The spectacle of Donald Trump speaking at the Libertarian convention was a laugher. It smelled of desperation both for the former president and the Libertarian Party. Trump was trolling for votes and the LP was trolling to be considered a serious political player. Trump, of course, is no more a libertarian than he is a conservative.<\/p>\n
The Libertarian Party and its faithful has always been a strange group. If you think the Democrats and the Republicans have a lunatic fringe, you need to pay more attention to the Libertarians. This year they invited Trump, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy and Joe Biden to address their convention, an unprecedented and most peculiar move, to say the least. Predictably, all but Biden showed up.<\/p>\n
Since this news story broke, I\u2019ve been trying to make sense of it. Libertarians really don\u2019t like anyone but themselves, that is if they can identify who they are themselves. Compromise is an awful dirty word, sort of like saying \u201cF*@k\u201d out loud in church. Ostensibly Libertarians hate both Democrats and Republicans or so they say ad nauseam. They know the truth and have the answers about how to make America great again, just ask them. They can be disgustingly smug and arrogant when dealing with those who don\u2019t agree with them.
\nSince the election of Trump in 2016 they have been elated with the chaos and turmoil, hoping that it might destroy one or both of the two major parties and give them a viability in national politics that they have been unable to achieve on their own in the past fifty years of their existence. In truth, however, they would be better off to continue doggedly chasing political success, for if they caught it they would have to put up and take responsibility, something that would immediately prove catastrophic for them. It goes without saying that the American electorate, given over 200 years of achieving expectations, will never warm up to libertarian ideas such as open borders, decriminalization of drugs, abolition of public schools, doing away with social security and medicare, privatization of federal lands, including national parks, non-intervention and opposition to gun control to mention some of the most popular libertarian goals.<\/p>\n
An article in today\u2019s Wall Street Journal<\/em> by Walter E. Block entitled \u201cLibertarians Should Vote For Trump,\u201d is a priceless insight into the Libertarian dilemma about how to capitalize on the crippled political system. Block, a professor of economics at Loyola University in New Orleans, and apparent libertarian, says that while Trump \u201cisn\u2019t one of us\u2026 he\u2019s a lot better than Biden.\u201d Further, he applauded the attention Trump\u2019s attendance gave the party. Voting for Trump in the swing states, Block argues, just might flip the election to Trump.<\/p>\n One has to wonder what Professor Block has been smoking? Talk about compromise. Like many convention delegates, Block seems willing to prostitute libertarian principles across the board, all for electing \u201ca slightly more libertarian president\u201d and freeing convicted drug dealer Ross Ulbricht (given 40 years for running a website devoted to illegal narcotics) which has become a cause celebre for many party faithful.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t wait to see the letters to the editor the Journal<\/em> receives tomorrow from libertarians and fellow travelers. The invitation for Trump and others to speak at this year\u2019s convention clearly suggests an ongoing identity crisis and desperate effort to take advantage of our broken political system. I must say it confirms what I have always believed, that libertarians lean right despite what they say. And, this means they frequently vote Republican when the chips are down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The spectacle of Donald Trump speaking at the Libertarian convention was a laugher. It smelled of desperation both for the former president and the Libertarian Party. Trump was trolling for votes and the LP was trolling to be considered a serious political player. Trump, of course, is no more a libertarian than he is a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"\n