A Reappraisal on Strategy

Where I Stand on Libertarian Strategy and How I Got Here

Perhaps there is no topic as hot in libertarian circles as strategy is. Everywhere you go, every day there is a new fight amongst us libertarians on how we should go about strategy. From fighting about the Mises Caucus vs Classical Liberal Caucus strategy for the party, to if we should vote Republican or Democrat, to only vote for Libertarian Party, to messaging, and so many more things, there is an endless amount to debate on relating to strategy.

Strategy as often been a difficult concept for me, but I have always catered towards organizing within the Libertarian Party. After all, it is a party based on the beliefs of the political philosophy that I hold dear. Why would we waste our time to doing anything else?

However, the party itself is not in great condition. Apart from the fact that the libertarian party has been receiving less votes in each of the election cycles since 2016 when Gary Johnson received nearly five million votes and 3.2% of the popular vote (Jo Jorgensen got around 1% in 2020 and Chase Oliver got around .4% in 2024), the party has suffered from infighting amongst the Classical Liberal Caucus and Mises Caucus.

The Mises Caucus was founded in 2017 to promote the ideas of Ron Paul, the Mises Institute, Paleolibertarianism, and similar values after Gary Johnson’s Presidential run and opposition towards Nick Sarwark being the chair of the party. Figures associated with the caucus includes Dave Smith, Tom Woods, Ron Paul, Scott Horton, Gene Epstein, Walter Block, and others. The caucus itself was able to gain influence in the party by taking control of states delegates before they took over all major leadership positions within the party.

However, some were dissatisfied with what they have done. They accused the caucus of being bigoted, edgelords, and overall unprofessionalism, prompting Jonathan Casey to start the Classical Liberal Caucus in 2022. They advocate for a more classcial liberal approach to the party’s platform and appeal to the center of the political spectrum and not the right. In recent years, figures such as Josh Eakle within the caucus (before he left the party) began to reach out towards more centre-left individuals to their marketing strategy. The Caucus and others dissatisfied with the Mises Caucus helped get Chase Oliver nominated to be the party’s presidential nominee in 2024, which highlights the divide within the party.

Many libertarians were upset over Oliver’s nomination, citing his support for puberty blockers on minors, his response to the Covid-19 lockdowns and hysteria, his support for open borders, and overall left leaning libertarianism (or a some say taking the blue pill). This led to many of them not voting for Oliver, prompting them to vote for Trump, writing in someone, or not voting at all. This led to Oliver getting in fifth place behind Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, Jill Stein, and Robert Kennedy Jr (who dropped out of the race before the election), failing to even crack .5% of the vote in an embarrassing showing of the party. Yet, the infighting continues to this day with a house divided, doomed to fall.

With the fighting going on with no end in sight, among many other things that will be discussed, I cannot in good faith remain in the Libertarian Party. Members of the party as a whole (including Smith, Horton, Paul, and many others) have done excellent work to advance the cause of liberty, but the party itself has gone nowhere and will continue to go nowhere as that is the sad inevitability of third parties in the United States.

The hope of the party is based on somehow getting 5% of the vote so they can be eligible for federal matching funds and then polling at 15% to qualify for the national debates and get on TV and then convince people of our ideology so they will vote for them instead of the other options. The issue with this is that libertarian party has not been taken seriously. People do not look at making fun of the death of John McCain and take it seriously. They do not look at us dancing in our underwear on the stage of our national convention seriously. They do not look at the infighting as serious.

Furthermore, the reasoning for not taking us seriously is not just being goofy and unprofessionalism, but from how we are as libertarians. Libertarianism is a much more philosophical ideology that goes beyond just fiscally conservative and socially progressive, it is about what is ethical, it is about the non-aggression principle followed to its logical conclusion. No other prominent ideology in the United States focussed on this, only libertarians do this. They are not as hyper-fixated on political philosophy as we are.

Furthermore, the use of third parties is unable to be properly utilized in todays politics in the United States. While many in the party have admitted the party cannot win on the national level, then they have unknowingly admitted to believing the party should not exist. Political parties are made for winning elections, that is it. They are not SuperPACs, Institutions, or Caucuses to spread messages, but money to be spent on parties towards winning elections. While people like Dave Smith argue the party should be focussing on messaging anyways, why do it in a party that can’t win and that is not made for just messaging? Why not do it in an institution, a caucus, or even another party?

Even if it was theoretically possible for the party to do that, many in the party are not interested in that endeavor. People like Caryn Ann Carlos have been fighting back against these efforts, only being concerned with running candidates for office and resisting any coalitions. Nick Sarwark also believed that the party should not be concerned about spreading messages, but running people for office and getting them elected only. There is a divide on this issue in the party and because of it, nothing gets done. Candidates get nothing in terms of support nor is the party converting people to the idea.

And here comes the part where I discuss my strategy for making liberty win, the paleo strategy. While I have never fully identified with the paleolibertarianism and have some disagreements with paleolibertarianism (mainly that I am more ok with immigration than they are), I can accurately describe myself as a paleolibertarian after some fluctuations with the ideology. Seeing the horrors of progressivism and how conservatives such as Elon and Vivek have now begin introducing more libertarian ideas to Trump and more of recognition of the ideology in the party since Ron Paul.

With this being said, I believe it would be better to mobilize within the Republican Party over the Libertarian Party. Mobilizing libertarians into that party, one where we can actually get our ideas spread and to a party that would win would get us closer to a libertarian society or at the minimum, making our ideas heard a lot more. Ron Paul was able to get more people to convert to libertarianism than anyone else while being a member of the Republican Party.

Naturally, there are objections to this theory that I should address. The biggest one and the one that I struggled the most to overcome is the Republican Party not being principled. After all, Trump has lied about libertarian promises before and others have lied as well and enacted anti-libertarian positions.

While it is true the party can do these things and is not made up of Rothbardian austro-libertarians, neither is the general public. Most people are not libertarians, we are very much so a minority within the political sphere. People know of our ideas but do not chose the Libertarian Party. Jacksonian Democrats and Coolidge Republicans have all gotten into power, but the public was then scared into conservatism and progressivism. They think this because unlike libertarians, they care about what is going to hurt them over what is the proper use of force by the state while still respecting my property, nor are they thinking that a specific policy is a violent action.

Furthermore, while the party is not made up of Rothbardian austro-libertarians, there are plenty of libertarians/libertarian conservatives elected into federal office. This includes Thomas Massie, Ron Paul when he was in office, Rand Paul, Justin Amash when he was in office, Chip Roy, Mike Lee, and others. Further, influential republicans like Blake Masters, Tho Bishop, Senator Eric Barkley, and others are libertarians despite not getting federally elected but have influence. We can exist in the Republican Party even if many of the party is not the Old Right (most are boomer conservatives who are dying out).

However, some will argue that we shouldn’t be doing this cause we can instead be winning elections at the local and state levels. While there have been a few occasions of this occurring, most look at the party on a national level and the Libertarian Party is irrelevant in the national level, only have one representative in federal office in its history (who was elected a republican before switching before he left office). We can do this at the Republican Party and have a much better chance of winning. Even if we don’t win in the primaries, we are still spreading the message far more than we would in the Libertarian Party.

While the Republican Party is not always going to nominate libertarians (see Ron Paul in 2008 and 2012), we do not get there by having a few people in the party supporting them, we get it by captivating the populist movement or control of the structure of the party. Trump was able to seize the populist support and won twice, but didn’t change the structure, leading to neoconservatives and big government republicans like Mitch McConnell, Tom Cotton, Lindsey Graham, Mitt Romeny, and others staying office, only leaving when they are ready to leave.

This is not something that happens overnight, this thing is going to take long time to do. But we don’t have a choice; we either have to be patient with this or we are going to never win and continue to be a failure in getting stuff done despite our incredible philosophy.

While this article may not provide every little detail about the strategy or what is changing with my views, I will continue to clarify my positions in other posts and hopefully some media stuff as I get back into things in the New Year (for the record, most of my opinions are the same, just some tiny differences and strategy changes).