https://twitter.com/MLiamMcCollum/status/1791192104862908517
{Liam McCollum
@MLiamMcCollum | 16 May 2024}
Tucker Carlson asks Dave Smith
[see this thread - OB] about the
@LPMisesCaucus takeover
[see this thread - OB] and the decision to invite Donald Trump to the
@LPNational Convention
[see this thread - OB].
@angela4LNCChair's decision to invite Trump, RFK, and Vivek to the convention is the wisest political move the party has ever made. It is an acknowledgment of political and cultural realities:
The reality is that a Libertarian will not be elected as president in November. So, the options were to 1) remain an irrelevant echo chamber or 2) invite the major candidates to our convention to hear our grievances.
And the critics of this decision in the party simply do not have a finger on the pulse regarding where the culture is and where it is headed.
It is impossible to measure, but the reason that Republicans like Trump have been campaigning to get rid of the deep state and warmongers ("I will obliterate the deep state, drain the swamp, and starve the warmongers”) is that Libertarians have had an immeasurable influence on the culture.
Ron Paul trends on major platforms regularly; Joe Rogan (the most watched podcast host) interviewed Dave Smith very early in the Ukraine war when it was very unpopular to oppose US intervention; Libertarians like Dave Smith and Clint Russell interviewed Vivek Ramaswamy, who calls himself a libertarian nationalist and ruined Nikki Haley’s electoral chances; Tucker Carlson, who made the Ukraine war the #1 issue in the first GOP primary debate, is now friends with Dave Smith; Javier Milei won on libertarian populism
[see this thread - OB]; UFC fighters are talking about the Federal Reserve and Mises
[see this thread - OB].
The reason Trump, RFK, and Vivek feel it is necessary to come to our convention is because they know that libertarian ideas grow stronger as New Media defeats the old, and they will have to contend with us.
Now, you may not trust Donald Trump when he says he wants to tear down the deep state, and for good reasons, and you may not believe Tucker Carlson is actually accepting libertarian ideas, but what is so significant about this media moment we’re in is that thousands of their followers are now hearing our ideas for the first time and have all the resources at their fingertips.
@mises has plenty of free audiobooks and PDFs available on their website, and
@moicanoufc’s recent post-fight interview caused thousands of his fans to download a Mises book
[see this post - OB].
If you can't see the value in this strategy, then you do not want our ideas to succeed, or you want them to succeed on your own, naive terms.
Since we have no electoral chances right now, we need to find other metrics for success. Libertarian populism is on the rise, and we should embrace it.
