Ron Paul Libertarians Take Control of Libertarian Party

[ClaytonB]

”We stand for repealing the entire Progressive Era,” says Smith.

He is pretty quotable. Some notes that are obvious to liberty folks but may not be obvious to the mainstream (and, therefore, deserve to be highlighted):

- We are proponents of progress; for that reason, we oppose "progressivism" because it is the opposite of progress, as proved by a century of its fruits.

- We are proponents of freedom and the right of the people to establish government to protect that freedom; for that reason, we oppose "democracy" because it is the opposite of freedom. We often use the word "democracy" as a synonym for "freedom" and that's just part of the vernacular (can't fight it). But what populist tyrants mean by the word "democracy" is something more like what Twitter means by "free speech" -- in reality, it's just a giant megaphone comprised of paid/kept shills that amplify the will of the despot. That's not democracy-as-in-freedom and we oppose it.

- We are proponents of peace and for that reason we oppose the military industrial complex. This is obvious to a lot of people except to the ones to whom it's not. Bombs don't bring freedom, they bring death. It's not 1944 anymore.

- We are proponents of general prosperity and we acknowledge that the concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny kleptocracy is a clear sign that the economy is being controlled by robber-barons. For this reason, we oppose socialism in all its variations because socialism is only ever a cover for more corruption and kleptocracy. We also oppose the vernacular meaning of the word "capitalism", which people generally use to refer to nepotism, cronyism, lobbying, and sweetheart protectionism. Genuine market freedom is how the little guy is most robustly protected. Commercial regulations invariably saw the bottom rungs of the small-business ladder and government small-business initiatives end up turning into a contest where the government picks winners and losers through various forms of economic favoritism. Bankruptcy and liquidation is an essential and ineradicable component of a truly free market. Laws regulating usury and repossession prevent abusive and criminal behaviors. The result of following private property and free exchange (the basic principles of free market) is that small businesses, apprentices, new competitors, etc. have the best possible chance of success against established players. The market can never provide a guarantee of success but we all realize that something is amiss when the "market" punishes more efficient competitors and rewards less efficient ones. The problem is that regulation is always used as a cover for protectionism and cronyism.

I could add more but these are the top bullet-points that flash into my head every time I hear MC people speak. The language-gap between MC and the general public is very wide. DS is a really good communicator and he does a far better job at it than I could do. But the first step in trying to get the Austrian perspective into the mind of the public and bring the Ron Paul message to the broad American audience is to identify the language-traps that have been prepared by the Marxists over many generations. They have prepared to prevent the emergence of an MC-like political party far more meticulously than I think almost anyone dares to imagine...

 

[Brian4Liberty]

It appears that people at Reason are still working against the new LP party leadership. As part of a thread on Reason, this was a good reply:

Jeremy Kauffman �� @jeremykauffman

Fine, I'll do an effortpost on Reason magazine. Here are the facts:

1) Anecdotally, on both social media posts and in their own comment threads, Reason is regularly attacked and ratioed by their own readers.

2) Reason journalists support Democrats disproportionately. In 2020, Reason tallied their journalists votes. The results were:

Jorgensen: 10
Biden: 6
Trump: 1

Libertarians can always come up with a reason that one candidate is the "lesser evil", but this is way off from how libertarians voted nationwide.

3) Reason magazine has 51,000 paying subscribers who pay $15-$20/year. At $15 for 11 copies of a print magazine, it's unclear that this is even a break-even price for distribution, let alone labor. Their 2022 tax filings report $1,043,588 in program revenues, which matches this.

4) Reason's tax filings report $13,980,606 in contributions and grants for 2022. Reason is receiving 14 times as much in donations as it is in revenue. Libertarians understand that incentives matter. Reason is incentivized to follow donors, not readers, because that's where the money comes from.

5) Just a few of the donors contribute outsize amounts. Across 20 years of donations, just 4 donors have contributed 62% of all revenues. DonorsTrust is #4 and excluding them wouldn't change the overall picture.

The simplest combination of these facts is that Reason exists not to serve a libertarian audience, but for a donor class to push their preferred stories onto libertarians. This donor class is substantially more culturally progressive, egalitarian, globalist, and neoliberal than the libertarian base.

I'm not making a claim that Reason journalists themselves are told to write certain stories, or that Reason journalists are liars. All that needs to happen is the donors pick the right editor, who then goes out and hires journalists with biases preferred by donors.

tl;dr - Reason is out-of-touch with libertarians because it's paid to be that way.
...
https://twitter.com/jeremykauffman/status/1742572253215175033

 

[PAF]

 

[unknown]

Would be great if true.

Tired of this Lefty bullshit.

 

[ClaytonB]

LPMC bringing the HEAT...



Don't get distracted by side-issues and don't take your eye off the ball. The single most important public-policy goal for the liberation of modern America is the detonation of the central banking system. The welfare-warfare State is merely a symptom of the monetary corruption. And while END THE FED is not the finish-line, it is the starting line for real change in this country. If you want to bring back the vestiges of freedom we tasted in our youth before Clown World took over, there is only one path forward and that path lies through total demolition of the Federal Reserve and the sprawling, bureaucratic, welfare-warfare Swamp that is attached to its diseased teats...

END THE FED

 

[Matt Collins]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhDKYYdD2vY

 

[Okie RP fan]

I'd like to hear from a few folks what's left of the LP after 2024? Honestly, the Mises Caucus WAS the future of the LP but I think the LP was set back a decade after 2024.
All that hard work over the last 10-15 years and one election year reels a lot of it back in.