{"id":2254501,"date":"2024-05-28T18:03:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T22:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trumps-showdown-at-the-libertarian-convention\/"},"modified":"2024-05-28T18:08:35","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T22:08:35","slug":"trumps-showdown-at-the-libertarian-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trumps-showdown-at-the-libertarian-convention\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump&#8217;s Face-off at the Libertarian Convention"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftrumps-showdown-at-the-libertarian-convention%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2254501&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The 2016 election coverage focused on Clinton and Trump,\u2064 disregarding the Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. Despite third-party candidates&#8217; usual low influence,\u2064 Libertarians had a significant \u2064impact in 2016, potentially affecting the \u200delection outcome. Trump&#8217;s direct \u2063appeal \u200bto Libertarians at the convention \u200bhighlighted his\u200b strategic approach and contrasted with\u200c Biden&#8217;s\u2063 reluctance to engage with opposing viewpoints.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When cable news channels announced the results of the 2016 election, for the most part, they <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/video\/2016-election-results-trump-projected-win-georgia-43406399\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">displayed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  the vote totals for the two major party candidates side-by-side: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. They simply left out the Libertarian Party ticket, which was led by Gary Johnson. It was as if Gary Johnson didn\u2019t exist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a normal election year, that wouldn\u2019t be a very notable omission. Outside of Ross Perot\u2019s run in 1992, third-party candidates don\u2019t exactly put up very big numbers on Election Night, so they\u2019re not worth talking about. That\u2019s been especially true for Libertarian Party candidates, who are mostly known for taking off their shirts at conventions and debating the merits of driver\u2019s licenses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But in 2016, it was a very different story. Libertarians had their best-ever showing in a presidential race, racking up nearly four-and-a-half million votes. In eleven states, the Libertarian Party vote total exceeded the margin of victory \u2014 meaning, you can make a case that Libertarians affected the outcome of the 2016 presidential election by siphoning votes from Hillary Clinton. You don\u2019t hear that discussed very often \u2014 it\u2019s a lot easier for Democrats to blame Russia. But it\u2019s true.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eight years later, once again, there are signs that libertarians might have a relatively strong showing in the upcoming election. Polls show that most Americans are ambivalent about this presidential race \u2014 in part because both candidates have already served as president, so there\u2019s not as much enthusiasm as there normally is. That gives an opening to third-party candidates to attract new support.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Both the Trump campaign and the Biden campaign understand this dynamic very well. They\u2019re looking at the same poll numbers. But only Trump has decided to appeal to these Libertarian voters directly. On Saturday night, Trump spoke at the Libertarian Party\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/could-democrat-hubris-and-incompetence-cost-biden-ballot-access-in-these-states\/\" title=\"Can Democratic Overconfidence Impact Biden's Ability to Appear on Ballots in Certain States?\">national nominating convention<\/a> in the nation\u2019s capital \u2014 becoming the first former president to ever do so.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/episode\/ep-1376-member-exclusive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The speech marked another moment of stark contrast between Trump and Joe Biden, who would never walk into a venue where he knew that a large portion of the audience would oppose him. We\u2019re at the point where Joe Biden isn\u2019t even allowed to give press conferences anymore, much less deliver speeches before a hostile crowd. But Trump had no problem facing his detractors at the convention, who (as predicted) heckled him at various points during his address.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was the side of the story the media ran with. There were dozens of headlines about how Trump was booed and jeered at the convention. But there were quite a few Trump supporters in attendance as well, and there were several moments where the Libertarians in attendance were clearly on Trump\u2019s side.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That makes sense, because Trump didn\u2019t deliver his typical stump speech. Instead, he tailored his remarks for a libertarian audience \u2014 hitting topics like lower taxes, cryptocurrency, reducing the size of the federal government, keeping America out of foreign wars, and so on. Trump even promised to commute the sentence of libertarian hero Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the defunct dark web marketplace \u201cSilk Road.\u201d Ulbricht is serving a life sentence for facilitating the sale of narcotics, but Trump said he\u2019d let him out of prison on day one of his second term. Trump made a host of other promises, as well, including a vow to appoint libertarians to his Cabinet. Watch:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As you could hear during some of those clips, the crowd reaction was mixed at some points and very positive at other points. It was a lot more interesting than the traditional stump speech, and the response was unpredictable at points.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But for their part, the media pretended it was an unmitigated disaster. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">NBC News <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/andrea-mitchell-reports\/watch\/trial-is-taking-its-toll-trump-booed-and-heckled-at-libertarian-national-convention-211700293677\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ran<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  this headline: \u201cTrial taking its toll: Trump booed and heckled at Libertarian National Convention. \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Washington Post <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2024\/05\/25\/trump-loudly-heckled-libertarian-national-convention\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">reported<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u201cTrump loudly heckled at Libertarian National Convention.\u201d <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Politico reported that Trump had been \u201cjeered,\u201d and CNN said he was \u201cloudly booed.\u201d <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And on and on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As you just saw from the clips I played, this is obviously a total misrepresentation of what happened. The media desperately does not want the Trump campaign bringing in new voters from the Libertarian side, so they\u2019re lying. The so-called \u201cdefenders of democracy\u201d want to shame a presidential candidate for reaching out to people who disagree with him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the truth is that, even when there was booing during Trump\u2019s speech, it didn\u2019t always relate to what Trump was saying. There was, as others have pointed out, the equivalent of a \u201cJerry Springer\u201d episode occurring in the crowd at one point as Trump spoke. Apparently a Libertarian delegate by the name of \u201cStarchild\u201d was holding up a sign calling Trump a dictator. And then security dragged him away for some reason, and Starchild\u2019s associates weren\u2019t pleased by this development. Watch:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThese fascists don\u2019t get to kick out Starchild! Free Starchild!\u201d Presumably that\u2019s Starchild\u2019s father, Star, but it\u2019s hard to say. Meanwhile Starchild\u2019s wig falls off as he\u2019s dragged away, while a very confused Secret Service agent looks on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Is this what Ludwig Von Mises had in mind back in the day? Probably not. But it\u2019s the state of the Libertarian Party in America right now. And if nothing else, it\u2019s entertaining. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">During his speech, Trump apparently recognized that, and he had some fun at the party\u2019s expense. Watch:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Again, this is something Joe Biden wouldn\u2019t have the balls (or the brainpower) to do. It certainly wasn\u2019t written in the teleprompter to taunt libertarians to their faces, at their own convention, about the fact that pretty much no one votes for them. That\u2019s not the kind of outreach that any campaign advisor would have come up with. But it was both honest and hilarious, which is why it works.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Libertarians (except for Starchild, maybe) are under no illusions that they\u2019re going to win the White House. What Trump is doing is something the Left normally excels at, which is transactional politics. He\u2019s basically saying, \u201cVote for me, even though you don\u2019t like me, and I\u2019ll give you more than the other party will.\u201d We can assume Trump isn\u2019t passionate about Ross Ulbricht, for example. But he knows the crowd is, so he says he\u2019ll get him out of prison.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In that context, it makes sense for Trump to embrace the adversarial relationship he has with the crowd. Trump knew going into the convention that he wasn\u2019t going to win the Libertarian Party\u2019s nomination. Instead, his plan was simply to present a viable alternative to the Libertarian Party\u2019s eventual nominee.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And in that respect, Trump\u2019s speech succeeded more than he probably even thought possible. It now appears very likely that Trump will indeed win a very large share of the Libertarian Party vote. That\u2019s because on Sunday \u2014 after Trump was determined to be ineligible for their party\u2019s nomination \u2014 Libertarians nominated an HR <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2022\/nov\/11\/georgia-senate-race-chase-oliver-profile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">representative<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  named Chase Oliver to be their presidential nominee.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Already, right away, this is a win for Trump, because no one in their right mind would ever want an HR representative in the White House. It\u2019s probably the least sympathetic and appealing profession for a politician that you can imagine. But it gets even worse once you start looking at what Chase Oliver believes. For example, earlier this year, Oliver shot a video at the southern border. Watch:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to Oliver, the United States has no right to enforce its borders against anyone. We have to be open to illegal migrants as well as hostile invading armies, presumably, because otherwise we\u2019re basically erecting another Berlin Wall. Never mind that the Berlin Wall was intended to lock people inside and prevent them from escaping, while the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-faces-backlash-after-crushing-border-wall-developments\/\" title=\"Biden faces backlash after crushing border wall developments\">southern border wall<\/a> is intended to keep foreigners from entering the country. That\u2019s not important to Chase Oliver. The point, in his mind, is that walls are always bad. Except, presumably, the walls that form his own home, and keep intruders out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In that video, Oliver also lies and claims that illegals don\u2019t use more welfare benefits than American citizens, which is just completely made up. As the Center for Immigration Studies has <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cis.org\/Camarota\/NPR-Falsely-Claims-High-Immigrant-Welfare-Use-Myth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">found<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u201cIn 2018, 49 percent of households headed by all immigrants \u2014 naturalized citizens, legal residents, and illegal immigrants \u2014 used at least one major welfare program, compared to 32 percent of households headed by the native-born.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So this guy doesn\u2019t understand the impact of open borders on the economy, but he wants open borders anyway. This is one of the least-popular positions a politician can have right now, but the Libertarian Party just picked a candidate who firmly believes in unrestricted illegal migration.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As it happens, Chase is also a big supporter of pretty much every other Left-wing agenda item. He doesn\u2019t want the government to prevent adults from getting naked in front of kids, for instance. Watch:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oliver goes on to say that he doesn\u2019t <em>prefer<\/em> to see nudity at Pride parades, where children are attending \u2014 but only because it\u2019s not \u201chelpful\u201d to the message of the parade, in his view. He doesn\u2019t think it should be prohibited. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then the interviewer asks a few follow-up questions about drag shows for children. And once again, Oliver pretends that there\u2019s nothing sexual about these shows. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We\u2019ve all seen the footage of these shows, and what kids are forced to watch. But apparently Chase Oliver hasn\u2019t. Watch:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the joke goes, the Libertarians wanted Ron Paul but they got RuPaul instead. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it\u2019s actually disturbing to listen to his reasoning. He compares the Wiggles \u2014 the kids\u2019 music group \u2014 to grown men with a fetish for wearing women\u2019s clothing. And he says he has no problem leaving children alone with these grown men. Parents, he says, always know best \u2014 and if parents want to leave their children with these people, then who are we to disagree? His only defense is that these drag performers are engaging in \u201cperformance art.\u201d Therefore, we have to accept it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once again, it just so happens that Chase\u2019s position comports perfectly with mainstream Democratic Party orthodoxy. And there\u2019s plenty more where that came from. Chase Oliver has also voiced his support for banning Donald Trump from social media, as well as for vaccine mandates (as long as they\u2019re implemented by private companies and not the government). He also supports legislation that would overrule the Supreme Court on abortion.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So to recap: The Libertarians nominated a Leftist, essentially. They\u2019ve picked a Pride-flag waving progressive who supports open borders, has no problem with nudity at Pride parades, loves seeing kids alone at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/toronto-public-library-eliminates-late-fees-to-combat-racial-inequity\/\" title=\"Toronto Public Library Eliminates Late Fees To Combat Racial Inequity\">drag queen story hours<\/a>, supports vaccine mandates for millions of Americans, and also supports abortion on the grounds of \u201cbodily autonomy.\u201d This is pretty much the DNC\u2019s platform, word for word.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It\u2019s yet more evidence that libertarians are just pot-scented Democrats. They fundamentally agree with Democrats on most things because libertarians and leftists both subscribe to a consent-based morality where anything is okay as long as the people involved choose to do it. And they both make exceptions even to that flimsy moral framework when it comes to children \u2014 who are often exposed to drag queens and public nudity without their consent, especially in cities controlled by Democrats. Chase Oliver wouldn\u2019t be remotely out of place as a Democrat on San Francisco\u2019s city council.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then again, Republicans are also just Democrats driving the speed limit, to use Michael Malice\u2019s phrase. Both parties agree on major issues like funding foreign wars, and they both tolerate open borders. What this means is that there really is no true political alternative to Leftism, at least not right now. Even the \u201cthird party\u201d doesn\u2019t really provide it, as Chase Oliver demonstrates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">During his appearance on Saturday night at the Libertarian\u2019s convention, to the dismay of Starchild, Donald Trump didn\u2019t promise his audience everything they wanted. But Trump did demonstrate that he\u2019s willing to break with the Republican Party establishment to win over voters who have been ignored for decades. He made it clear that he\u2019s willing to make promises that Mitch McConnell won\u2019t be happy about, in order to secure more votes and political power. Is that a tactic we normally see from the Right? Absolutely not. But ultimately, especially in this election year, it\u2019s what building a viable alternative to Leftism will require.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During the 2016 election results announcement on cable news channels, the focus was on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump&#8217;s vote totals, sidelining the Libertarian Party candidate, Gary Johnson. The omission of Johnson&#8217;s presence made it seem as if he was invisible in the election coverage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":305,"featured_media":2254502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2024\/05\/GettyImages-2154155853.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2254501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2024\/05\/GettyImages-2154155853.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2254501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2254502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2254501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2254501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2254501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}