It pains me to have to write this in the middle of election season when we Libertarians should be united in supporting our pro-freedom candidates and opposing tax increases and other bad stuff on our ballots, but in fact some of what is happening at the national level in the Libertarian Party has been falling far short of this, which is why I am taking the time to write about it.
Those of you who are on the list to receive national LP emails probably received an email today about an upcoming rally in Washington D.C. called “Rescue The Republic” that the national party – or at least the national chair and staff who answer to her – are promoting.
Sadly, this event appears to be yet another attempt by the current Libertarian Party chair, Angela McArdle, to promote Donald Trump.
That promotion has unfortunately been going on, in one form or another, for some time. In 2023, the national party put out a press release that featured her advocating for Joe Biden to be placed in a conservatorship, with nary a negative word about his Republican rival. Earlier this year, to the dismay of many in our party, she invited the ex-president to speak at our national convention, along with his flack Vivek Ramaswamy who spoke separately. She told us Trump speaking at our convention was an “incredible opportunity” for us, and that she was “really grateful” (even though he was there only in search of votes and wouldn’t debate our candidates).
As chair of the party, McArdle is required to support the person Libertarian convention delegates nominated for president. And after the convention, she did make a statement saying she supported Chase Oliver – for “president of Clownworld”. She even made a video in which she mockingly put on a clown nose. Many media commentators have recognized the tacit support for Trump as what it is, and worse, some have described her strategy of helping the Trump campaign as the party’s strategy – e.g. Chair of Libertarian Party Reveals Strategy to Help Trump Campaign.
By failing to send a clear and sincere message of post-nomination support for ourLibertarian presidential candidate (at best!), and actively undermining him at worst, she has continued to give aid and comfort to Trump. She uses her soapbox (the soapbox the party has given her) to say positive things about him (e.g. “he’s been very friendly to Libertarians” and “he’s not going to get it 100% of the time, but I think, aside from every little libertarian nuance, I think he does understand the American Dream,” in this Fox News article – Libertarian Party president fears what Harris could do to the American Dream | Fox News). In that same article, she’s quoted down-talking Kamala Harris, while not mentioning Chase Oliver at all. When Bill Weld, as the party’s vice presidential candidate, made favorable comments about rival Hillary Clinton in 2016, Libertarians were rightfully outraged, with many saying Weld should be dropped from the ticket.
Now Angela McArdle appears to be once more trying to aid Trump, this time by havingthe Libertarian Party promote a rally this coming weekend that is packed with pro-Trump speakers and seems designed to coincide with another Trump event, and to promote him. See correspondence from the Libertarian National Committee list below.
Libertarian National Committee representative Keith Thompson, who shared this information, has been courageous in speaking out – he is in the minority on the LNC, many of whose members still apparently support McArdle (which raises questions about how committed they themselves are to supporting the Libertarian Party and not the Republican Party), but he’s far from alone. Growing numbers of Libertarians have had enough. There are now at least two petitions seeking to have McArdle vacate the chair position, and I encourage everyone to sign them:
There is also an appeal to the party’s Judicial Committee, of the LNC’s horrible joint fundraising effort with the RFK campaign enabling donors to that campaign to skirt candidate fundraising limits in exchange for the LP getting a small percentage – money which, now that RFK has dropped out and endorsed Trump, will likely be going to support the Republican – something that may or may not have been planned. If you are a member of the national party OR were a 2024 national Libertarian Party convention delegate (or an alternate who was a delegate even temporarily), your signature is important to help this petition reach a bylaws-required threshold:
Appeal Signatories for National JC/We don't support Trump (please DON’T sign this one unless you’re a national member or were a 2024 convention delegate).
Even among Mises Caucus members who helped elect McArdle as our chair, most do not support Donald Trump, and many do not like seeing a Libertarian leader selling out the party in this manner. There are other concerns about her leadership as well – hiring her fiancé with party money at over $6,000 a month despite his having no experience with the fundraising he was hired to do, without initially disclosing this even to the rest of the LNC, anti-transgender trolling, defending anti-Semitism, associating with LaRouche supporters, going beyond the party’s anti-interventionist stance on U.S. government foreign policy to give comfort to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, etc. – but I don’t want to make this message unduly long. Those who are interested can find more information online about these things.
Thank you reading, and for helping to keep the Libertarian Party libertarian.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
···
Begin forwarded message:
From: businesslist-forward businesslist-forward@lp.org
Subject: FW: Rescue the Republicans?
Date: September 23, 2024 at 9:10:04 PM PDT
To: “LNC Business List (Public) Google Group” lnc-business-list-public@googlegroups.comFrom: LP Secretary <secretary@lp.org mailto:secretary@lp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2024 4:10:00 AM (UTC+00:00) Monrovia, Reykjavik
To: Keith Thompson <keith.thompson@lp.org mailto:keith.thompson@lp.org>; businesslist-forward <businesslist-forward@lp.org mailto:businesslist-forward@lp.org>; LNC Business <lnc-business@lp.org mailto:lnc-business@lp.org>; 4eb01eb9.lp.org@amer.teams.ms mailto:4eb01eb9.lp.org@amer.teams.ms<4eb01eb9.lp.org@amer.teams.ms mailto:4eb01eb9.lp.org@amer.teams.ms>
Subject: Re: Rescue the Republicans?Was there ever a vote we were supporting this event or was the LNC consulted at all? With the site making it appear like an LP endorsed event (and now linking to official LP Property - https://my.lp.org/wp-json/civicrm/v3/jointheresistance.org)- https://my.lp.org/wp-json/civicrm/v3/jointheresistance.org)- yes I know that was just a Civi formatting error. Was the Chair’s “founding” status ever disclosed prior to this? The speakers nearly all are going to endorse Trump and the language is right wing dog whistle language to many . Was it in the vote about RATWM that it would be connected to this? It is claimed that RATWM became this…… when? We were told, right?
This should have gone through whole LNC with full discussion.
No need to answer. The answer to all is “NO.” The idea that we are not tacitly endorsing Trump is about as convincing as the child hiding behind the curtains with his feet sticking out thinking his parents can’t see him.
In Liberty, Caryn Ann Harlos
LNC Secretary and LP Historical Preservation Committee Chair ~ 561.523.2250 tel:(561)%20523-2250From: Keith Thompson <keith.thompson@lp.org mailto:keith.thompson@lp.org>
Date: Monday, September 23, 2024 at 10:06 PM
To: businesslist-forward <businesslist-forward@lp.org mailto:businesslist-forward@lp.org>, LNC Business <lnc-business@lp.org mailto:lnc-business@lp.org>, 4eb01eb9.lp.org@amer.teams.ms mailto:4eb01eb9.lp.org@amer.teams.ms <4eb01eb9.lp.org@amer.teams.ms mailto:4eb01eb9.lp.org@amer.teams.ms>
Subject: Re: Rescue the Republicans?Including the LNC group on this email so people can actually respond.
From: Keith Thompson <keith.thompson@lp.org mailto:keith.thompson@lp.org>
Sent: Monday, September 23, 2024 10:34:22 PM
To: businesslist-forward <businesslist-forward@lp.org mailto:businesslist-forward@lp.org>
Subject: Rescue the Republicans?Good evening,
The LP emailed out a promotion for the Rescue the Republic event today:
I recall the LNC supporting the Rage Against the War Machine rally. Was a similar measure passed to support the Rescue the Republic event?
In researching the event, because I truly didn’t know much about it, I have serious concerns that this is a Trump rally in a fake moustache:
The promo graphic literally has Trump in place of Washington crossing the Delaware.
The lineup featured on the homepage all endorse Trump.
Much of the language in promoting the rally either openly supports the right or dances around it while only condemning the left.
The event is being promoted by Republican affiliates as a GOP rally:
Event co-founder Bret Weinstein said Trump could go down in history as a re-founder of the country - that with Trump, RFK Jr., and Tulsi, Trump “has the potential to lead a massive movement to restore the republic.” Another co-founder said Trump and RFK Jr. would be a dream ticket, exactly what our country needs right now.All that said, is there any assurance members can be given that this LP-promoted event, will not promote Trump?
Thanks,
Keith Thompson
Region 3 Alternate–
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