Donald Trump, the Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán fanboy who thinks U.S. states should be free to monitor women’s pregnancies to keep them from seeking abortions, is preparing to woo the nation’s libertarians, a small cohort of the population that (supposedly) regards human freedom as the highest good of American life.
On Wednesday, Trump announced he would accept the Libertarian Party’s invitation to speak at its national convention in Washington, D.C., at the end of May.
“Libertarians are some of the most independent and thoughtful thinkers in our Country, and I am honored to join them in Washington, DC, later this month,” Trump said in a statement many saw as remarkable for its limited number of unnecessary capitalizations. “We must all work together to help advance freedom and liberty for every American, and a second Trump Administration will achieve that goal.”
Will it now? Which part? The illegal use of our military against civilians? The migrant detention camps? The severe abortion restrictions? Trump’s unnerving willingness to lock up journalists, or to use government power to try to silence comedians who make fun of him? His firm stance that presidents should be allowed to assassinate political rivals with impunity? Or is it his plan to maybe, possibly launch military strikes against Mexico? Because that sounds super libertarian-ish. (He apparently floated this idea in his first term, too—which should make both large- and small-“L” libertarians choke on their Ronny Reagan-approved government cheese.)
While it’s not unusual for the Libertarian Party to extend speaking invitations to major-party candidates—President Joe Biden was invited, too, but he plans to wash his hair that night with water that’s safe, clean, and lead-free thanks to aggressive government action—it’s unprecedented for one of these candidates to accept.
But Trump, who appears concerned that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will eat into his “let civilization burn as we idly count our morning smallpox pustules” vote, is hoping to stave off what he apparently sees as a growing threat to his unchallenged reputation as King Kookaburra-pants.
The Associated Press reported:
“RFK Jr. is the most Radical Left Candidate in the race, by far,” he wrote last month on Truth Social, calling Kennedy “a big fan of the Green New Scam, and other economy killing disasters.”
Trump campaign aides also went after him on social media Wednesday, calling him “a radical leftist lunatic,” and charging that, “Any ‘conservative’ or ‘Republican’ letting this left-wing lunatic come on their platform to whitewash his decades of far-left liberal positions & activism are aiding and abetting Joe Biden.”
The Libertarian Party also noted that it plans to send Trump a list of its top 10 issues before he speaks, “hoping to make an impact on the policy positions of a past, and possibly future, President.”
Policy positions? Unless their list is nine different mozzarella stick recipes and a white paper endorsing free Penthouse Forum subscriptions for seniors, Trump is unlikely to care or even glance at it. His one and only platform plank is “me be president, keep out jail.”
That said, Trump’s “overthrow the government” policy is likely to appeal superficially to some libertarians who are skeptical of government intrusion into our personal lives. Similarly, since libertarians prefer the private ownership of public resources, they might be sympathetic to Trump’s stance that he actually owns all of the top secret government documents that he (allegedly!) stole on his way out of the White House.
But just as many tea party stalwarts eventually betrayed their true (racist) selves—the movement was always about xenophobia and racism, with their handwringing about the deficit serving as a convenient fig leaf—many of today’s libertarians appear ready to sacrifice their long-held beliefs (see above) at the altar of a wannabe autocrat.
It turns out that if you scratch some of these true-believing freedom lovers, you’ll find plenty of ordinary right-wing rage lying just beneath the surface. As Mother Jones correspondent Tim Murphy wrote, the Libertarian Party has been engaged in a civil war of sorts that pits its more moderate members against a faction that just wants to sow chaos.
Murphy notes that the Libertarian Party saw unprecedented success in 2016 as it ran Gary “What Is Aleppo?” Johnson against Trump and Hillary Clinton. But that momentum—and the sense of unity that came with it—has since dissipated in Trump’s wake. He notes that “under the auspices of expanding the tent, some within the Libertarian Party—and a fair number outside of it—began clamoring for a different kind of party: more aggressive, more offensive, and more right wing.
They weren’t interested in third-place showings; it wasn’t entirely clear if they were interested in competing at all. What’s followed has been more than seven years of spectacularly messy infighting. ... Across the country the Libertarian Party has been plagued by breakaway factions, leaked chatrooms and conspiracy theories, and bitter struggles over bank accounts and social media handles.”
Clearly, Trump isn’t interested in embracing traditional libertarian principles—and if he is, he’s hiding it really well. But he would like to siphon votes away from the Libertarian nominee. And, apparently, angry sputtering and open threats to prosecute one’s political opponents are a big draw for some of the party’s rank-and-file.
Meanwhile, the Libertarian Party appears pleased that a candidate with a greater than zero percent chance of winning is actually deigning to address them.
“For 50 years, we’ve been trying to get our candidates on the main stage with major party POTUS candidates, and we’ve finally succeeded in bringing one to our stage,” said Libertarian Party chair Angela McArdle in a statement. “We will do everything in our power to use this incredible opportunity to advance the message of liberty.”
Oh, boy! What an opportunity! Get in on the ground floor and you might get an extra slice of chocolate cake in the work camp! I call top bunk! Then again, I’m a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, so my freedom isn’t particularly important. At least not to these clowns, it isn’t.
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