Written by Michael D Jacobsen
Staff Writer at Fighting the Tyranny
For years many people have been disappointed in the two-party monopoly that has plagued modern politics. The corruption among both parties had come to a boiling point. The frustration with the two major parties began to find itself struggling over crucial issues relative to the party. After the 2012 Presidential Campaign and leading into the 2016 election, voters started to leave the major parties and join a lesser-known party called the Libertarian Party. The initial surge in growth of the party was fueled by Republicans who were fed up with how the party treated Ron Paul in 2012. New arrivals to the Libertarian Party also included Democrats who did not like how Bernie Sanders was treated in 2016. Of course, when these two groups try to unite under one banner, there are going to be some substantial ideological problems that will arise. I think most people who joined liked the idea of less military spending and less foreign policy by way of war. There are many issues that plenty of people who joined agree on regardless of what party they were with before.
For the most part, many of the new members of the party seemed to get along fine and work well together, collaborating on essential issues. With that said, there have been small segments of the party that caused quite a bit of disruption and strayed far from the ideals that the party once held collectively. The biggest issue seems to have arisen from the more recent members to the party as this is to be expected. People new to anything are bound to run into problems just because they are not too familiar with something new. Over time, hopefully, these people will learn the core principals of the party and be valuable members and future candidates or delegates to the party.
With the increase of liberals into the party also came an influx in people clinging to liberal ideology. Sadly, they have taken to using radical tactics to make the small group they represent, elevate their voices as loud as they can. There is a group that calls themselves the Libertarian Audacious Caucus. As far as I can tell, their goal is to drive anyone who does not agree with their social values out of the Libertarian Party. On their page it says – We are what the Libertarian Party radical caucus promised, but failed to deliver: an effective and united grassroots front for watchdogging the party against statist and conservative entryism. In other words, they do not want people who are not liberal to join the party. This group also has friends in the Libertarian Socialist Caucus.
Moreover, people from both groups seem to think that the people who differ from their ideology are affiliated with white nationalists. Even worse, is that a majority of them believe that Dr. Ron Paul is also a white nationalist. They will accuse anyone who does not agree with their policy of being a white nationalist. This is a typical Liberal tactic to intimidate and discredit people with little or no proof. In fact, they have tried to run a smear campaign against people running for office in the party based on their poorly backed accusations of white nationalism. This is a tactic straight out of the liberal playbook. It might work in the coddled realms of the Democrat party but not elsewhere.
Fortunately, in spite of these antics, most people once they join stay in the party. One of the biggest attractions is that people are not held to a rigid set of standards (unless you are on facebook). Being a libertarian or holding the philosophical beliefs of the Libertarian Party has specific guidelines, but they are not hard to follow. Gary Johnson famously summed up the libertarian ideology as “Fiscally conservative and socially liberal.” It resonates with a lot of members, but I think he was referring to liberal positions in society, not using progressive attack politics.
While there has, at times, been a problem with white nationalists in the party, a significant portion of them left for the Republican party to help nominate Donald Trump. The issue with them still being in the party has mostly vanished, yet, if you listen to the new liberals, the entire party aside from them is racist. Apparently, the liberals never have heard that the Libertarian Party welcomes many people under its tent, not just those that agree with your skewed ideology.
Even former neoconservative Republicans are welcome in the party. However, they quickly have distanced themselves from their former party soon after joining the LP. The belief that we, as a country, need to be the world’s policemen and the initiation of force that our current foreign policy favor is not the ideals of the Libertarian Party. Yet after they joined the party, it continued to grow and welcomed an even more diverse group of people with their varied ideologies.
While these liberals, new arrivals are welcome to be part of the party (as anyone who holds an interest in being libertarian are). They are a small fraction of the Libertarian Party. I am sure some of them will come around to welcome all people into the party (as was done with them), and the disgruntled ones who could not have their way will leave and go to another party. Unfortunately, those people will are more likely to try and do as much as they can to damage the party’s reputation on their way out. Most of them will not even deny this when confronted with the question if they will leave if we do not cater to them. Some, however, hurry to change the subject.
While there will be a need for new blood to enter the Libertarian Party for years to come, I believe that people need to abandon their old and sometimes childish ways of thinking that were popular in their previous party. Identity politics and claiming to be the victim might well have worked for these people in the past, but if they are to get through the growing pains of joining another party, I would suggest they grow up a little.
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