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What's happening with the US Libertarian Party?

Journal by khallow
Given how often libertarians are mentioned here, I thought this would be interesting. And maybe there's some people with a lot more insight into what's going on.

A few months back (May 29), the national leadership of the Libertarian Party (the "Big L" political party, not the "small l" belief system) was taken over by a group called the "Mises Caucus". While their platform seems to be a mundane version of a normal platform.

In recent days, there's several state level "rebellions" which seems to indicate that the schism between the old guard and them isn't going away any time soon.

For me, they do seem to tilt at absolutist windmills rather than do stuff they want done - which is a common libertarian flaw. And the implicit emphasis on Mises economics is a huge problem for me. Their stance against vaccination and supporting Trump's allegations of election fraud seem pretty shifty.

OTOH, the previous leadership didn't seem all that interested in libertarianism. Maybe this will shake things up in a useful way?

So what are peoples' takes on this?
 

Reply to: Re:It's Important to Remember...

    (Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Monday September 19 2022, @03:04AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 19 2022, @03:04AM (#1272332)

    As a left-leaning libertarian (small l), that sort of organization (as is advocated, at varying levels of implementation, by pretty much all right-leaning libertarians) at scales larger than a few hundred, relatively homogeneous folks, seems destined to lead to a reduction in liberty for most, with those who have the most resources dominating and exploiting those with fewer resources.

    The solution, of course, is to focus on maximizing individual liberties mediated by strong government ensuring that the exercise of on individual or group's liberty does not limit or negatively impact the liberty of other individuals or groups.

    What really do you need a strong government for? If your people can't do most of their own "mediation" due to lak of capability or inclination, then you just don't have the conditions for libertarianism to succeed, left or right leaning. My take is that genuine liberty at the individual level requires an expectation at society and government level that the individual will act to protect their freedom. This can't be compensated for with a stronger government because that government will be made of the same sort of people with the same flaws in addition to serious conflicts of interest.

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