A couple of weeks ago in this commentary, I mentioned that one of Libertarian Party Presidential 2024 nominee Chase Oliver's challenges would be gaining cooperation from the Mises Caucus dominated Libertarian National Committee. It looks like that is happening.
Oliver espouses the traditional classical liberal philosophy of libertarianism. He is reasonably pro-immigration, free trade, supports a woman's right to choose on abortion, and as a out gay man opposes the cultural wars attacks on people who identify as anything other than heterosexual. The Mises Caucus is not any of those things. Many of them are closet Trump supporters on the lesser of two evils theory. This was just glaringly illustrated by LNC Chair Angela McArdle's comments during a livestream on June 3. She said, "I endorse Chase Oliver as the best way to beat Joe Biden. Get in, loser. We are stopping Biden. That's what I think. That's what I think this campaign is about." She went on to effectively endorse Trump, saying, "Donald Trump said he's going to put a Libertarian in a cabinet position. He came out and spoke to us; he said he's a Libertarian. He has basically endorsed us." She added, "I am going to work very aggressively, especially in Blue states to make sure (Oliver) has the support he needs from the national party. I encourage people to use the Chase Oliver campaign to try and pull protest votes from the left.
She actually put on a clown nose and said, "I know, I know. It's a total clown show thing. Well I'm 100% here for that clown show."
I'm not. When McArdle invited Trump and RFK Jr. to speak to the Libertarian National Convention, I said the LP is beclowning itself. I did not know how literal that statement actually would turn out to be.Trump and Biden (or the functionaries who manage to keep him erect most of the time) are both evil. Equally evil. There is no purpose in the LP effectively trying to change the outcome of the election to the lesser of two evils when lesser doesn't exist. Trump is evil on trade, immigration, drugs, overspending and a whole lot more. Biden is equally evil on those issues and a whole lot more. The correct function of a political party is to win elections. To that end, Oliver's goal of getting 3 or 4% of the vote is too modest. The goal at the very least should be for Olvier and Kennedy between the two of them to get enough votes to force the election into the House of Representatives. Then we could get out the popcorn. I'm Richard Fields and that is this week's Report From the Fields. See you again next week..