A libertarian reflection on the 2020 election
Now that the dust is settling, its clear that there was a critical voter base that was not pressured into falling inline by either the Rs or Ds in the US, and it had seismic repercussions in 2020. In almost every swing state in the US, the vote tallies the day after the election showed that the margin between Donald Trump and Joe Biden were smaller than the vote share for Jo Jorgensen, the intelligent, non-senile, non-sex-offending, PhD holding, professor/entrepreneur running on the Libertarian ticket for US President.
While Jorgensen didn’t have a chance to win, and her supporters always knew this, their dedication to promoting their values has had a huge impact. Because they have the ability to turn an election on its head and have values that are found on both sides of the American political crevasse, it means they are viewed as being able to swing for either the democratic/progressive block (marriage equality, ending the drug war, ending all wars, open borders) or the republican/conservative block (supporting the 2nd amendment, alignment with more originalist interpretations of the constitution, lower personal income taxes — I won’t say economic conservativism here because the Republicans have not demonstrated that they’re economically conservative in decades).
If the Rs and Ds really want to engage with Americans moving forward, they’ll have to begin to engage with pan-American values that form the foundation of the American identity. This means that both parties will have to end their racist rhetoric (of Republicans being implicitly anti-middle-eastern or anti-latino and democrats being explicitly anti-white), end their push toward subsidizing industries they like (e.g., solar for democrats and coal for republicans) and end their assaults on civil liberties (republicans limiting access to things, democrats forcing access regarding private entities). Libertarians, like most Americans, really just want to be left alone.
Now, in the fall-out of this, Libertarians don’t just have a target on their back for 2024’s politicians who want to engage with them. They will continue to be targeted by other voters: their friends, their family, and their coworkers. Personally, I have had my own reputation thrown through the mud because of raising questions in an election year that wouldn’t show support for the democratic candidate and bend the knee. At the time working in academia, to not support a democrat was career suicide; to not bend the knee did not send the right signals to the priesthood that controls academia — debate, they made it quite clear, was not welcome in any form. Effectively, by standing up for my values, I pulled the trigger. The lesson that was learned here is that, for the time being, believing in freedom, equality, liberty, and the US constitution as a primary foundation for American identity, is not welcome amongst the two tribes of Red and Blue, regardless of how open minded and “tolerant” they say they are — sadly, this appears to be far worse on the left than the right, as one has embraced a toxic form of “cancel culture” while the other is largely the recipient of its ire.
“You’re wasting your vote…. This is the most important election of our lifetimes…. Now is not the time”
The words will keep ringing, because neither party will learn in 2020. They will, instead, be convinced that they’re entitled to the libertarian vote and will viciously attack anybody defending liberty and basic rights if they don’t bend the knee to their flavor of royalty. “You’re wasting your vote” was told to every person who values liberty enough to support (much less vote) for the libertarian party in 2020. This was then followed by choruses of “this is the most important election of your lifetime” as if every election in our lifetime isn’t the most important.
To this, there’s only one thing to say. If you wanted change, you’ve had 2 centuries of power to do that under democrat and republican leadership. Why did you waste your vote again on a president who has accomplished relatively little structural change in 4 years or a candidate who has spent 45 years embodying the policies over which the left has spent the last 8 months burning their own cities?
The true question is: Why did you take those votes away from Jo Jorgensen?
If in fact you support liberty, peace, freedom, and equality, then you — dear friends — are the ones who wasted your vote.
What can be done about it?
Listen. That’s about all you can do. With a group of people who are ideologically committed, like republicans and democrats (and libertarians), its hard to convince anyone of your side. Most libertarians coming to the party today aren’t leaving the Democrat and Republican cults because a libertarian convinced them. It’s because republicans and democrats have become such heinous groups in their own right, that people can no longer identify as republican or democrat; therefore, they begin looking for a new social identity. The weird groups of freaks, outcasts, and otherwise downtrodden wierdos that makeup the libertarian party are there to welcome them, laughing all the way with their troll-like nature.
However, at the moment, one of the first things Libertarians need to learn to do is engage more widely online within their own group. Their internal infighting between the more anarchist wing and the more tempered approach to government often leads to mischaracterizations of the party that will be future barriers to the success of the party in presidential elections to come.
What needs to happen?
The libertarian party needs to grow up. Jo Jorgensen was the best choice of a group of total oddities. The libertarian party conventions are basically a joke filled with antics that are often performance art meant to mock the two party system (if you don’t know about Vermin Supreme, google him, you’ll thank me for the insanity later). However, if you ever want the libertarian party to be a real third party option, then the libertarian party has to act like a real [third] party, not like an inversion of the two party system.
The libertarian party has to stay on message. Its used social media to combat the hate spreading by democrats and republicans quite effectively. Now its time to consolidate, and consolidate on the foundations that built America that can be open to everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or creed.
It also has to fight. It has big names now. Justin Amash’s leaving the republican party was big. His continued build up could culminate in a run in 2024. The libertarian party has to start now to get him to the debates by 2024 so that millions more people realize that they too can vote in support of principles of freedom, democracy, and liberty, rather than waste their vote on a republican or democrat who will fix nothing and take all the credit for it.
