Wishing we had a better LP candidate
It was always going to be a rough election season for the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate, no matter who was selected.
The polarization of the public over the choice of Trump or Biden in November (if, indeed those are the R and D candidates at that time) increases the intensity of emotion to vote for (or against) one of those two.
And then there’s the impact Robert F Kennedy Jr. has on the race. A huge majority of “protest” votes this year will go to RFK Jr that might normally go to the LP candidate.
Even worse, there are all the other even-more-minor party candidates for president. the Green Party, the Forward Party, the No Labels Party, the Constitution Party, the Working Families Party — and there are more. Add on to that all the various people running tiny and quixotic independent presidential races.
So… tough sledding for the LP candidate, regardless of who it was — at least from the standpoint of getting votes.
So, if getting votes can’t be the primary purpose of an LP candidate in 2024, is the project pointless? Definitely not! Since the founding of the party in the early ‘70s, the point has been to be a vehicle by which we promote the libertarian political philosophy to the masses to obtain our real goal: Make more libertarians.
The oft-stated goal of a “world made free in our lifetimes” can only come about if enough people in a given polity want to see that world come about.
So, regardless of the ticket’s electoral chances, it’s very important that the candidate do as much as they can to campaign vigorously, get press (both traditional and online) and espouse the beautiful political philosophy that is libertarianism.
(sigh)
I sure wish we had a better messenger this cycle.
Chase is just… bad. Here are a few reasons:
He turned down the chance to go on Tim Pool’s Culture War podcast recently. Tim Pool is one of the biggest podcasts there is and he didn’t want the exposure? Maybe he thought the interview would be hostile, but still, that’s the job.
Every big platform a Libertarian candidate has ever been on has been somewhat hostile to them, but again, that’s the gig. Chase turning down that opportunity was very disappointing.
Then there’s Chase’s social media game. Most of his posts are fine. Maybe a little scattered and unfocused (the bump stock ruling isn’t as important as the war/conscription issue, for example), but fine.
Then there are posts like this one, challenging Trump to pardon both Ross Ulbricht and Hunter Biden.
Even ignoring the creepy missing apostrophe in “balls”, this post is just… off. I’m fine with reminding Trump of his promise to commute Ross Ulbricht’s sentence on his first day in office. I’m also fine to acknowledge that Hunter’s prosecution and sentencing are worth criticizing, and potentially pardoning.
For one, libertarians hate dumb gun restrictions like this. It’s an assault on the 2nd Amendment. Even worse, it’s obvious (retaliatory) lawfare. But if Chase can see that Hunter’s prosecution is a weaponization of the law against a political opponent, why not take the opportunity to announce that you’d pardon Donald Trump for his preposterous lawfare convictions?
That’s twice now that Chase has revealed his blindness to the evils of lawfare in politics when aimed at Trump. The missed opportunity just reeks of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Chase is bad on a bunch of issues, mostly on the “culture war” side of things. His support for “transing” children up to and including the injection of hormone blockers is pretty awful. If anyone tells you that puberty can be “paused” without serious long-term negative developmental consequences is lying to you. It’s child abuse and should be treated as such.
The way Chase bought into the whole Covid narrative was bad, as well. He just swallowed and perpetuated every government order with no pushback to speak of. Here he is proudly announcing his intention to be an idiot during Thanksgiving 2020.
These “guidelines” are idiotic and would do absolutely nothing to protect anyone from contracting Covid, a cold, or any other airborne pathogen. This is just a pathetic example of obedience and virtue-signaling. This isn’t what I want to see from my presidential candidate.
Here he is throwing a fit after “the wrong” people were elected to the Libertarian National Committee in 2022:
Here he is throwing a fit about Angela McArdle, elected as chair in 2022 (and re-elected in 2024):
Seems weird that a guy who hates the party this much would seek to represent it as its presidential candidate.
Chase clearly belongs to that woke, left-leaning side of the culture war that over the last handful of years has intellectually retreated into just calling anybody they don’t like horrible names.
I’m frankly sick of that awful behavior, and I sure as hell don’t want it coming from the LP presidential candidate.
And then there’s this lovely post of Chase’s, from March 2020:
This is childish and stupid — for any supposed libertarian, let alone one running to be president on the LP ticket. Ron Paul’s two runs in 2008 and 2012 brought more people into the Libertarian Party (and the broader liberty movement) than any single person on the planet, ever.
Chase is good on a few things. He’s legitimately anti-war and I very much appreciate that. And he has learned to give the basic “government should not perform this function” arguments appropriate for a “minarchist” proponent of a small government in society.
And of course, there is some slim possibility that he’ll have an epiphany and reject this woke, hateful, very very stupid nonsense he’s been spouting for the last few years.
Personal growth is a thing. It could happen. Maybe he just fell in with “the wrong crowd” or something.
But I doubt it. And I really don’t think his run is going to inspire many people to embrace the philosophy or join the Libertarian Party.
I hope I’m proven wrong.
Good luck, Chase.
Naturally,
Adam