WATCH: Libertarians React to Donald Trump's Speech at Their Convention
"It was the weirdest room I've ever been in," one Libertarian Party delegate tells Reason
Donald Trump appeared before a raucous crowd of Libertarian Party delegates and his own supporters at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, D.C.
Starchild, a longtime Libertarian activist, was taken to the ground by security after he held up an anti-Trump banner. Trump drew his loudest boos after offering himself as the Libertarian Party nominee, and the loudest cheers when he pledged to commute the life sentence of Ross Ulbricht, creator of the black market website the Silk Road.
Freeing Ulbricht, something Trump failed to do when he had the chance as president, was an item on a list of 10 demands the Libertarian Party submitted to Trump before the speech.
After the speech, three Libertarian presidential candidates delivered a response, but most of the crowd and media had cleared out by then.
Reason captured the crowd reactions and asked Libertarian Party delegates and Trump supporters in attendance what they thought of the event.
"It was the weirdest room I've ever been in," one delegate told Reason.
Watch the full video above.
- Camera: Justin Zuckerman
- Editor: Chris Sowick
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It was the weirdest room I've ever been in
Was that before or after you nominated the poofta boy?
These idiots had the leading presidential candidate speaking to them, and instead of extracting all sorts of libertarian promises from him, they spazzed out.
They also had Robert Kennedy, a left-wing guy who could attract more attention to the party and its ideas, than any other candidate before. But they instead went with for an even farther left nobody who pushed mandatory masks and jabs.
Fucking geniuses.
Yeah, but gay is trendy now.
They totally goofed on skin color though.
Especially since that’s the most important thing.
Is orange a protected class now?
No, gay men were trendy 40 years ago. Today, being a gay white male doesn't even get you a Marginalized Group card.
Chemical castration of little boys is trending now for Libertarian candidates but not surgical castration. I think there is some logic in there somewhere for gay Libertarians.
Puberty blockers are a dream come true for boylovers. They can be barely legal and still look pre-adolescent.
Did he really support mandatory masks and jabs?
For businesses and employers if they chose, not government, I believe.
Ah, so more of a businesses should mandate it, but the government shouldn’t force the businesses to mandate it, position.
Whether it's a business, church or government, encouraging them to pressure their employees, parishioners, serfs isn't libertarian.
Especially since government can influence those decisions like they did during covid.
Then again actual fascism seems to be good from a large section of Ls. As long as government hides their power through corporations, all good.
Hey, don’t point out actual fascism, it hurts my feelings!
—sarc
Trump’s economic policies are literally the same economic protectionism/isolationism of fascist Italy, fascist Spain, and fascist Germany. Take some deep breaths.
This is literal crazy talk. The fascist countries literally appointed party members to industrial policy cabinets which were responsible for literally determining the production policy of the country. This literally meant that while private owners were in control of production, they remained so only if they belonged to the appropriate party and followed its orders.
Suffice it to say this is literally NOT what Trump's execrable trade policies amount to.
If you want signs of fascism in this country, these people are correct to point out the current and Obama administrations. They coopted banks to shut down people who they didn't like- and they largely did it by putting party apparatchiks on the boards of these banks. The Biden administration's practice of pushing private companies to censor on their behalf is not literally the same as the Fascists, but it is a damn site closer, and absolutely meets the definition of Fascism, even if the methods differed.
Maybe you should take some deep breaths, because as near as I can tell, the lack of oxygen in your brain has become a problem that you really ought to address.
If people would just do what they are supposed to, the government wouldn’t have to force them.
/jeffy
I can see the argument in a libertarian society that as property owners they can do as they please. I don’t necessarily agree with that in every sense (no shoes, no shirt makes sense, must get a shot, not so much).
But seeing as we live in a world with the CRA and public accommodations, that shit can fuck right off. (And as Jesse pointed out, they weren’t doing it out of some sense of public health responsibility so much as getting their arms twisted by the government.)
Yeah the problem was that the Government extend legal protections to companies that forced the jabs and masks, and withheld those protections from those that didn't.
I saw this firsthand back in 2020. Absolutely zero businesses here in Arizona were forcing people to mask in April of 2020. Then the government announced that companies that followed CDC guidelines would have protections from being sued, and those that didn't would lose those protections. And all of the sudden businesses were "choosing" to force their customers to mask.
That masking has never, ever, ever worked is beside the point.
I generally avoided wearing a mask during Covid except when forced to do so, because I don't think they are effective at stopping transmission (see e.g. https://swprs.org/the-face-mask-folly-in-retrospect/), but it seems to me that there is even LESS of a compelling rationale to require someone to wear shoes or a shirt.
Nobody's going to get cooties in their food because you are sitting shoeless or shirtless at the next table, much less will seeing such partial undress, or even full nudity, hurt you if you happen to see it while out shopping or something.
Note that he was comparing “No Shirt no Shoes” to “Must get a medical procedure (jab) performed”, not masking.
Overt, since I can’t respond to your comment about fascist industrial policies I’ll put it here. Trump is literally promising to fill every post with his loyalist minions and Trumpists have openly tried to use the violence and coercion of the state to punish companies they don’t like — and to dictate what people can buy, sell, and eat — to the cheers of Trumpsters.
Which posts is he promising to fill? Government posts? That isn't the same as the industrial policy boards put into place by the Fascists. So your whole "Literally" nonsense is just that- nonsense.
Unperturbed by your foolishness, you now want to talk not about Trump but what "Trumpists" are doing and make vague insinuations about violence and coercion. What? People in the US want to make the government force people to do things? You don't say! Where have you been since FDR?
Go read up on what facism is before you beclown yourself some more.
As far as I can tell, that's it. He was pro jab and mask for sure, but did say he was against government mandates. So not completely anti-libertarian. But after the debacle of covid responses I would have thought the fucking LP could have nominated someone with clear opposition to the insane public health authoritarianism we've been subjected to.
Chase Oliver is clearly opposed to the authoritarianism, just not to people voluntarily masking or getting vaccinated.
The freedom to wear a mask in public is actually important for reasons unrelated to public health. With the presence of facial recognition cameras and use of big data against us and our civil liberties increasing, it offers at least some degree of privacy and protection against unwanted surveillance.
That "freedom to wear a mask" stuff is different than "freedom to force others to wear a mask" and "Totally on board with using social pressure to force others to wear a mask." And those were both actual positions that Oliver took. Very few people actually cared if you or Chase decided to wear a mask. They cared that there was a movement of people pressuring others to wear a mask to protect themselves- the type of collectivist impulses that should be viewed very skeptically by libertarians.
Chase gets decent marks for being against mandates. But on the other hand, his inability to show skepticism to a federal agency mired in failure is a major blind spot. His willingness to trust The Science!(tm) is a form of soft authoritarianism that most libertarians like himself would resist- He should have been giving the same "You have the right to say it, but it is pretty shitty" response to the Pro-Vax crowd as he says to fire and brimstone preachers. And he didn't do that, which shows that he is far too mired in the wrong side of the culture wars to be useful.
Your reference to Chase Oliver being "too mired in the wrong side of the culture wars" suggests the view of someone who is a culture warrior themselves, and wants him to take your (conservative) side in those "wars".
I think we as libertarians should focus on promoting freedom and libertarianism as distinct from either left-wing or right-wing agendas, and on appealing roughly equally to people on both the left and the right, so as to keep our doors open to people from across the political spectrum, and not wind up getting pigeonholed and marginalized as far-left or far-right.
Gary Johnson was wrong to say merchants should be required to bake gay wedding cakes, or drivers should be required to get drivers licenses, and among the reasons he was not my first choice for our nomination, but these authoritarian positions are (sadly) quite mainstream, hardly what I would call "full prog" (as another commenter here characterized the LP).
I think Chase Oliver's views on cultural issues are also well within the mainstream, not what I'd call left-wing. And I'm not sure he agrees with Johnson on those issues. In general he seems solidly pro-liberty across the board.
"These idiots had the leading presidential candidate speaking to them, and instead of extracting all sorts of libertarian promises from him, they spazzed out."
Yup, something about libertarians and spazzes, almost like a spectrum.
Yup, something about libertarians and spazzes, almost like a spectrum.
In their meager defense, they would hardly be the first social organization that the "I'm an adult that can't let others have their own personal space, keep my clothes on around other people in public, or generally accept that I'm not always a/the victim." crowd has skinned alive and worn as a suit.
You are misinformed. Chase Oliver is libertarian, not leftist. RFK does share views with the left on some issues, but he has right-wing views on other issues and is not “far left” – that’s Trumpist propaganda.
I don’t give a crap who the “leading candidate” is – I’m voting for the one who’s got the most pro-freedom positions and is representing the most pro-freedom political party. Don’t let the media or talking head commentators tell you who is or isn't “viable”, likely to win, etc. That’s just giving them your vote instead of making up your own mind.
If people vote based on how they expect others to vote, rather than voting their consciences and true preferences, democracy is broken, because election results will never reflect the real views of the electorate. Your one vote won't change who the next U.S. president is anyway. You're just adding to someone's total, like taking an opinion poll, not affecting the outcome.
So if you don't register your opinion accurately by voting for the person you really believe in, THAT is a wasted vote.
Since when has Trump honored any promise, ever…? He has betrayed all his wives and children, defrauded his employees and business partners, stolen from a charity, reneged on his debts, sexually abused women, bankrupted a casino — which is pretty much a license to print money, etc, etc.
You’d have to be shockingly naive to believe any bribe issuing from the serial lying mouth of Trump. Well, I do believe he actually does admire serial killer cannibals — since he does have an established record of admiring murderous dictators.
Wow! you got all the left wing nut job talking points in one sentence .
I’ve lost count of the number of times ignorant, emotional Trumpsters have called actual libertarian positions “leftist/communist.” I’m supposedly a free-market capitalist communist, however that works… Funny thing is, I’ve never been able to find a self described leftist/communist who thinks I’m a leftist/communist too.
Weird how the GOP has turned honoring contracts, advocating free markets, and paying one’s bills a “leftist” thing. You can’t make this stuff up.
Instead of just sucking up what Trump is saying, think about it. Trump has promised to execute all drug dealers but simultaneously says he’ll free Ross — if you vote for him…. Who is going to betray…? The GOP or the LP…? Most likely both, because that is what he does.
Not 'libertarian positions'
Libertarian positions
Big L.
You all need that big L to signal 'liberal' and 'leftist' and 'lunatic'.
The libertarians who heard that speech and saw the gay antifa wannabe nominated by leftist derived RCV are solidly in the Trump camp now.
The LP is really in the shitter now. I hoped the MC could turn it around, but it was too little too late.
Just look at the fucking genius who is talking about extracting promises from the most heavily documented liar in human history.
The Baby Jesus Does Not Hate Ladybugs, a sexually explicit LGBT children’s book, is headed to court in Spain. On one activity page in the book, children are asked to untangle a spaghetti maze of penises to find out which one is having anal intercourse with young Bartholomew. Not sure if the groomers are complaining about a 21st century Spanish Inquisition.
- video story reported out of Russia
Maze of Penises would be a good band name.
Corn pop and the cannibals is my current fave not taken band name. I’d go see ‘em.
That’s no different than Snow White!
/jeffy
I'll have to read that again. I don't remember the butt sex.
So you think that 7 bachelors were just living together in a cabin in the woods . . .
They once rented a lake house.
It was worth half a million dollars!
or a house on crete...
"to untangle a spaghetti maze of penises to find out which one is having anal intercourse with young Bartholomew."
"DON'T CALL THEM GROOMERS!!!"
Why are leftists so obsessed with teaching little kids about anal sex? Oh that's right... Never mind.
It's amazing how quickly Spain went from being the least gay country in western Europe to the most.
I got no problem with people being gay. But I think it's better if whole countries aren't.
"Maybe you don't wanna win."
uh-huh
^This right here!
This is my impression of Chase, specifically. I think his plans are all messaging and campaigns. I don’t believe he wants to win.
We all know winning is impossible, but you need to present a realistic idea of what you’re doing with the office, if you want to present a true third option. It can’t be your general end goals without a path to reach them.
Chase says he wants to reverse the bump stock ban. That’s good, but what do you with the ATF? Do you disband it? What is general concept of how you disassemble a federal agency? I don’t know if he’s considered any of the practicalities of achieving his desired outcomes, but he needs to have those answers.
Zeronhedge had a good summary of the choosing of Chase Fucking Oliver. An Obama syophant supporting chemical castration of kids and other lefty pillars.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/mises-caucus-just-exploded-libertarian-party-nominates-left-winger-chase-oliver
Fucking clown show.
Ffs.
“At times, Rectenwald struggled to articulate himself, then abandoned the event midway. He later told the Washington Post's Meryl Kornfield that he had consumed an edible cannabis product before speaking. "This was not some sort of a major political scandal, okay," he told her. "I wasn't found in bed with Stormy Daniels. I’m at a Libertarian Party convention.”
Good job Dave.
Fucking clown show.
He is not immoral or criminal. He is simply profoundly stupid and irresponsible.
This would appear to be the case. It also calls into question either -a) the judgement of the mises caucus to want him as a nominee or b) the quality of the pool of candidates
either way – a poor showing by the Lib-P
It's really, really weird how I feel like I should be getting all of my actual libertarian news from Zerohedge or Spiked or even sources like The Guardian rather than Reason Magazine. While, even if those sources don't agree with any given candidate or even the party in general, they aren't merely propaganda tools stranding people in the dark, even lying to them, despite the banner of "Free Minds And Free Markets"
What are the lies that you're alleging Reason is telling people? How do you think they're a "propaganda tool"? Making such allegations without providing any evidence or compelling argument is wholly unpersuasive.
Don't worry having fag Oliver as the nominee is the biggest campaign boost to trump
Man. And I thought BLM Jo was a bad candidate. Now it's twinks or the highway.
Hist policies are worse than his identity advocacy. Wants full citizenship for illegal immigrants. No welfare reform. No tax reform. No regulatory reform. I can’t see where he is different than what Joe says publicly. He is even pro Palestine.
Last night, read his website with the bird’s eye view on the issues. I agree regarding him missing addressing tax reform and welfare reform. He skipped addressing the current growing problem with some plans to make it worse. He has some good things for sure, but budget cuts to the DoD without addressing welfare and regulation isn’t going to solve the spiraling debt and its consequences.
I find it funny his lede is basically Rolling Stone endorsing him. Rolling Stone libertarianism is a very apt description.
Outside of being gay and coming in a distant third in an election, what has he done? What is the CV? Great on some issues, meh in some, bad on some, and missing on some. Middle schoolers can put together a platform too. But they don’t have the life experiences to show they have been effective at accomplishing goals.
It became obvious some years ago that the LP had tons of non-serious folks. A high school girl, new to the Party and with no experience, but full of piss and vinegar, got about 1/3 of the votes for Chair against the incumbent who had grown the Party significantly but wasn't totally beholden to the views of the more radical elements.
You know who else was a community organizer?
Mr. Rogers?
Jim Jones?
Genghis Khan?
The Skipper?
A clean and articulate Chicago gangster?
I also didn't see his solution about THE most important issue today, the debt.
He has a few positions that would help reduce the acceleration (subsidizing student loans, closing foreign bases, ending (some?) foreign aid). These are all good and I stand next to him with those. The massive welfare spending is the elephant in the room and he, like most others, seems to bypass it. You don’t get votes lowering the limit on the collective’s credit card.
Difficulty is he wants to greatly expand the spending on welfare and Healthcare by legalizing those here illegally, likely leading to a surve bigger than Joe. Ignoring this issue seems to be a requirement for the big L.
I agree. None of the leaders in any major party want to address the issue since it means the majority of Americans would be required to cut back on their unsustainable, subsidized lifestyles. You don’t win elections with that platform. The can will be kicked more with additional direct or inflationary taxes, maybe a CBDC, 401k taxing, and possibly death panels once the bulk of the boomers are in their mid 70s and up.
Chase would greatly reduce the massive wasteful spending on anti-immigrant border walls, detention centers, ICE raids, etc.
Ignoring the cost of these Big Government subsidies to the xenophobic seems to be a requirement for Republicans.
Chase wants to let migrants work when they arrive, instead of barring them from working while giving them subsidies.
"No tax reform", "No regulatory reform"? That's not accurate. From Chase Oliver's website:
"Every day, average Americans face many challenges in our overly regulated economy where government, lobbyists, and special interests continuously conspire to pick winners and losers. From trillions of dollars in government deficits, and trillions more in unfunded liabilities, our government recklessly crowds out funding that would be better served allowing innovation in the marketplace to find solutions to our most pressing issues. To combat these constant rounds of economic and financial crises, we must get government out of our boardrooms and wallets, and allow individuals to decide how to best distribute their hard-earned dollars."
I guarantee he wants to cut taxes and regulations.
I started getting iffy on big L when bake the cake Johnson got nominated, they have gone harder full prog ever since
Donnie will go full-scale DEI when he chooses the Down-Low Bro as his VP.
Starch that cone and bleach those sheets, Plugly. You're gonna have some crosses to burn.
Fuck off racist pedo.
Who are you trying to kid…? All you MAGA types were always going to vote for Trump. Actual libertarians don’t have a problem with gays since libertarians believe that all people have a right to live their lives as they choose to the point that they harm no one else. Cuz, liberty, you know. The LP has supported gay rights since its inception in 1972.
All this gay-hate on this thread exposes y’all as just more MAGA fashy authoritarians.
Freeing Ulbricht, something Trump failed to do when he had the chance as president,
When I pointed this out yesterday the Trump Cultists all rushed in to defend his self-serving intentions.
The MAGATs are unhappy.
The LP will be less so with the 2% of the vote they get this time.
He is going to underperform BLM Jo, for God's sake.
Perhaps the LP should have nominated someone named "None Of Them?" With a substantial portion of the electorate unhappy with either major party candidate, None Of Them could have racked up the largest total in LP history and gotten tons of publicity and soapbox opportunity.
No. Malcontents want to vote for somebody. This election the malcontent vote will go to Kennedy. Kennedy would easily beat "None".
None of the above got 36% of the vote.
It took 6 rounds.
This is the results you can expect with ranked choice voting.
Absolutely. Ranked choice voting is a scheme to get unpopular people elected. People that would have no chance under the normal system. Just look at the vote totals round by round. What happened here is a case study of why no state should have ranked choice voting as if Murkowski in AK wasn't a big enough warning.
"My only question is what do we call him when he wins?
President Else?
President Anybody Else?
And who will his VP be? None Of These Candidates?
I mean that's going to be quite the byline for four years:
"Anybody Else's administration is sending None of These Candidates to the border to deal with the crisis."
(What a time to be alive.)"
https://notthebee.com/article/feds-threaten-presidential-candidate-literally-anybody-else-with-criminal-charges-if-he-doesnt-supply-his-real-name
Now that's hilarious.
The Libertarian vice presidential candidate is Mike ter Maat. He's a good guy too – an economist and former police officer who supports police reform.
There's someone in NH who changed his name to "Nobody" and has run for office several times.
Nobody (nee Rich Paul) is a great guy and hero of the freedom movement. He risked being persecuted and faced years in jail on cannabis charges rather than agree to Fed demands to wear a wiretap and snitch on other libertarian activists.
2%? I see no reason to think they'll crack 1%, except possibly by rounding.
Libertarians usually get around 2% of the vote in MO. I think GayJay got 3.5 in 2016, Jo was closer to 1. This guy might set a record, in the wrong direction. I think the current record low was Bob Barr in 2008 with just under 0.5%. And we're a fairly libertarian-minded state, all things considered. The head of the 'Big L' Libertarian party for our region lives right around the corner from me.
MacBride got fewer. Bergland got fewer. Hospers got a lot fewer.
"The MAGATs are unhappy"
Why would they be unhappy? You geniuses just handed every libertarian vote to the right of Pol Pot to Trump (and RFK Jr).
Umm, no. Libertarians don’t vote for authoritarians. They’ll write in a candidate or stay home instead.
What a stupid comment.
Consider the source.
Mass Media indoctrinated prejudices on WHO not WHAT on full display.
Reason is once again campaigning to elect the most corrupt, incompetent and economical disastrous president in US history (i.e. Biden).
As a pragmatic libertarian, I’ll be voting once again for the most libertarian president since Calvin Coolidge (i.e. Donald Trump).
America needs Trump to
- resolve Putin’s war against Ukraine,
- help protect Israel instead of Iran and Hamas terrorists,
- reduce Biden’s disastrous inflation and mortgage interest rates,
- end Biden’s absurd assault on carbon and energy in the US,
- end Biden’s illegal and college loan deferment (to US taxpayers),
- end the left’s (and Biden’s) BLM, ESG, DEI and tranny policies,
- dismantle the unlibertarian and unconstitutional Deep State,
- end Biden's unconstitutional electioneering lawfare attacks on GOP political rivals, and
- make America Great Again.
The only two issues on which Biden is more libertarian than Trump is protecting women’s right to abortion (which is now a state issue since Trump wisely opposes a nationwide ban on abortion and contraception) and his new support (after decades of his War on Illegal Drugs) for removing cannabis as a Class 1 drug.
While the Libertarian Party candidate might become a spoiler that helps Biden (and/or the clueless Harris) become the next President, Jill Stein, Cornell West and RFK Jr. are more likely to be spoiler candidates that help Trump win in November.
But the most likely outcome of the November election is that Trump will win in such a huge landslide that it will overwhelm all the Democrat and left wing media propagandists efforts to rig and steal another election.
And unlike Reason's (er Koch's) open border champion (Joe Biden), Donald Trump will also reduce illegal immigration and begin deportations.
Biden, Harris and other Democrats have encouraged tens of millions of the poorest people on earth (as well as many criminals and future terrorists) to illegally come across the US border, many/most of whom become dependent upon taxpayer financed Big Brother welfare programs, while many others take jobs away from poor Americans (creating more welfare recipients and homeless).
The Big L party openly supports government theft to fund their dream of a collapsing America to fund illegal immigrants.
The Libertarian Party doesn't support government theft at all. Where are you getting your information? Right now, border controls and other unconstitutional, anti-immigrant policies are being imposed by those running the U.S. government at a cost of billions of stolen tax dollars a year and the violation of many people's basic human rights.
Probably 99% of the United States has open borders now. This is a huge country with strong differences between different regions, yet people are free to move from city to city, county to county, and state to state without any border controls, customs duties, walls, fences, detention centers, etc. About the worst you'll encounter is going into California where you may (sometimes) be stopped and asked whether you're carrying any fruits or vegetables that might be bearing agricultural pests.
And guess what? The system works. The only border we hear about causing all the problems – people dying in the desert, being shot by border guards, drowned in the river, children separated from their families, etc. – is the closed, highly militarized border with Mexico. This is not a coincidence.
Do what you want regarding the borders of your private property, but all borders on public land should be open.
Wow. You are a retard.
You just compared interstate borders with national borders.
YOU, and leftist infiltrators like you, are why the LP isn't even a joke anymore. Just a sad memory of what might have been.
If you think comparing one type of government jurisdictional borders to another type of government jurisdictional borders is too much of a stretch, I can’t wait to hear your take on the absurd comparisons of entire countries to individual private residences. I hear those all the time from defenders of Big Government border controls.
Open borders is more a libertarian position than a leftist position. Show me where leftists in power have opened previously closed borders and let people come and go freely. The worst leftist regimes are notorious for their closed borders (e.g. the Iron Curtain). So your calling me a "retard" while also calling me a leftist for defending freedom of movement is rather ironic.
...
Have you ever heard Trump oppose the latter? I really doubt Biden's better than Trump on either of these issues.
In fact I think Trump's administration will be better than Biden's when it comes to treating chronic pain with narcotics. Trump had the misfortune to be president at a time when the pendulum was swinging back after a period of more liberal narcotics treatment of pain. Now that the issue has settled down a while, I think the people Trump works with will look again and decide to ease up on pain treatment; with Biden it could go either way. After the election (with pot no longer being pandered about) I'm sure Biden's AG would discourage any deregulation of psychedelics, but I think Trump's would be more sympathetic to that.
Maybe Biden's better than Trump on private sector housing policy, while Trump's been a loose cannon.
I have no doubt that an actual libertarian would have better policy positions on almost every issue we care about - even one ones we have internal disagreement about - but I wonder if, on the fluke miracle that one was elected president, if they would perform any better than what we got from Trump during his 4 years.
Seems like the uniparty would unite to block everything he (or she) tried to implement. At least with someone like Trump, you have someone with accidental libertarian tendencies, with a party that will at least nominally support him, if only because of the label.
A non-deranged Republican would have been my choice.
Well, despite facing organized establishment opposition and lacking a majority for his party in either house of Argentina's legislature, Javier Milei has done more for freedom in that country in a few months than Donald Trump did in the United States in four years. So I tend to think a solidly libertarian POTUS would get a lot more done here, yes.
Javier Milei isn't a libertarian. Or a 'Libertarian'.
He IS a Trump supporter, though.
Actually Javier Milei appears quite libertarian, while his expressions of approval of Trump may be more a tactical “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” type relationship. See this for instance:
“In more measured settings, the Argentine leader has waxed considerable ambivalence towards America’s 45th president. In an interview with the Economist, the interviewer asked whether Milei admired Donald Trump. His response:
‘I, let’s say…I mean…what I can say is that there is an alignment with all those who are willing to fight against socialism at the international level.
All those who want to fight against socialism at the international level are my allies. Because the enemy is socialism, the enemy is statism, the enemy is collectivism. And all those who are willing to fight that fight, we are all together.
Later we will discuss the emerging order, whether it will be more or less liberal, whether it will resemble classical liberalism or minarchism or anarcho-capitalism, but that is a second order discussion.’”
– From https://www.theamericanconservative.com/javier-milei-is-argentinas-anti-trump/
"most corrupt, incompetent and economical disastrous president in US history"
That is actually Trump not Biden. But the MAGA trolls are like the writers in the Ministry of Truth
Charliehall is the dumbest fucker alive.
Yep.
Yes.
I was thinking just transparently mendacious
Hahahaha, oh Charlie.
Biden makes Nixon look like child's play (not the movies) when it comes to corruption. It's miles apart. I'm sure people here can give you examples if you don't care to look them up yourself.
What Nixon corruption? As we know Watergate was set up by the CIA to get Nixon out
Richard Nixon tried to cover up his operatives' burglary of Democratic Party offices. He tried to illegally destroy tapes of presidential conversations. Among other things. Not to mention just being privately vulgar, nasty and racist in ways that would give Trump a run for his money.
That is actually Trump not Biden.
The odds of your successfully sucking your own dick are better than convincing anyone with an IQ over 70 of your bullshit.
You are not a Libertarian. If you’re pro war in lands that have nothing to do with us, giving our dollars nonsense, get lost
Economic protectionism, tariffs, and hostility to trade are not libertarian stances.
Neither is sexually assaulting women.
Neither is fraud, reneging on contracts, and refusing to pay his bills — which he has done throughout his entire adult life.
You might get a clue about how anti-libertarian Trump is by noting his adulation of murderous dictators. Heck, he even recently stated that a fictional serial killer-cannibal was a wonderful guy.
I had hoped the LP was taking a giant step away from oblivion when the Mises Caucus took over but this is just such a deal breaker. Why would anyone want to vote for someone who is such an advocate of grooming and the Hate Jews crowd? What the hell is wrong with these people?
The problem isn't that the guy is gay, who cares about that. The problem is his outright advocacy which people don't want jammed down their throats. Do your thing in your bedroom and just shut up about it. For The Love Of God....
You notice these self-styled advocates of "freedom" always arrogate to themselves the privilege of defining what freedom is. Their policy preferences are always freedom, yours are always tyranny.
When Our Enlightened™ Betters dump 10,000 Haitians on us, or hire moonbatty teachers to transition our kids in public schools, that is definitely freedom and should certainly not be construed as an actionable act of aggression. No! No! Never! Never!
Your acts of retaliation, of course, are decidedly a violation of the non-aggression principle, and you are certainly not free to exercise them! You standing up for yourself is definitely not freedom!
This is the first reason any movement claiming to promote freedom needs to be regarded with the greatest suspicion.
The second reason is as soon as you use the word "freedom", you're guaranteed to be a magnet for every nutcase within shouting distance. "Hey! That means me!". Hence, Oliver.
Good luck with that. I have a feeling getting booed by libertarians isn't going to hurt Trump at all.
Nobody’s “dumping” Haitians on you. People from less free places naturally seek to come to the United States and other relatively free places because freedom is popular, freedom works better than tyranny, and people want better lives for themselves or their families.
It is sad to see people begrudge them this chance, especially readers of Reason who should know better. Or do you not read Reason and just come to spout off in the comments? What would you do in their shoes?
Exercising your freedom of movement to relocate to another country is NOT an act of aggression. It doesn’t sound like you understand the Non-Aggression Principle very well.
If you value freedom, and you know your kids are being indoctrinated in government schools, why send them there? There are plenty of independent school and homeschooling alternatives.
You will not believe big gay brother, you will love big gay brother!
Do I have to go camping with him?
Well, in fairness to the guy is hasn't advocated for pedophilia and is armed so he would probably not be a bad person to go camping with.
What “big gay brother”? Chase Oliver doesn’t want to be any kind of Big Brother. He’s running on a platform of reducing government power, spending, and abuses, and enabling you to have more freedom and choice in your life. Why do you think anyone's sexual orientation is relevant to this conversation?
That's not what bothers me, since LP's been an obvious lost cause for decades. What bothers me is that Trump might decide to punish libertarians with his appointments for getting booed when he offered better. There are a lot of tendencies in Trump's big tent, some more libertarian than others, and it bothers me that Trump might decide to reward someone from one of the less libertarian tendencies, because he got such adverse feedback from an identifiedly libertarian audience.
Yes. Whether we like it or not Trump has a very good shot at winning the presidency. The Libertarians went out of their way to humiliate the guy. The same dumb shit they've been doing forever.
Self-defeating, as per usual. I had foolishly hoped for better.
We could have gotten some better policy concessions or promises with a little bit more adult demeanor. But, had to go the contrarian route and chimp out. Nice work, guys.
Trump is the opposite of Libertarian.
Poor sarc.
Interesting. So with Biden being the opposite of Trump, then Biden is Libertarian?
Explain with facts not in evidence please.
Biden is not the opposite of Trump. Both of them have very statist views and policies.
That, to me, is probably even worse than electing that clown Oliver. The LP finally had the eyes of everyone on it's convention by having a former President and leading candidate to be the next one show up to speak and acted like a bunch of high school kids. This was a great chance to act like adults and get some ideas out to Americans who might not even know there was an LP and they totally blew it.
Thank God I didn't donate any money when Mises took over. Now I sure as hell won't
Trump is the clown. Libertarians gave him and his lies the reception they deserved.
So your view is that because the anointed candidates of the 2-party Demopublican duopoly cartel generally have good shots at winning the presidency, you think we should just treat them nicely, and never try to expose and call out their unpardonable attacks on our freedom, our bodies, our resources, lest they seek revenge on us? I can't speak for you, but I'm not prepared to take such a craven approach.
If you're worried that Trump might irrationally penalize libertarians because he had a tough crowd at the LP convention, your guess is as good as mine. But I agree: he is deranged enough to do that.
The fact that even Trump's supporters acknowledge, openly or tacitly, that he has a petty and vindictive personality, should give pause.
Do we really want a petty, vindictive individual occupying one of the most powerful offices in the world?
ENB warned us that the Mises crowd were all Ron Paul racists. Thank god the party opted for antisemitism and chemical castration for kids.
Well put.
I don't think Ron Paul is a racist. He did unwisely allow some racist material to appear in some of his newsletters decades ago. I don't believe he wrote it, or that it reflects his beliefs.
Nor do I think Chase Oliver is antisemitic. He has said Israelis had a right to go after Hamas after the October 7 attacks, and that the hostages should be freed in any ceasefire, as well as that the aerial bombing of Palestinian areas endangers those hostages as well as other innocent civilians, and should be stopped.
Are you just trying to spread negative views about whichever Libertarians you can?
its the revenge of the Sith
Nobody's advocating "grooming" unless you mean things like shaving and getting a haircut. Don't you have any shame to tell lies like that? Or are you so gullible that you honestly believe someone else telling you something like that about a candidate with no evidence?
Fucking Hollywood.
Remaking Gilliam Time Bandits with gender swap and no dwarfs.
Chase Oliver probably approves.
"Remaking Gilliam Time Bandits with gender swap and no dwarfs."
Come on. That would be as bad as remaking Snow White with no dwarves and Prince Charming is a stalker. Who would believe that? Ohhhh, wait a second...
Hollywood is concentrated evil.
Not surprised 2024 woke would toss dwarfs out of the production.
It’s the little things that matter.
They could have at least given them a small part.
They were on the short list after the auditions.
The number of dwarf actors in Hollywood is vanishingly small.
It is a tall order for studios to include a role for them.
There are penalties in the fine print.
The insane part is that they say they are not casting dwarves as a token of respect for dwarvenkind.
That is truly moronic.
FWIW the chap who did the costumes for "Time Bandits". Jim Acheson, was an upstairs neighbour of mine in London and he was effusive in his praise for Terry Gilliam.
Another thing that didn’t happen in real life.
I chuckled when I read it too.
Sure thing gov’na shrike.
A real Libertarian would agree that Hollywood is successful because it makes a lot of money. If that triggers you maybe you are on the wrong site.
A non retard would know how much government subsidies Hollywood gets.
Maybe you’re that retard.
And I never said they can't make that movie retard. I hope it flops.
Yes, he is that retard.
Nothing in libertarianism precludes someone from bitching about the retarded things corporations do. Though I wouldn’t expect a brain dead leftist such as yourself to grasp that nuance.
The woke bullshit movies keep flopping though dumbfuck.
Yeah, but guess which movies you will have to watch on entertainment night at the reeducation camp?
Birth of a nation?
Actually Hollywood is mostly losing it's ass. They can't even find an audience for the Academy Awards. Let alone their movies.
Charlie hall!
Poor and gov subsidized version of Hank Phillips
Well the Libertarian party has always distinguished itself by it's lack of decorum which is amusing at times. But once again reveals that they are not seriously interested in promoting liberty. They have an exclusive club of malcontents that nobody wants to join. I voted Ls local and national in every election from Harry Browne to Gary Johnson and knew everybody in the local chapter but never joined the party. Because it was obvious to me 30 years ago that they are not serious people.
What, you think having the Party's secretary - re-elected no less - appear on national TV with her neon pink hair and a foam Statue of Liberty tiara isn't "serious?"
Trump offered cabinet positions. That’s the best deal they’ll ever get. The party doesn’t want power, they seemingly want to do drugs, drink and be known as the sexual edge lord guys on X Twitter. Not serious people.
^ . Exactly. Would he keep his word? Who knows. But after this shitshow odds are he will not be particularly interested in being conciliatory to Libertarians. I'm not saying anybody should vote for Trump. But a modicum of respect wouldn't kill these clowns. The MSM is using the Libertarian convention as more proof that Orangemanbad. Hey look! He's so bad even Libertarians hate him! Of course they'll forget all about it tomorrow and not notice the DNC trying to keep them off the ballot. Meanwhile the Libertarian Party will sink further into obscurity.
Meanwhile the GOP governor of Ohio is going out of his way to call a special session to change Ohio voting dates to let Joe on the Ballot because the DNC fucked up their scheduling.
Meanwhile the lawfare against Trump continues. Multiple GOP candidates being sued to be removed from the ballot. Etc. Etc.
THE Ohio State governor.
Which is totally stupid – the STATE has to bend the knee to a D party scheduling issue?
I have not heard of any attempt by the (D)s to fix this. In fact all i have heard reported is that they have NOT contacted Ohio about how to fix this.
Uh-huh. It's not like Trump's Republican Party have ever themselves tried to keep Libertarian candidates off ballots, or out of debates, or sought to enact and enforce authoritarian, anti-freedom policies that have resulted in millions of people being arrested and/or incarcerated for victimless so-called crimes.
If he had a modicum of respect for us, he wouldn't blatantly lie and call himself a libertarian or refuse to debate our candidates. He would stop supporting rampant violations of the Constitution and people's rights.
Come now. The MAGA Way is to insist that respect shown to others is weak and spineless. It’s selling out to the enemy. You have to be a FIGHTER. You have to show how cruel and heartless you are by shooting your puppy in the face — and then a goat for good measure. Oh, that one backfired….? How could Noem have known…? She had so many reasons to think the MAGA crowd would lap it up.
Has Trump EVER shown respect to ANYONE who disagreed with him — on anything…? Look how quickly he went from extending bribes to extending insults….
BTW, the Orange Man IS bad.
When Trump called HIMSELF a libertarian, it proved beyond a doubt that his views on who is a libertarian are inaccurate and unreliable, rendering his promise to put libertarians in his cabinet meaningless.
I think the MSM are really overstating the hostility. Even when there were boos, there were also cheers. I'd call it a mixed reception after watching the whole speech.
I think the MSM are really overstating the hostility.
Well, duh. Did you expect them to go with 'mostly peaceful'? 🙂
What some people call a "lack of decorum", others call outspoken support for freedom and a refusal to meekly bend the knee to establishment politicians like Trump, but rather to speak truth to power.
WATCH: Libertarians React to Donald Trump's Speech at Their Convention
*thinks*
No thanks, I think I'll go visit my Dad's grave at Tahoma national cemetery today. So no ponytail/rainbow flag Libertarianism Plus for me today.
Oh, if anyone has loved ones buried there, I'll see you there!
I just got back from my Grandfather's site at Jefferson Barracks.
They do a very nice job of decorating the cemetery for the holiday. On-duty servicemen were very cordial.
What's the point of honoring those who died in the Civil War? They'd've been dead by now anyway!
Comments like this make me wish that Reason had a 'like' button.
Comments like this make me wish that Reason had a 'like' button.
If the LP would focus on one single thing, promoting liberty, they might gain a little bit of traction!
Shut up and use the words big brother tells you to use
If the government are extending legal protections to companies who follow "CDC guidelines" and revoking those protections for those that don't, then those companies are not "choosing" to enforce masking or vaccination mandates in any way shape or form. The Supreme Court has covered this: the government is not allowed to coerce companies into restricting freedoms the government itself is not allowed to restrict. Oliver is really, really wrong on something very important.
I'm the Libertarian delegate who unfurled the "NO WANNABE DICTATORS" banner right in front of Trump, with help from a couple others, and was violently assaulted and dragged away by security. I didn't make it easy for them to entirely remove me from the room however, and eventually they gave up.
I'm so glad that, despite a bunch of Trump supporters being packed in who were not there for anything else at our convention, and not all our people being allowed to get tickets, only delegates, the room was full of jeers and boos for the disgraced former president and his statist policies and lies. We said loudly and clearly to the world that we are for freedom and not Republicans.
You're boring.
You're clueless.
Well done. It has been a breath of fresh air to see the dictator wannabe get the boos he has deserved from his ride down the golden escalator. So glad TRUMP failed to completely rig the room with his minions.
Maybe the LP will be able to come back from its humiliating paleo-fascist takeover after all. The GOP strikes me as irredeemable though. It’ll require the current generation to die off, I think, before it can even begin to resemble a “conservative” party again.
Do tell what "statist policies" did Trump do?
TDS witch-hunters all seem to have the same problem. Name-calling accusations without any evidence to support their name-calling.
Not sure why there are so many MAGAs crying about gays and immigrants at a libertarian magazine when they can go be with their fellow authoritarians at OAN and Newsmax and get plenty of kudos. Maybe they can demand a ban on lab-grown meat or GMOs or some other law that dictates what you can buy, sell, and eat.
Or maybe MAGA contrasts the GOP establishment by not being self-righteous Gov-Gun packing Authoritarians and also not joining democratic [WE] identity-affiliated gangs wanting to FORCE others to respect them at the end of a Gov-Gun because they like playing with other men’s stinky butt-holes.
And they are sick and tired of both the DNC and GOP establishment (that does opposite what its platform states) and noticed that Libertarian-Republicans (MAGA) was the best political platform at ensuring the Liberty and Justice in the US Constitution.
Though I gotta say; After seeing Libertarians throw away all their political principles over WHO really puts a damper on relating to Libertarians just as bad as watching RINO'S sell out their party platform.