Libertarianism, Far From Dead, Is Finding a New Home in the Trump Administration

“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” The famous phrase attributed to Mark Twain could be said to describe the current state of the libertarian movement in American politics, for while the Libertarian Party is torn apart by factionalism, the ideology itself is rebounding with the return of President Trump to the White House.It appears at first glance that libertarianism is at an all-time low. The party’s presidential candidate, Chase Oliver, suffered a resounding defeat in the 2024 election, earning just 0.4 percent of votes cast, far from the party record of 3.3 percent that candidate Gary Johnson won in 2016. The party has in recent years seen a decline in due-paying members amid a power struggle between its Classical Liberal caucus, which Mr. Oliver embodied, and a more radical strain headed by the Mises Caucus, which critics decry as “alt right.”The movement, however, is far from dead. Trump pitched a big tent to court Libertarian voters, many of whom are now finding a home in some parts of the GOP. Though it’s unclear whether the libertarian or populist factions will dominate policymaking over the next four years, the incoming administration’s purported plans to minimize the role of government are exciting stalwart Libertarians who spoke to the Sun.“It’s important not to equate the fortunes of the Libertarian party with the fortunes of the libertarian movement or of libertarian ideas and policies,” an editor-at-large, Nick Gillespie, at the libertarian magazine Reason tells the Sun. “Anytime you’re giving more people meaningful choices in their individual lives or in their business lives or cultural lives, that’s a movement in a libertarian direction.”Trump’s proposed new Department of Government Efficiency to slash government spending, led by Tesla founder Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, is a fundamentally libertarian effort. “Libertarians across the board would love to see reduction in the size and scope of government,” Mr. Oliver tells the Sun. Mr. Musk suggested tapping Senator Paul, who has continually urged the Senate to balance the federal budget by cutting a few pennies from every dollar that the government spends.Mr. Oliver shares the concerns of other skeptics, however, that Trump can get the job done, as promises such as firing large swaths of federal employees will likely run into legal and Congressional hurdles. “What this does remind me of is past Republican presidents who have made promises to do this and they have not followed through,” including President Reagan and President Bush, Mr. Oliver says. Another promise of the 47th president — to abolish the Department of Education — “would certainly make libertarians quite happy,” a libertarian economist at Harvard University, Jeffrey Miron, tells the Sun. “There’s no good reason the federal government should be involved in education at all.”Ending the agency would require approval from Congress, and the expenditure of political capital that Trump may apply to other campaign promises first. Yet Trump’s victory has stirred momentum for this longtime conservative cause. A Republican from South Dakota, Senator Rounds, has sponsored a bill to dismantle the agency and redistribute key programs and funding streams to other federal agencies. The bill would have to clear the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee before advancing further in the chamber, where most measures require 60 votes to advance by cutting off debate.Trump’s cabinet selections are also shining a spotlight on particular Libertarian causes. While there is a growing frustration among Libertarians that he has not yet named a Libertarian to a cabinet post as he had promised on the campaign trail, the choice of a former Securities and Exchange Commissioner, Paul Atkins, to head the agency is sparking enthusiasm among the community. Mr. Atkins is a proponent of financial deregulation and a strong backer of cryptocurrencies, whose decentralized technology reflects a Libertarian quest to protect individual autonomy.Meanwhile, Trump’s choice for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has pledged to legalize marijuana and psychedelic drugs, using the tax revenue to create “wellness farms” that help people recover from drug addiction. Mr. Kennedy has criticized the FDA for its “aggressive suppression” of psychedelics, expressed scepticism over vaccines, and opposed state and federal Covid restrictions.While it’s up for debate whether Mr. Kennedy counts as a Libertarian after he was eliminated from contention for the Party’s presidential nomination in May, his plans to upend American drug policy echo the Libertarian Party’s belief that “it is immoral for the government to dictate which substances a person is permitted to consume, whether it is alcohol, tobacco, herbal remedies, saturated fat, marijuana, etc.”“People have a right to take what they want to take in their body if they’re not harming anybody,” Mr. Oliver says. “The criminalization of cannabis,” he argues, “creates an overabundance of people in prison, and we don’t need to be having that on the taxpayer dime. If we can trust people to be responsible with alcohol, why not with cannabis?”Of course, a number of Trump’s priorities are decidedly anti-Libertarian, including his “peace through strength” foreign policy vision, his expected expenditures to secure the border and deport illegal immigrants, and his protectionist policies toward trade and immigration. Yet his resounding victory over Vice President Harris suggests that the social and economic energy of much of the American public is trending Libertarian. “What the 2024 election was about more than anything else was an overwhelming rejection of the idea that the government should manage social and economic and cultural diversity from the top down,” Mr. Gillespie says. “What I think people are looking for rather than group identification is the ability for individuals to rise and fall according to their merits. That strikes me as fundamentally libertarian.”For the Libertarian party to thrive on its own, it must position itself as an independent political entity rather than a junior varsity league for the GOP, Mr. Oliver says. “We need to professionalize our operations. We need to run our party as we would a business.” Only one Libertarian, Justin Amash from Michigan, has served in federal office, though he was first elected as a Republican. With the endorsement of Mr. Paul, he ran as a Republican for Senate this year and lost in the primary election.Yet perhaps it’s only fitting that true Libertarianism resides on the outskirts of mainstream politics. “At some level, it’s inconsistent to run for office and be a libertarian,” Mr. Miron says. To him, the political ideology means, “keep government out of your bedroom and keep government out of your wallet.”________The writer is the daughter of David Koch, who stood for vice president on the Libertarian ticket in 1980.Correction: Sixty votes are needed for most bills to advance in the Senate after approval at the committee level. An earlier version described the process inaccurately.

Libertarianism, Far From Dead, Is Finding a New Home in the Trump Administration

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