Well, “thick” anyway.
There’s long been a debate within libertarianism. Is it a “thin” political philosophy that focuses only on the role that force (the state) plays in society? Is it about the size, scope, and nature of government?
Or is it about all that stuff — and a whole bunch of cultural preferences and norms?
The former is thin libertarianism, the latter is thick libertarianism.
I just returned from the 2024 national convention of the Libertarian Party. Tyrone and I will take a deep dive (or two) into the minutiae of what all went on there. But for now I’ll just say that this convention (and the one before it in Reno, 2022) perfectly displays what I’m talking about.
For a political party to grow and thrive, it has to stay lean. It has to focus on what defines and unites it as a party. For the LP, that’s the size and scope of government. We have to stick to that, and nothing else.
If we start throwing cultural preferences in there (as we have), then we immediately have left/right culture war problems, internal strife, operational conflict, hatred, and a party that is completely useless at promoting liberty.
And of course, this suits the uniparty regime just fine. If the LP is divided internally, it will never be much of a threat to their rule.
That isn’t to say that every LP political candidate has to be a clone of each other. There are other dimensions that impact what a candidate might focus on.
For example, a former Marxist like Michael Rectenwald might focus more heavily on the dangers of one-world government threats. On the other hand, someone like Ron Paul might focus on the horrors of war and empire and the evils that are born from a fiat money system and a counterfeiting central bank.
Others might just focus on regulations and edicts that impact various people in various horrible ways.
And of course, local candidates should focus most heavily on the specific libertarian issues faced by that community.
But no matter what aspect of the evil that is the state a libertarian focuses on, they must stay focused on the state. Nothing else. They must stay thin.
If they get fat and insist on gathering cultural issues into their politics, they enter the culture war and destroy the party.
And again, our overlords that are comprised of Republicans and Democrats just love it when we do that.
It almost makes you wonder if these fatties aren’t agent provocateurs.
More to come, as Tyrone and I discuss the convention in Washington DC.
Naturally,
Adam
"It almost makes you wonder if these fatties aren’t agent provocateurs."
YES!
Tin foil hat time. IMO the same people who are propping up Trump with the persecution/prosecution theater, playing off people's rightful distrust of the establishment (what better way to get your guy in than to make it seem he's not your guy?) got to people in the LP, and between giving him the stage, and then nominating that Chase clown, effectively handed Trump the presidency. Chase being gay and all his advocating child mutilation and drag queen story hour bullshit, will pull over Dem voters while also sending LP members to Team Trump (rigging elections does not always mean cheating, manipulation of the minds of the voters is far easier and legal). He proved his loyalty in 2020 (well most of his presidency if one truly looks at it objectively), and his supporters have shown themselves to not only support any bullshit he does, but to also operate as attack dogs against anyone who dare question Dear Leader. Whatever 'they' have planned, they need the people with the majority of the guns to to stay seated like good little puppies when told to. Covid era policies would have never taken hold the way they did if Hilary was in office (same can also be said of the Patriot Act, the ones with guns begged for it). And whatever comes next, the response wont be accepted if Biden is in office. Wasnt something said when fascism comes to America, it will be draped in 'patriotism'?
Or, since the verdict yesterday, the cult is in a frenzy and in the perfect state of mind to blindly march into another J6-esque fed trap/false flag and give the Biden admin the 'justification' needed for all sorts of horrible measures to fight 'domestic extremism'.
It goes one of those two way, I can all but guarantee. And either way, its bad for everyone. Dark days ahead. I tend to not stress things, especially political matters, and I hate to sound like the doom peddlers I have nothing but contempt for, but I trust my gut more than anyone or anything, and I am troubled by the possibilities. More than ever in my life, I hope I am wrong.
https://jonrappoport.substack.com/p/revolver-clear-and-present-danger-trump