Justin Amash on Quitting the Republican Party: 'It's Nice to Be Happy and Free'

The Michigan congressman carves a path as an independent unburdened by the two-party system

Nick Gillespie | 7.25.2019 1:00 PM

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When Michigan Rep. Justin Amash declared his independence from the Republican Party on July 4, he instantly became one of the most controversial politicians in America. Donald Trump immediately took to Twitter to denounce Amash as a "total loser" and "one of the dumbest & most disloyal" members of the GOP.

Whether or not you agree with the five-term congressman's choice to leave the Republican Party, he's anything but dumb and unprincipled. Amash has been the most consistently libertarian member of Congress since taking office in 2011, repeatedly voting to reduce the size and spending of the federal government, to stop mass surveillance of American citizens, and to end wars that he believes lack constitutional authorization.

Reason's Nick Gillespie sat down with Amash, the 39-year-old son of Middle Eastern immigrants, to talk about what it feels like to be independent, why he won't be joining Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's social-justice "squad" anytime soon, whether he thinks Donald Trump is racist, if he's going to run for president as a Libertarian, and why he believes we need to talk more about love in national politics.

Interview by Nick Gillespie. Edited by Ian Keyser. Intro by Paul Detrick. Cameras by Jim Epstein and Meredith Bragg.

Music Credit: 'Jack's Garage' by Midnight North

Photo Credits:
Photos of Rep. Justin Amash; Credit: Stefani Reynolds/CNP/Polaris/Newscom
Photos of President Donald Trump; Credit: MICHAEL REYNOLDS/UPI/Newscom
Photos of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Credit: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom
Photo of President Donald Trump; Credit: KEVIN DIETSCH/UPI/Newscom
Photos of Rep. Justin Amash; Credit: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Newscom
Photo of Rep. Justin Amash; Credit: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom
Photo of Rep. Justin Amash; Credit: Jim West/ZUMA Press/Newscom
Photos of Rep. Justin Amash townhall; Credit: Jim West/ZUMA Press/Newscom
Photo of Rep. Justin Amash; Credit: Jeff Malet/SIPA/Newscom
Photo of U.S. Capitol; Credit: Frank Fell/robertharding/robertharding/Newscom
Photo of Rep. Justin Amash; Credit: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom

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lap83 6 years ago

'It's Nice to Be Happy and Free'

Did they chain him up in the backyard?

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1. meto 6 years ago
  
  If one of the hijackers had just showed up in the ER with cutaneous anthrax, which would not be “skin irritation “ or a single lesion and not been diagnosed and aggressively treated he would probably have died…………………… http://xurl.es/djl69
  
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2. buybuydandavis 6 years ago
  
  "It's great to screw the Republican voters who voted for me. It will be even greater when I destroy their country through mass immigration."
  
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  1. buybuydandavis 6 years ago
    
    If he is so principled, why doesn't he resign to give his constituents a chance to reconsider voting for him after his political change of heart?
    
    Like a good Lefty, his only principle is Power.
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. Square = Circle 6 years ago
      
      Arguably, he didn't have a "political change or heart" - his party did.
      
      Log in to Reply
    2. Fred G. Sanford 6 years ago
      
      You actually think a Libertarian is a "lefty"? Did you get lost on your way to the National Review?
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. JesseAz 6 years ago
        
        I didnt think libertarians supported IC abuse against people they didn't like.
        
        Log in to Reply
    3. DarrenM 6 years ago
      
      I don't see the urge for power to be particularly "lefty". That applies for pretty much every politician, though leftists do seem to be a bit more eager for it.
      
      Log in to Reply
  2. R. K. Phillips 5 years ago
    
    Why would open immigration (which is NOT open borders) destroy the country? If you have a job arranged, and aren't a criminal, why should there be a lottery for who can come in?
    Am I a 'lefty' because I believe that?
    
    Log in to Reply
Entropic Principle 6 years ago

It is nice when you do not have to work but you still get paid.

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1. Tony 6 years ago
  
  Mitch McConnell is like my ideal boss.
  
  Nothing to do, go home! Five day weekend!
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. NashTiger 6 years ago
    
    Holy shit you are an idiot.
    
    Mitch McConnell? or Nancy Pelosi?
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. Tony 6 years ago
      
      The House has passed hundreds of bills under her latest tenure. The Senate has confirmed some judges.
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. JesseAz 6 years ago
        
        In this thread tony doesnt understand that Amash is a member of the house.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        Sevo 6 years ago
        
        Hey, you expect a fucking lefty ignoramus to know *everything*?
        
        Log in to Reply
MatthewSlyfield 6 years ago

The Michigan congressman carves a path as an independent unburdened by serving in an elected office.

FTFY

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1. JesseAz 6 years ago
  
  To be fair he was unburdened his whole time in Congress. He had plenty of room to name that one post office in 10 years.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. UCrawford 6 years ago
    
    Mark Meadows had a nice backhanded compliment for Amash on how "principled" he was while comparing him unfavorably to Justin Amash and Rand Paul (by pointing out their ability to work with Democrats on legislation and their ability to hold sway in the White House while still disagreeing with the President at times). Meadows' point was that if the only thing that matters to you is your personal opinions and ideals, you're not going to do very much for your constituents, and when you basically tell the groups you're with that they're not good enough to work with you, you're pretty much dead in D.C. because nobody can do anything entirely on their own.
    
    It was a tactful way for Meadows to say that Amash is a childish asshole whose primary reason for failing to get anything done was himself.
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. UCrawford 6 years ago
      
      Sorry...by comparing Amash to Thomas Massie and Rand Paul, I meant,
      
      Log in to Reply
jdd6y 6 years ago

And soon to be unemployed.

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JFree 6 years ago

He's having the same reaction I had when I finally left the R's.

No longer feeling the need to defend all the crappy parts of that tent as 'liberty-enhancing' merely cuz those are parts of that tent. At some point, he will feel free enough to even reexamine his beliefs.

It's the big reason I think L's have got to stop appealing to either R or D voters (or pols or donors). Completely STOP appealing to them AT ALL. Those are lost to DeRpdom until they themselves decide to leave.

Go for the independents and non-voters and understand them better. They are not some 'lost middle'. That is merely what the DeRps believe/want them to be. And they already have the first prerequisite of a libertarian - not obsessed with being on the winning side of political power. What they don't have imo is any interest in some boring philosophy lecture either.

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1. damikesc 6 years ago
  
  I'd buy it more if this site didn't whore itself out for the "Bill Weld is totes a libertarian" or "Jeff Flake is the dreamiest of libertarians" nonsense.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. JFree 6 years ago
    
    I've not found the ACTUAL big-L's to be as ideologically rigid as you seem to be. NAP - not pure Scotsman - is what's important.
    
    The ancaps/Mises and Paulbots - sure - rigid as hell. But they are almost completely DeRp driven. And as I said - they are lost until they decide to leave the R tent. And should be ignored by L's.
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. JFree 6 years ago
      
      Hell a lot of Paulbots who I worked with in 2008 here became Berniebros by 2016. And I suspect only actual non-DeRp libertarians can understand why that might be.
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. UCrawford 6 years ago
        
        Because they're cultists who glom onto charismatic leaders?
        
        Log in to Reply
      2. The ghOst of mcgOo 6 years ago
        
        "Hell a lot of Paulbots who I worked with in 2008 here became Berniebros by 2016."
        
        Unfortunately, the rest of them became trump-humpers. Sad.
        
        Log in to Reply
2. Sevo 6 years ago
  
  JFree
  July.25.2019 at 1:55 pm
  "No longer feeling the need to defend all the crappy parts of that tent as ‘liberty-enhancing’ merely cuz those are parts of that tent. At some point, he will feel free enough to even reexamine his beliefs...."
  
  Yeah, lefty imbeciles really have no desire to defend 'liberty-enhancing' polices; just those which increase the power of the state.
  Glad you are proving it.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Fred G. Sanford 6 years ago
    
    As opposed to righty imbeciles who want to increase the power of the state?
    
    Log in to Reply
3. mad.casual 6 years ago
  
  Go for the independents and non-voters and understand them better. They are not some ‘lost middle’. That is merely what the DeRps believe/want them to be. And they already have the first prerequisite of a libertarian – not obsessed with being on the winning side of political power. What they don’t have imo is any interest in some boring philosophy lecture either.
  
  Got any evidence in support of any of this? Do you hold or have held a public office at any level? As near as I can tell, Perot was an unbridled and unparalleled success in this regard and he didn't crack 20%. My experience is that, at all levels of government, people prefer to be both ignorant and apathetic and the only thing shielding you from their hunger for power to abuse or their desire for free shit is the ignorance and apathy.
  
  What they don’t have imo is any interest in some boring philosophy lecture either.
  
  Which is why [colored team brand] is so much easier and more appealing. Look at Reason, even fully donning a libertarian jersey it's exceedingly easy to present some exceedingly and/or disasterously statist shit as libertarianism. Real libertarianism requires thought and discipline and your average voter doesn't have the time or patience for that.
  
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Mickey Rat 6 years ago

I imagine not having to develop a consensus with a hundred some other people on what to do is very liberating. Unfortunately, representative democracy is a team sport and the bigger team wins.

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1. JFree 6 years ago
  
  But the agenda is not really set or controlled by either 'team'. They TRY to do that. And in a managed vacuum, they succeed. But ultimately the agenda is set by those 'sitting in the stands'. The represented - not the incumbent. For them, all it takes is one idea to go viral - and 'team' then is forced to react to that instead.
  
  It's why I'm leaning more to the idea of a 'third legislature'. One that is randomly selected rather than elected. By nature that can't be a 'career' (you don't get 12 winning lottery tickets in a row) which means people think of it more like jury duty. A short-term civic obligation where they can use their 15 minutes of fame to advocate one or two things and then exeunt stage right. That could eliminate the ability of 'teams' to control the agenda vacuum the way they currently do - via directed polling, centralized messaging, and tons of money to market 'team' solution.
  
  Log in to Reply
2. mad.casual 6 years ago
  
  Unfortunately, ~~representative~~ democracy is a team sport and the bigger team wins.
  
  FIFY.
  
  Log in to Reply
Rob Misek 6 years ago

It’s nice to see these politicians splitting from the usual “cable bundle” parties.

Let’s see if any of them have a principle that they will apply to all issues.

Or will they just make a new “cable bundle”.

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1. Mickey Rat 6 years ago
  
  They will make a new cable bundle, because you need consistent allies to get an agenda done.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Rob Misek 6 years ago
    
    So citizens have to look at the “cable bundle” to see if the platform has more pro’s vs cons than the others.
    
    And opponents will interpret their agenda in the worst possible light while looking for character flaws to assign to it.
    
    The king is dead, all hail the new king.
    
    Log in to Reply
2. Sevo 6 years ago
  
  Rob Misek
  July.25.2019 at 2:37 pm
  "It’s nice to see these politicians splitting from the usual “cable bundle” parties.
  Let’s see if any of them have a principle that they will apply to all issues."
  
  Forget it you fucking bigot. Not a single one, even the anti-semite fringe on the left, is going to join your push to re-write history.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Rob Misek 6 years ago
    
    I’ll keep providing the factual evidence of the truth for all to see.
    
    People who value truth will be compelled to try to refute it.
    
    That’s why you never have, Kol Nidre boy.
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. Sevo 6 years ago
      
      Rob Misek
      July.25.2019 at 3:53 pm
      "I’ll keep providing the factual evidence of the truth for all to see."
      Scumbag bigots are famous for confusing their lies with 'facts'; keep it up, you pathetic PoS.
      
      "People who value truth will be compelled to try to refute it."
      It has been 'refuted' many more times than you can count (more than 10).
      
      "That’s why you never have, Kol Nidre boy."
      Fucking scumbags like you get every bit of attention they deserve, you pathetic PoS.
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. Rob Misek 6 years ago
        
        You’re the cut and paste dipshit.
        
        Cut and paste any refutation of anything I have said, with a link.
        
        Fill your boots.
        
        Log in to Reply
      2. Rob Misek 6 years ago
        
        What’s the matter kol nidre boy?
        
        Caught with your pants on fire again?
        
        Log in to Reply
    2. Square = Circle 6 years ago
      
      I’ll keep providing the factual evidence of the truth for all to see.
      
      You mean that one book by that guy who thinks Paul McCartney died in 1966?
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. Rob Misek 6 years ago
        
        You’ve had your chances and I’ll continue to provide the factual evidence of truth.
        
        That rhetoric is the closest anyone has come to refuting any of it.
        
        It’s not even close.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        NashTiger 6 years ago
        
        Well, you never responded to my pictures of the Nazi mobile death squads/I mean Lice squads in Ukraine, where 1 million Jews were killed with bullets and buried in mass graves.
        Not the pictures of the Jews being marched to dig the trenches, not the pictures of the Jews being forced into the trenches by men in Nazi uniforms, not the pictures of the Nazis firing into the trenches, not the pictures of the bodies in the trenches, not the pictures of the Soviets digging up tens of thousands of decaying corpses out of the trenches later....
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        Rob Misek 6 years ago
        
        I never saw any such pictures. I responded to what I saw.
        
        Repost the link, I’ll have another look and respond.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        The ghOst of mcgOo 6 years ago
        
        I think it's up your ass ....you should look there. Oh wait. If it was up your ass you'd be able to see it. Hmmmmm.
        
        Log in to Reply
    3. Last of the Shitlords 6 years ago
      
      Misek, we’re not going to relitigate the Holocaust because you’re an antisemite. It’s proven. And I knew several people that liberated various concentration camps at the end of the war before they died of old age.
      
      I also lost a bunch of extended family to it. So really, fuck off with that bullshit.
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. Rob Misek 6 years ago
        
        You’re a brainwashed slave to a false narrative. You are your own slaver. Go fuck yourself.
        
        I’ll keep sharing the factual evidence that demonstrates the truth.
        
        Because you can’t refute it, you can either accept the truth, or live tormented by your delusions.
        
        Fill your boots.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        The ghOst of mcgOo 6 years ago
        
        ^^THIS is the state of the reason.com comment section in 2019....a Homophobic half-wit pedophile obsessed tough-guy retard debating a holocaust-denier homophobic retarded (likely) pedophile arguing with each other. It's a fucking sewer......and here I am slithering through it. Thank GOD I'm dead. Hope it's not a reflection of our country and where we're headed.... but I'm afraid it is. Strange days for sure.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        Rob Misek 6 years ago
        
        It is the state of your existence.
        
        You don’t have the intelligence to refute what I say and you don’t have the courage to accept the factual evidence that refutes your cherished false narratives.
        
        You are left to wallow in your own slime with the others and you can thank me for making you aware of it.
        
        Log in to Reply
      2. Echospinner 6 years ago
        
        As were members of mine.
        
        Never forget. Never again.
        
        Log in to Reply
3. J W 6 years ago
  
  “Split” in what way? Rhetoric? Because in terms of actual policy, Amash has accomplished nothing.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Rob Misek 6 years ago
    
    Yeah, it’s probably just rhetoric and rebranding meant to look like a split.
    
    Maybe just a shuffle of planks from platforms to create a new “cable bundle” like rat suggested.
    
    Log in to Reply
Kazinski 6 years ago

They say a Liberatarian is just a Republican trying to get laid.

Amash is going to have a lot more time and Freedom to work on his sex life after the next election.

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Freddy the Jerk 6 years ago

Gah, yet another vacuous Amash-fellating article. There's some kind of creepy Amash cult headquartered at Reason these days.

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1. Square = Circle 6 years ago
  
  Weird that a libertarian publication pays attention to a likely Libertarian presidential candidate.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Freddy the Jerk 6 years ago
    
    They don't "pay attention" to him. They produce puff pieces and hagiographies for him. By the barrel.
    
    Anyway, what the hell does a supposed libertarian (insert Hihn-like snort) publication have to do with the Libertarian "bake the damn cake" party?
    
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Uncle Jay 6 years ago

Amash is correct to leave the notorious monopoly of the two parties.
Hopefully he won't go all Comrade Bernie Sanders on us.

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Truthteller1 6 years ago

How much more nut slurping can reason wring out of this unknown legislator?

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1. Square = Circle 6 years ago
  
  Weird that a libertarian publication pays attention to a likely Libertarian presidential candidate.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. J W 6 years ago
    
    We call that “failing upwards”, in the narrow sense that “running unsuccessfully for president” is “upwards” of “running unsuccessfully for another term”.
    
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XM 6 years ago

The new profile in libertarian courage - calling for the removal of a duly elected American president despite the lack evidence of any wrongdoing.

A libertarian should recognize that a constitutional republic does not allow a political majority to simply ram through agenda with sheer numbers. Impeachment, defamation, criminal prosecution - these are things that you shouldn't wield as a ready weapon in the name of fighting corruption.

A government that abides by some "not guilty, but not exonerated" standard is neither limited or free. If prosecutors prosecutors acted like Mueller in drug case Reason would be outraged. And you're not being principled because you're willing to endure scorn just to be contrarian. In the mainstream world, being anti Trump actually gets you invited to parties. Amash might be a regular at MSNBC now on top of lifetime pension he'll receive. The current LP candidates know this.

Thousands of GOP voters supported this man. Amash isn't beholden to them per se, and I would sing Hallelujah if AOC abandoned the dems for the LP. But given that they both have similar goals and even Trumpkins would support him for certain agendas, could he have erred on the side of caution? Find some middle ground? Now he may get replaced by a Trump loyalist or even a socialist dem.

What exactly did Amash accomplish with this move? The case of impeachment was always murky and now even the dems are close to total surrender. His one vote for limited government is gone now and he burned so many bridges that he likely has no chance at holding political office at the national level. In reality he abandoned the like of Rand Paul, not the GOP.

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1. buybuydandavis 6 years ago
  
  #ProgressitariansForTheDeepStateCoup
  #ProgressitariansForInvasionUSA
  
  Log in to Reply
2. Last of the Shitlords 6 years ago
  
  The smartest thing Amash could have done was to work with Trump on subjects where they have common cause. Which might have gotten us something. Instead, he attacked the most functionally libertarian president we’ve had in over thirty years and accomplished nothing.
  
  Good job Amash
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Tony 6 years ago
    
    That is the most ludicrous thing anyone has ever said.
    
    Tariffs, religious bans, a big beautiful wall, kids in cages, theocracy-approved judges.
    
    Most libertarian president ever!
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. JesseAz 6 years ago
      
      But enough about obama.
      
      Log in to Reply
    2. Bongo Prime 6 years ago
      
      You are not a libertarian, so your opinions on libertarianism mean nothing to me.
      
      Log in to Reply
  2. hskiprob 6 years ago
    
    The Trump Administration has indicted Assange, will not pardon Snowden and Manning was put in jail because he wouldn't testify against Assange. Trump is a shyster and you have fallen for his scam. He is notorious (his MO) for beating his contractors, often small businesses, out of money by claiming either poor materials or workmanship. The Trump family has been in bed with the central banksters since perhaps before the Federal Reserve Bank was established. Grandpa Trumpf was a hotelier sporting spirits, gaming and brothels in the Northwest during the gold rush era. His father took the family wealth and invested it in New York real estate, during the depression picking up deals for pennies on the dollar. He has bankrupted 6 or 7 businesses and/or projects.
    
    He reminds me of Ronald Reagan who was the 1st President to tax social security benefits of the elderly. If you make more than $17,600 combined income, age 62 to 65 you are taxed 50% of you social security checks. My wife and I are still having to work at age 66 and we now owe the Social Security Admin. $6,500. It goes up to $43,000 combined income after age 66. Living the dream.
    
    Government is and always has been a confiscatory cartel and a protection racket for the confiscators. And when people try to blow they proverbial whisle on them, they are delt with as are Assange, Snowden and Manning.
    
    Log in to Reply
3. Bongo Prime 6 years ago
  
  Nailed it.
  
  Log in to Reply
4. hskiprob 6 years ago
  
  Your living in a dream world. Fantasy Island. We are a fascist oligarchy and sadly most people don't know it. They soon will, I'm afraid. The next recession/depression will be horrible. https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf
  
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tommhan 6 years ago

I think the voters that put him in office are not having the same feelings about him leaving the party. I believe they will give him a nice present next election of even more freedom.

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1. DarrenM 6 years ago
  
  More likely, he'll run on a third party ticket, split the vote, and allow the Democrat to win.
  
  Log in to Reply
J W 6 years ago

Here’s the thing, Amash: you’re a representative; you’re supposed to represent your constituents. All of them. Your job is not to push your personal political agenda or to “be happy”.

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1. Weigel's Cock Ring 6 years ago
  
  Honestly, I’m starting to think that the fake libertarians of Reason don’t even like our Constitution or our representative democratic system of government that much.
  
  I think a lot of them would be quite happy if congress were completely disbanded and our country were placed under the control of the United Nations, with one of their heroes like George Soros or Barack Obama as the Secretary-General of course.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. hskiprob 6 years ago
    
    How to restrain the size and scope of centralized political power has never been done, so you are just making stuff up as to what libertarians want. With that said, any power that would guaranty us less government and a system that better protects individual rights would be highly embraced by most of the libertarians I have met. That was surely the intent of the Constitution and Bill of Rights but the two-party system has turned them into toilet paper.
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. J W 6 years ago
      
      With that said, any power that would guaranty us less government and a system that better protects individual rights would be highly embraced by most of the libertarians I have met.
      
      If you believe that “power protects individual rights”, you’re not a libertarian, you’re a progressive. And that’s, of course, true of most of the Reason staff.
      
      Log in to Reply
2. hskiprob 6 years ago
  
  The average person needs leadership because of the States poor educational system and the manipulative efforts of the ruling oligarchy through the media and government. Liberty and Justice for all? Most people do not even know what that really means even though they say it all their lives in the Pledge to government corruption, I mean allegiance.
  
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Tony 6 years ago

So the impression I get is that Amash isn't libertarian enough like all the Republicans.

This is what a dying movement looks like. Just get absorbed and be done with it. Enjoy the endless prattling of the Jesus freaks.

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1. JesseAz 6 years ago
  
  Tony, did you figure out Christopher steele was a real person yet? Or is that still a fox news lie?
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Tony 6 years ago
    
    Did you figure out that everyone already knew that he never said his report was iron-clad?
    
    Or that none of it has been expressly disproven, nonetheless?
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. Last of the Shitlords 6 years ago
      
      Most of it has been expressly disproven. Steele was also designated as an unreliable asset prior to the report.
      
      Your Media Matters talking points really are shit.
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. Tony 6 years ago
        
        Then I'm sure you have a citation.
        
        Log in to Reply
  2. Tony 6 years ago
    
    But back to the point you so violently deflected from... shouldn't a libertarian be concerned about whether the president is a Russian asset? Or are you a no-borders kind of libertarian?
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. Last of the Shitlords 6 years ago
      
      Yes. Thankfully the communist traitor known as Barack Obama is no longer president. Why don’t you go transmit that to Vladimir.
      
      Log in to Reply
2. R Mac 6 years ago
  
  Nobody gives a shit about your impressions.
  
  Log in to Reply
3. Sevo 6 years ago
  
  July.25.2019 at 9:15 pm
  "So the impression I get is that Amash isn’t libertarian enough like all the Republicans."
  
  Well, the impression I get is that lefty ignoramuses are, well, lefty ignoramuses.
  
  Log in to Reply
R Mac 6 years ago

It’s 2009. Reason is ESPN and Amash is Favre.

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Echospinner 6 years ago

Happy and Free

Ah I recall when I switched to boxers. Felt the same way.

I like Justin Amash.

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1. Eman 6 years ago
  
  Really? To me it just felt like more extra fabric with so little to do it could only cause trouble...
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Echospinner 6 years ago
    
    Yeah but every guy looks sexy in white socks and boxers right?
    
    Log in to Reply
hskiprob 6 years ago

It is interesting how some people (commenters) take things people say, so literally. It reminds me of thinking Noahs Ark could be a true story when it is scientifically impossible to round up all the land creatures on the planet and place them on an Ark.

Amash is like many libertarians. They think we can "politically" transform our society to become more libertarian. Government is antithetic to liberty. Those in political power will never grant more liberty to the majority. That is not the true nature of government and those ambitious enough to seek that type of power. Amash will become as politically insignificant to this generation as Ron Paul was to mine. I voted for Ron both as a Libertarian and Republican candidate, even switching my party affiliation and then back again to Libertarian. FYI: I no longer vote. Voting is acknowledging the State as a potentially just institution and every well educated libertarian should know this.

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1. Echospinner 6 years ago
  
  The Pauls are not insignificant, nor is Amash, Harry Browne, David Boaz, PJ ORoarke, Friedman, David Nolan, the countless people who contribute. Libertarian ideas are still out there and influence.
  
  Winning elections is not the most important thing in life. Sticking to moral principals is more important. There is nothing wrong with not voting because the system is rigged and one grifter or another gets elected.
  
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Eman 6 years ago

The Libertarian Moment is finally here!

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Troy_Runespel 6 years ago

Libertarian joke of the day - Joining the party has opened doors for me. The membership card is the perfect mil thickness to pop a locked portal.

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Paul Hager 6 years ago

Why is it that almost no one in the Libertarian Party seems to know anything about voting science? A Libertarian on the ballot will split the vote with the most libertarian candidate and elect the least libertarian candidate. I periodically post/comment on why the LP should be assiduously pushing what I call Instant Round Robin (like a round robin tournament) voting (aka Condorcet Voting). It's a ranked choice system that will actually eliminate the split vote and related problem and make it possible for 3rd parties to compete and perhaps become major parties. Until this system (or possibly the simple but inferior Approval Voting) is adopted, the LP will forever be a minor party. NOTE: the ranked choice system known as Instant Runoff (IRV), recently adopted in Maine, literally throws votes away which violates constitutional and (in many cases) state law. To date, IRVs throwaway algorithm has never been addressed in a court case. Apart from that, IRV is objectively bad (look up non-monotonicity). The LP must get serious about Social Choice or voting science and devote most of its energies there.

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wadani 6 years ago

"Never again wanting to protect all the horrible pieces of that tent as 'freedom upgrading' only cuz those are portions of that tent. Eventually, he will feel free enough to try and reconsider his convictions… ."
Better believe it, lefty nitwits truly want to guard 'freedom upgrading' polices; only those which increment the intensity of the state.
Happy you are demonstrating it.
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vek 6 years ago

Amash is cool, except in all the ways he is wrong as fuck... Which tends to be all the same ways the Reason staff is retarded.

If everybody in congress was like him, we'd have a better country... But he's still a cucked out dumb ass utopian about some issues, like open borders crap, and having TDS.

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tlapp 6 years ago

I can understand his frustrations but Libertarians lost when he left. We needed more like him in the house and senate. Instead we are less represented today. I don't believe he will be a factor as a 3rd party candidate, likely less than 1/2 of Gary Johnsons total in the last election.

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I never took interest in politics because they all do for themselves not for the public. They just get votes to build their own assets and we as a nation are crazy about them.
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Adnan 4 years ago

Disappointed to hear that politicians are the same everywhere in the world.

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Square = Circle 6 years ago

I said Libertarian.

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Square = Circle 6 years ago

And looked like Barry Gibb.

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Echospinner 6 years ago

He would have been Judaean as the province was called Judaea at the time. The area was not called Palaestina until several centuries later.

Jews still used the terms Yehudah or Eretz Yisrael, the latter being the modern term for the state of Israel.

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JFree 6 years ago

He went back to DeRpland. but yeah - he was learning and quite quickly.

What are you expecting from a 70 yo who's spent his entire life as an R? A road to Damascus conversion? And for anyone who is actually running to be ELECTED (which is NOT a bad thing - it's the whole fucking point of a political party), then NAP is aspirational more than dispositive. I don't mean aspirational in the sense that you can just ignore it. I mean it in the sense that you always run your ideas thru that but recognize that the real world is messier than the immature petulant pure Scotsman will ever sully his hands with.

I think a lot of the L's candidates are more immature and petulant than they are ideological. Reflected in the stupid questions asked of them in their Prez debates. They want to prove how admirable they are. Like LP is just a vehicle for their personal ego trip. BFD.

What LP needs more than pols is operatives. The Matalins, Carvilles, Roves, and Braziles of the world. Organization builders who enjoy simply building organizations. It's a skillset that carries over to paying jobs outside politics too. Matalin is apparently now an L. But the sheer number needed means LP needs to speak to poli sci students about libertarian/liberal ideas and the brokenness of DeRp for them. That group is pre-DeRp still. People like the teens who recruited Gravel into the 2020 race or the tons who knock on my door for this and that cause (mostly environmental tho not G).

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JFree 6 years ago

Keep pretending that remaining DeRp will fix any of that.

I'm not at all underestimating their ability to manipulate. Or the sheer tonnage of money at their disposal. What I'm saying is that they are VERY vulnerable to disintermediation. The disconnect between 15% approval for Congress and 90%+ re-election rates for Congress proves that. Making it happen - well at least I give a shit about trying to think about that.

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Gaear Grimsrud 6 years ago

What pisses me off is that ever since Amash went full bore TDS we haven't gotten a single Bill Weld article. Weld could be doing something spectacular right now that could lead to an epic libertarian moment. But we'll never know thanks to Reason's Weld blackout. It's not like anybody else bothers to cover him.

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JesseAz 6 years ago

JFree is basing politics on his own life. He has no friends. He doesn't know how to convince others in his arguments. He sees a like soul in Amash in this regard.

Amash was unable to push his views because he is incapable of forming coalitions which is required in a body of over 400 people who vote. Amash went from a small coalition where he got nothing done to being by himself in order to get nothing done. In this JFree sees principle for some reason.

JFree would rather be absolutist in his views than work to take a single step towards liberty for the populace. It is the dumb and ignorant who scream "my way and nothing else!" as JFree has done. He sees this as principle when it is simply laziness.

The irony is that in order to get JFree's vision of liberty, everyone has to agree exactly with him on all principles. The irony of JFree's required authoritarian view of absolutist Libertarianism is probably lost on him, but we can laugh anyways.

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Bongo Prime 6 years ago

"What are you expecting from a 70 yo who’s spent his entire life as an R? A road to Damascus conversion? And for anyone who is actually running to be ELECTED (which is NOT a bad thing – it’s the whole fucking point of a political party), then NAP is aspirational more than dispositive. I don’t mean aspirational in the sense that you can just ignore it. I mean it in the sense that you always run your ideas thru that but recognize that the real world is messier than the immature petulant pure Scotsman will ever sully his hands with."

Imagine typing all of this shit and thinking it will convince someone that Weld is a better option than Trump. To your credit, this is all actually true, it's just that Trump has accomplished more good than Johnson and Weld ever would have. If you can't see that in hindsight - and if you think Amash has any chance of being effective, let alone a force for good - you are painfully and embarrassingly deluded.

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JesseAz 6 years ago

Applying that label to someone cheering on deep state prosecutions is strange.

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JFree 6 years ago

haha. And of course the R's have done SO much to advance smaller government, a more peaceful foreign policy, free trade (by the real definition not the semi-religious neoliberal definition), tolerance of people's social quirks that don't have victims, etc.

Because they know how to build coalitions to advance all of that. What - you say they've done absolutely nothing re anything of that? Well golly at least they know how to fool morons like you.

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