I so appreciate the unsparing autopsy of the moral and ideological collapse of the LP. It takes intellectual and personal courage to address the failures and amorality of former colleagues. Unlike 'Cornholio' below who quickly runs to the typical 'bothsiders' argument vs addressing valid critiques that have led to the undermining of our democracy, Mr. Craig is both honorable and prescient.
These folks don't seem any crazier than the people you like, in your own faction of the LP, such as Nicholas Sarwark, who has praised Elizabeth Warren and retweeted A.R. Moxon's defense of trillion-dollar student loan bailouts at taxpayer expense. Sarwark doesn't believe in freedom of association for social conservatives, claiming they have a duty under "implied contract" to sell to people they would rather not contract with. (In fact, no such duty exists under state contract law, and federal civil-rights law does not reach many small businesses). Members of the Sarwark faction support things that would cost many trillions of dollars, such as reparations, which experts say could cost taxpayers $12 trillion or more. As someone pointed out on Twitter, "The LP isn't as bad as Aaron Ross Powell, who pals around with Marxists, and boasts on Twitter about his 'Marxist friends.' Powell says true libertarians are to the left of both conservatives and socialists, the latter being what Powell calls 'the unstable middle.'" That statement is crazier than anything the Mises faction has said. Johnson and Weld didn't lose support in 2016 because they were too "mainstream," but because they adopted leftwing positions, like Johnson saying Hillary Clinton was a "wonderful public servant," and Johnson arguing that small businesses should have to serve everyone, not just gay people but even Nazis. Genuine libertarians like Jeffrey Tucker rightly criticized them for that: https://fee.org/articles/must-a-jewish-baker-make-a-nazi-cake/
Imagine thinking the Southern Poverty Law Center still has any credibility. They lie consistently about many people.
Furthermore, it appears to be that Classical Liberals are basically just promoters of Wokeism. How dare you, parents, not want children to be exposed to near-pornographic drag queen shows!?!
This is getting absurd. Might as well just join the woke left and the democrats
You can have a libertarian organization that welcomes bigots, one that welcomes the targeted victims of their bigotry, or one that welcomes neither just because they happen to be in alignment with the organization on single issues, but you can’t have either under the same tent with consistent libertarians and ever become an enduring and effective libertarian organization.
Is the same pathology that afflicted the ACLU now also afflicting CATO, namely orienting itself not by reference to its fundamental principles but by single-mindedly focusing on its allies? In the struggle for liberty, the enemy of your enemy is rarely your friend. This policy bodes ill for the future of American libertarianism, now that the nation’s most prominent libertarian organization is in danger of joining the cult of compromised liberty rather than consistently opposing it.
That's it! I am telling you right now, if the libertarian party suddenly becomes actually libertarian again, I AM LEAVING and going to some proper leftist party where I know my wokeness and authoritarianism is appreciated! Yang gang here I come.
Yes, we should all QUIT! There is no way my friends and I signed up for the libertarian party to be full of actual libertarians. Like gross! That was not the deal I was promised, when I joined up and started the LP NeoLiberal Hillary Clinton Caucus. Nick Sarwark lied to me, he told me he had successfully infiltrated the LP and was in full control just like Trotsky taught us. I am going back to the Workers World Party where I first met Nick.
Disheartening. I was always hopeful that the Libertarian party would have produced a candidate that reasoned with the public like Milton Friedman did (Bill Weld was the closest it ever got to that).
I guess a casual observer can notice this decay in the incessant bickering about (anti) vaccines and (pro) guns on the Libertarian Party Twitter account.
Thank you for the excellent and thoughtful piece. Sadly predictable though that the comments are filled with a bunch of mindlessly bleating "Whaddaboutists" modeling the old saying about being so opened minded their brains fall out.
As a formerly active member of the LP who served the LP at both the local and state level, I dropped to an inactive, philosophical supporter. This shift occurred because my experiences as an active member led me to the conclusion that the LP was just another political party whose main purpose was to serve the interest of politicians. Recent developments have not changed but reinforced my earlier conclusion. Thus, I have dropped my membership and my monthly donation to the state party.
I so appreciate the unsparing autopsy of the moral and ideological collapse of the LP. It takes intellectual and personal courage to address the failures and amorality of former colleagues. Unlike 'Cornholio' below who quickly runs to the typical 'bothsiders' argument vs addressing valid critiques that have led to the undermining of our democracy, Mr. Craig is both honorable and prescient.
It’s been sad to watch the LP melt into near complete irrelevance but not surprising.
Concise & trenchant.
The current version of the Libertarian Party is the Southern Strategy with a mailing list and twitter account
These folks don't seem any crazier than the people you like, in your own faction of the LP, such as Nicholas Sarwark, who has praised Elizabeth Warren and retweeted A.R. Moxon's defense of trillion-dollar student loan bailouts at taxpayer expense. Sarwark doesn't believe in freedom of association for social conservatives, claiming they have a duty under "implied contract" to sell to people they would rather not contract with. (In fact, no such duty exists under state contract law, and federal civil-rights law does not reach many small businesses). Members of the Sarwark faction support things that would cost many trillions of dollars, such as reparations, which experts say could cost taxpayers $12 trillion or more. As someone pointed out on Twitter, "The LP isn't as bad as Aaron Ross Powell, who pals around with Marxists, and boasts on Twitter about his 'Marxist friends.' Powell says true libertarians are to the left of both conservatives and socialists, the latter being what Powell calls 'the unstable middle.'" That statement is crazier than anything the Mises faction has said. Johnson and Weld didn't lose support in 2016 because they were too "mainstream," but because they adopted leftwing positions, like Johnson saying Hillary Clinton was a "wonderful public servant," and Johnson arguing that small businesses should have to serve everyone, not just gay people but even Nazis. Genuine libertarians like Jeffrey Tucker rightly criticized them for that: https://fee.org/articles/must-a-jewish-baker-make-a-nazi-cake/
Imagine thinking the Southern Poverty Law Center still has any credibility. They lie consistently about many people.
Furthermore, it appears to be that Classical Liberals are basically just promoters of Wokeism. How dare you, parents, not want children to be exposed to near-pornographic drag queen shows!?!
This is getting absurd. Might as well just join the woke left and the democrats
You can have a libertarian organization that welcomes bigots, one that welcomes the targeted victims of their bigotry, or one that welcomes neither just because they happen to be in alignment with the organization on single issues, but you can’t have either under the same tent with consistent libertarians and ever become an enduring and effective libertarian organization.
Is the same pathology that afflicted the ACLU now also afflicting CATO, namely orienting itself not by reference to its fundamental principles but by single-mindedly focusing on its allies? In the struggle for liberty, the enemy of your enemy is rarely your friend. This policy bodes ill for the future of American libertarianism, now that the nation’s most prominent libertarian organization is in danger of joining the cult of compromised liberty rather than consistently opposing it.
Seethe loser leftarians, seethe.
The real libertarians are back in town.
That's it! I am telling you right now, if the libertarian party suddenly becomes actually libertarian again, I AM LEAVING and going to some proper leftist party where I know my wokeness and authoritarianism is appreciated! Yang gang here I come.
Yes, we should all QUIT! There is no way my friends and I signed up for the libertarian party to be full of actual libertarians. Like gross! That was not the deal I was promised, when I joined up and started the LP NeoLiberal Hillary Clinton Caucus. Nick Sarwark lied to me, he told me he had successfully infiltrated the LP and was in full control just like Trotsky taught us. I am going back to the Workers World Party where I first met Nick.
Disheartening. I was always hopeful that the Libertarian party would have produced a candidate that reasoned with the public like Milton Friedman did (Bill Weld was the closest it ever got to that).
I guess a casual observer can notice this decay in the incessant bickering about (anti) vaccines and (pro) guns on the Libertarian Party Twitter account.
Thank you for the excellent and thoughtful piece. Sadly predictable though that the comments are filled with a bunch of mindlessly bleating "Whaddaboutists" modeling the old saying about being so opened minded their brains fall out.
As a formerly active member of the LP who served the LP at both the local and state level, I dropped to an inactive, philosophical supporter. This shift occurred because my experiences as an active member led me to the conclusion that the LP was just another political party whose main purpose was to serve the interest of politicians. Recent developments have not changed but reinforced my earlier conclusion. Thus, I have dropped my membership and my monthly donation to the state party.
Sounds like CNN wrote this piece
Didn’t you rage quit the party?
Doesn’t matter how shit the libertarian party is or will become it will be always 1000 times better then The two main parties in power.