‘It Hasn’t Been Good’: Reeling From Massie’s Loss, Libertarians, at National Convention, Lament MAGA

Fresh off the loss of one of their own allies, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, libertarians have been licking their wounds at the national Libertarian Party convention in Michigan this weekend, where a new chairperson was elected after a scolding over whether it’s time to eliminate the party altogether.Along with Senator Rand Paul, Mr. Massie is arguably the most famous libertarian-adjacent lawmaker serving in office today. Having bucked the president on his Big Beautiful Bill, foreign wars, and the disclosure of the Epstein files, Mr. Massie earned the wrath of President Trump in a primary challenge that saw his competitor, Ed Gallrein, earn a contest-swaying endorsement.Gathered at Grand Rapids, party members of various factions cheered a hometown hero and former lawmaker, Congressman Justin Amash — a longtime ally and friend of Mr. Massie. During his address to the convention, Mr. Amash decried Mr. Trump’s populist movement as something decidedly not “America First.” “It hasn’t been good,” Mr. Amash, who represented Grand Rapids in Congress for a decade, said of the nation’s state. “Our Constitution in under assault from the neocons and warmongers in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party — from the Democratic Socialists and the national conservatives, from the so-called ‘woke left’ and the red-billed right,” Mr. Amash told the convention, eliciting applause from the crowd. “Yet, the most immediate and insidious threat today comes from within the very movement that claims to put America first but routinely puts it last.”During his 30-minute speech to delegates, Mr. Amash, the only registered Libertarian to have ever served in Congress, likened Mr. Trump’s policies to the progressive left and President Biden. “The fact is that Trump and Biden have far more in common with one another when it comes to their policies than they do with libertarians, constitutional conservatives, or most Americans,” Mr. Amash said. He cited Mr. Trump’s inability to repeal Obamacare, higher federal spending under the president’s watch, foreign entanglements undertaken without congressional approval, and support for warrantless surveillance powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Yet while lamenting Washington’s elite as largely agreeing with “one another to the detriment of Americans everywhere,” if anything, the libertarian convention demonstrated that compromise doesn’t come easily. Several adjectives strewn throughout the weekend did not typify a political philosophy of less is more or decision-making grounded in good-faith conversation. Before Mr. Amash’s speech, convention delegates elected a new party chairman — the head of the Indiana chapter of the party, Evan McMahon, whom one opponent described as a “covid pushing” Marxist and convicted felon. “What you are witnessing is the lowest common denominator retaking the party to bring it back to its own little circle jerk of virtue signaling nothingness,” posted another party member, the founder of the LP Mises Caucus, Michael Heise. Mr. Heise’s caucus represents the economic and political philosophy of Congressman Ron Paul, a self-declared libertarian. “Its a big clown show and we’re all eating the popcorn.”With multiple caucuses in conflict with one another, an alleged assault, a debate over dressing for success, and a sinking feeling that the party may never exceed more than 0.5 percent of the national vote, one candidate vying for the chairmanship, a businessman and chairman of the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire, Jeremy Kauffman, led the debate over whether the delegates should just vote the party out of existence.“I’m urging you to wake up,” said Mr. Kauffman, who himself was accused of being a Republican plant but still earned a place in the first round of voting before being eliminated. “Do you understand how pathetic the state of this organization is that you have theater kids with 110 IQs who couldn’t succeed at anything else in their lives and are here because this is the only place they could be … because no decent organization would take you?”For his part, the new leader of the party, Mr. McMahon, shared his successes in registering more Libertarians and increasing fundraising for his state’s chapter. At his speech before the convention, he focused on the importance of getting young people involved in the movement. “We will have people going out to support the candidates — doorknocking, phone banking, putting out signs, donating to the effort, working with their county parties, running their state parties, and that is how we will elect people to office and change this country,” he told delegates. Despite the infighting, Mr. Massie — who was not at the convention — has made the case that shunning the libertarian movement, which he says is an attractive option for young voters, will harm the GOP. Several polls headed into the primary, all of which showed Mr. Massie losing, had him winning younger demographics by anywhere from 30 to 50 points. Speaking to “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Mr. Massie warned that Republicans could be in for a rude awakening come November. “Some people on the left have ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome.’ They call it TDS. But there’s a growing number of people on the right who have a form of TDS called ‘Trump Disappointment Syndrome,’” Mr. Massie said, predicting that many voters who supported Mr. Trump in 2024 will sit out the midterms.“I think what’s going to happen to the party this fall is they’ve disenfranchised a large portion of that constituency that Trump assembled to get us in the White House, in the Senate majority, and in the House majority,” he said.

‘It Hasn’t Been Good’: Reeling From Massie’s Loss, Libertarians, at National Convention, Lament MAGA

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