong. Anyone who supports slavery can not be a libertarian.

[n00bdragon]

If a libertarian did support slavery, who would stop them? Is there a libertarian thought police going around deciding who supports what and making sure that people with verboten thoughts cannot be libertarians?

[MJBinAL]

Define slavery as you are using it.

[Mother's Lament (original flavor)]

abortion rights, gay marriage

Unless you actually believe in the "clump of cells" rhetoric, abortion is a violation of the NAP and the rights of the child. After all, the mother made her choice when she chose to get cream-pied rather than sticking to oral and anal or using a myriad of available birth control methods. Everyone knows what sexual intercourse evolved for, and what it's expected outcome is.

As for the second, as Woodchipper said, gay marriage isn’t a libertarian policy, the end of official government recognition of the social custom of marriage is.

[IceTrey]

Ever heard of rape?

[IceTrey]

Who owns the uterus? Obviously it's the woman. Even if a fetus has full human rights it still doesn't have a right to force the woman to support its life that's slavery.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

The fetus is an immigrant, so it obviously can’t be deported.

[Ersatz]

No – the fetus doesn’t have ‘the right’ to another person’s labor (pun intended) – it is purely at the mercy of that person’s morality and humanity… Which, if that fetus is unlucky enough to be in a progressive body, doesnt bode well for having good odds of living a full life. but hey – at least its short life can be given in service to Molech! Ever meet your mom’s hero before?

[MJBinAL]

That's generally horse fecal matter.

In real life, even libertarian real life, actions have consequences.

Unless rape is involved, the woman was a participant in conception. After conception, there is another human involved who must be considered. Think of it as the woman entering a contract. Fulfilling a contract is not slavery.

[SRG2]

The anti-abortion argument exists only so that right-wingers can retain their fake libertarian credentials.

As for gay marriage - as long as regular marriage exists, gay marriage is a move to a more libertarian position. Arguing against gay marriage on the grounds that the government shouldn't be involved in marriage overall is a very convenient argument, of course, but the result is to leave gay couples with fewer rights than straight under current conditions. Hence the libertarian position would be a two-step - gay marriage, to equalise status, then removal of government from marriage. Of course, the right-wing fake libertarians who can't stomach gay marriage would have an issue with this.

[n00bdragon]

Or you just expand all definitions of your legal "+1" to be whoever you want. You don't even need to bring the implication of romantic attraction into it.

[Ersatz]

What is libertarian about mutilating the meanings of words? Doesn't doing violence to definitions violate the NAP?

[IceTrey]

Libertarianism has to focus on one issue, prohibiting government coercion. If that's done all the other problems will resolve themselves.

[defaultdotxbe]

Trouble is limiting government coercion is a very unpopular idea, both with the powers that be and with the voting public.

[LIBtranslator]

All were implemented using a sound platform and spoiler vote clout.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

Seemingly true of independents. When Sanders runs for president, he changes his "I" to a "D".

[Winston in Wonderland]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the title of this article: How a party that doesn't believe the government should have any power obtain power?

[IceTrey]

You have to control it to dismantle it.

[defaultdotxbe]

Exactly, the power exists and pretty much nothing can ever change that. Best we can do is put it in the hands of someone who won't use it.

[n00bdragon]

Frodo no! Throw it into the fire!

[MJBinAL]

Maybe some libertarians have more in common with Marxists than we realize. Their aspirations sometimes sound more like "Molding the Communist Man" than anything else.

[Uncle Jay]

How do Libertarians get into power.
Expose both parties for the liars, thieves and whores they are.

[Ersatz]

Not nearly enough – witness the kabuki around Joe’s dementia or any of the (D) gaslighting that has been exposed. They will still have a solid 38-45% of the electorate voting for them.

.... giant meteor, on the other hand.....

[I, Woodchipper]

The problem is everyone else sees government and the role of government as being there so they can wield power over you.

Libertarians will never obtain political power.
The nature of being libertarian means you dont WANT power over other people.

"I'll leave you alone" doesnt appeal to the masses who want nothing more than to bother you.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Is this a trick question?

I thought we aspire to a society with limited government power, and just plain limited government.

To obtain that we either move to Mars, or somehow convince everyone that they don't want free shit and don't want to fuck over people they disagree with.

[Winston in Wonderland]

Same question I had (See above).

[Winston in Wonderland]

For What It’s Worth, here’s what you could do to get this non-Libertarian’s support:

1. Stop looking like a group of anarchists who want to dismantle the government to benefit the wealthy. The Utopia espoused by most Libertarians looks a lot like feudalism.
2. Show me how you are going to use the power that the electorate grants you to improve my life…You have a very good start with topics like limiting qualified immunity, eliminating fraud-waste-and abuse.
3. STOP trying to convince me that economic analyses are the answer to all governmental problems. In particular, the economic analyses the Libertarian crowd applies to National Security usually concludes that we should outsource everything to the Chinese. Besides, most economic analyses presented in these pages look a lot like a pitch for snake oil presented by economists hired to present positions favored by the wealthy and powerful.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

2. Here's a big ol' hint - it's not the government's responsibility to "improve" your life.

[Marc St. Stephen]

I'll add to this: stop supporting things that are, in theory, Libertarian but in practice is chaos and damage - like open borders, re: the last 3.5 years

And return to your roots - fight for our rights to drink and smoke without government interference.

[LIBtranslator]

Importing terrorists is not libertarian, not in theory nor in practice. Anarco-communism is not to be confused with anything libertarian, but rather, the opposite. Even Lenin understood that letting anarchists attach themselves to any party could only wreck that party, adding liability and subtracting advantage. https://libertariantranslator.wordpress.com/2019/01/11/infiltration-and-sabotage/

[Marc St. Stephen]

The only chance Libertarians have in getting someone in office as a Libertarian (and not converting once there) is to collude with Republicans on this one thing - in blue favored races, have Republicans abstain from offering any candidate.

[LIBtranslator]

Trust them, ha ha ha. In Tennessee, James A Tate advised cooperation with a non-prohibitionist temperance orator’s plan to pursue diverse anti-liquor laws including local option and a pledge to only run candidates when both major parties refused to support such modest legislation. Prohibitionists accepted this proposal and agreed to refrain from nominating candidates at the 1894 Tennessee State convention. As doctrinally pure prohibitionists might well have predicted, the 1894 plan produced no new anti-liquor legislation and probably undermined the party's organization. The same unpitying spoiler clout dry looters used to wreck freedom, libertarians are using to restore it, with admirable success.

[creech]

Christians have failed to establish their philosophy (I'm taking walking the walk) for 2,000 years, notwithstanding the capabilities of their "party's" leader.

[LIBtranslator]

Ah! The New Jerusalem HL Mencken announced the suckers said was at hand. Someone explain to this guy how third-party spoiler vote clout causes the Kleptocracy to repeal bad laws. Before 1972, birth control, abortion, weed, draft-dodging, queerness--even certain positions by hetero married couples--were all federal penitentiary felonies without any Exodus to freezing coastlines. Maybe explain why spoiler votes failed (they didn't). Were all those things legal in Namsha in 1970?

[LIBtranslator]

In December 1891, prohibitionist fanatics put up the town of Harriman,Tennessee. Every deed contained a clause that if you made, used or possessed anything a sixth as strong as weak beer your property was seized with all equity and you couldn't get back a penny. This was the paradise the 3rd party of popular coercion designed. It was bankrupt about 6 yrs later. These Exodus surrender movements toward freezing environments do not have a good track record. Israel, at least, is armed, wet and warm.