Riddle me this: Who was the President who ran up the largest federal deficit in history during his first term?
Who was the President who locked down the economy, forced everyone to mask up, to stay home from work, to maintain "social distance", and closed down most small businesses while keeping the big retail chains open? Which President promised to develop a COVID vaccine at "warp speed" and tried to force everyone to take it even though the testing for harm was extremely truncated? Which President got elected on a campaign with racist overtones to build a wall to keep out immigrants? Which President singlehandedly upended our sweet trade deal with China, where they sent us inexpensive merchandise in exchange for our depreciating dollars? Who said prosecuting WikiLeaks Julian Assangge was "OK with me"? Which President made truncating abortion rights his litmus test for appointing U.S. Supreme Court Justices? Who was the President who appointed a Fed chair who promptly engaged in the largest money printing binge in history resulting in 9% inflation, levels unseen since the 1970s? Which President refused to pardon Assange and Snowden even when he was a lame duck and easily could have? Which President promised that he would never cut Social Security or Medicare even though they are the two largest expenditures in our deficit riddled federal budget? Not to mention they're Ponzi schemes. Who wants to "take the guns first"? Who encouraged Fauci's social media censorship campaign? Who cannot make up his mind on whether to ban TikTok? Who appointed swamp creature and avowed warmaker John Bolton to be his National Security Advisor and drug warrior Jeff Sessions to be his Attorney General?
And now, I ask you, who has the Libertarian Party invited to speak on Saturday at its National Presidential Nominating Convention later this month? That would be the anti-Libertarian, Donald J Trump. The Friday headline speaker is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I've explained in a previous Report why RFK is no Libertarian either. Clearly, current management of the LP has lost its bearings. Luckily at least some of the LP candidates for President have not lost theirs. Jacob Hornberger says the invitation to Trump is an "abomination". Lars Mapstead issued a press release stating that "Trump is no Libertarian." Chase Oliver, writing on X said "The Republican Party wasn't smart enough to reject Trump. Libertarians should absolutely reject him and his grift...If he isn't willing to actually debate the Libertarian candidate, he shouldn't be on a stage that was paid for by party members." who should give Trump "the one finger salute." Michael Rectenwald, on the other hand, called the Trump appearance an opportunity to "educate Trump on the principles of the freedom philosophy." Good luck educating the Donald.
Now, I suppose the LP management could make the argument that any publicity is good publicity. And the RFK nomination flirtation (which Kennedy ultimately rejected in favor of a VP choice capable of self-funding his campaign) and the Trump invitation have garnered a few news stories. RFK has even challenged Trump to a debate at the LP convention. If that happens without the LP candidate being included, libertarians would be reduced to a footnote in the news coverage.
We'll soon know how this gambit works out for the Libertarian Party. I'm Richard Fields and this is this week's Report From the Fields. See you again next week.