Recently there’s been a swarm of libertarians endorsing Donald Trump for president. I’m doing the same, I am happy to give my full-throated endorsement of Donald Trump for President.
I didn’t do that in 2016. I didn’t do that in 2020. I’m doing it now, in 2024, less than a week before the election. Why? Because I’m convinced that the Trump is at least interested in expanding liberty in a serious way, and getting him elected is likely to result in a victory for libertarians and anarcho-capitalists.
Let’s start with the obvious: I hate war. He is actively running on peace, actively shitting on Liz Cheney because she’s a hawk, and acting like the sort of person who is interested in stopping warfare. He has promised, repeatedly, to end the war in the Ukraine. When pressed on whether or not that would be a surrender and what would actually be involved, he said, very clearly, tha the wanted to “End it”. He’s also stated that he doesn’t want to reveal to much about the “how”, as that would make negotiations harder.
I am convinced he’s actually interested in stopping the war, and I know that he is a decent negotiator. His caveat that he has to keep his exact ideas on how to do so a secret is not a deal-breaker for me because I trust his ability to negotiate. This is not blind faith. He did manage to get on great terms with North Korea in his first term, and at the time I was genuinely freaked out by the manner by which he was dealing with North Korea. I am happy to have been wrong, he pulled it off against my expectations and succeeded in making friends with the Hermit kingdom.
This is not to say that I think Trump’s foreign policy is going to perfectly mirror my desires. He seems to be antagonistic toward Iran. This is not ideal, but in comparison to other candidates it is a tolerable compromise. He does not seem to be actively interested in escalating war with Iran. He has made mistakes with Iran in his first term, but the consequences of those mistakes have been trivial in comparison to the great gains he made in ending the Afghanistan war.
Everything I say about his foreign policy is enough to inspire me to give a full-throated endorsement. War is the health of the state, and he is anti-war. You can do the math on the implications there, however there is icing on this cake. Allow me to elaborate: Trump represents a sea-change within the GOP. The Neocon faction of the Republican party absolutely hates him, and their movement to the Democrat party leaves the door wide open for Libertarians to come in and sit at the table. We’re seeing this happen outside of New Hampshire. Yes, it is most pronounced in New Hampshire, but it is happening elsewhere as well. The paleocons, who are a quasi-liberty-adjacent faction of conservatives who were victims of “cancel culture” before cancel culture existed, are now growing in dominance within the GOP. They align with libertarian values quite significantly, and where we disagree we do not need to get knives out. Typical Republican voters and Trump supporters are very much skeptical of government power, and are receptive to anti-government messaging. Trump himself has given legitimacy to the liberty movement, promises to put a libertarian in his cabinet, and seems to be perfectly willing to give the liberty movement a seat at the table.
In order for us to do this, we must be willing to take a seat at that table. We will not get everything we want, but we may get a lot of what we want, or at least some of what we want, which is much better than none of what we want.
In my previous blog post (over 2 years ago!) I made the case that libertarians really are fit to wield political power. In order to accomplish this, we must actively seek political power. We must find our allies. We must be a part of the conversation. We have to knock doors and buy yard signs and show up to meetings and overlook the flaws in our friends while accentuating the vices of our enemies. We can do this, we are doing this in New Hampshire, and we can do it outside of New Hampshire, as well.
Therefore, I urge you to do the following:
- Vote for Donald Trump for President on November 5th.
- Find people outside of the polling places who have Trump signs and are encouraging people to vote for Trump.
- Get into a conversation with them and ask them how to get involved in the local Republican party.
- Show up and help out and work with the GOP.
From there, you may find that some Republicans are what many in the GOP call “RINOs”. These are like Democrats who pose as Republicans. Your job is to get along with them and push them in the right direction, until an opportunity comes by to replace them (in Primary season, often), then do so. When discussions about policies happen, speak as a “Liberty Republican” and state the libertarian case for your position. When you are out-voted, agree to disagree and live to fight another day.
Over time, you will find that you are able to exert some level of influence over affairs within your local GOP. You are likely to make friends. You are likely to convince people to support liberty positions.
Now, if you’re tracking so far but can’t get over the TDS, let me make a few quick pitches for Trump:
- He is actively flirting with abolishing the income theft (He is smart enough to have done the math and realizes it is currently not possible to fund the government without an income theft but he is seemingly willing to shrink it substantially)
- He has repeatedly promised to free Ross Ulbricht
- He has already reduced taxes once and promises to do so again while introducing new tax credits that allow people to more easily reduce their theft burden.
- He has spoken much about the Department of Government Efficiency and that is likely to allow the shrinking of our federal government
- He loves America and doesn’t hate Americans. He seems to actually like people and not be completely evil. and finally,
- The enemies of liberty absolutely despise him and want him dead.
There are other reasons to support Trump and get involved with the GOP, but in closing I’ll say this: There is no better chance for libertarianism to matter. This is your opportunity to make liberty actually matter. I’m sick of the LP getting 3 percent every election and acting like it is some sort of accomplishment. The party is a joke, it needs to disappear, and libertarianism CAN and SHOULD be an effective caucus within the GOP. Therefore, abandon any love for the LP and do the right thing: Vote Republican, join the Republican party, call yourself a Republican, and keep liberty in your heart while you do it.