Thinking Ahead: Who’s The Next Libertarian Contender?

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L016_to_not_delete@reddit

Man, does anyone else remember when this sub convinced itself that Trump and RFK were the biggest libertarians in DC? What a wild time that was, huh?

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Dream on. Quit wasting your time trying to elect a libertarian. Concentrate on helping to elect libertarian minded Republicans or Democrats to prevent or delay, extremism and in both of those parties. You’re not going to get anybody elected to national office as a libertarian, it’s a waste of time. As you can see, the socialists and the communists have also figured out that they need to run inside the established parties. They’re currently being very successful in driving the Democratic Party to the far left.

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Franzassisi@reddit

Stop humiliating yourself by taking part in elections to find you a new owner.

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gunsoverbutter@reddit

Thomas Massie seems to have broad appeal. The Epstein disclosure gained him credibility on both sides of the aisle, which is exceedingly rare these days. He seems to understand and cherish the Constitution, and has a solid grasp of economics. It would be hard convincing MAGA that he's a good guy though, since Trump has made it personal mission to trash Massie. Ironically though, Massie's principles are exactly what MAGA claimed to be, but failed to deliver on.

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reserved_seating@reddit

I’m starting to think that being vilified by Trump makes a more positive light on the person thsn Thump loving them. I absolutely kniw thsts a mi ority opinion though.

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ReindeerTypical2538@reddit

1000% agree. The fact that hard core MAGA don’t want to support Massie just shows what hypocrites they all are. Massie represents all the things Trump promised during the 2024 election. No new wars, Epstein files released, eliminate income tax, reduce government spending, reduce national debt. Trump has utterly failed in all of those. Not to mention our national debt is so high I doubt our kids will ever be able to pay it down.

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richard-mt@reddit

Can’t render implies they have a snowballs chance. The two party system is baked into the constitution. First-past-the-post in geographical regions means there is no prize for a distant third. If you want power you make coalitions, you get moderate/centrist/and extremes to those two parties. But third parties can’t exist.

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CCWaterBug@reddit

I'll just wait and not lose sleep over it until it happens. My city is 200k and iirc Jonhad like 164 votes, so frankly, it doesn't really matter, I'll likely vote libertarian again, but after 12 years of this it's seems pointless

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c03us@reddit

A vote on principal is never wasted. 16 years here and every drop counts.

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CCWaterBug@reddit

I'd like to at least see some growth in the numbers, this is negative progress territory, and frustrating.

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c03us@reddit

It is. But on average only like 60% of the population turns outs and votes. To me that means 40% would rather abstain than vote. That’s a big enough portion to feed a third party run. Just have to stay consistent and keep voting even if we don’t particularly like our candidate that cycle.

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BringBackUsenet@reddit

Don't give a flying rat's ass!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X4Z1lLUMfw

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NotTheOnlyGamer@reddit

It's too late to start running a minor-party candidate for 2028, frankly. The times and places to run a candidate for third-party were in local elections - mayors, governors, state legislatures, and then maybe congressional. Without building a base like that, there's absolutely no hope winning 2028.

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PitsAndPints@reddit

Ultimately, I think the focus on a presidential race will continue to be misguided without strong local/state-level libertarian representation. The vast majority of people don't even know typical libertarian policy positions. It's always misrepresented as "republicans who like weed" or "democrats who like guns", depending on who you ask

I don't have an answer on the "who" for 2028, but the problem with people like Jo Jorgensen is simple, and it's the reason she struggled to get 1/2 the votes Gary Johnson did: she was an absolute charisma vacuum. I know he was an independent, but compare her to H. Ross Perot. People still talk about him 30 years later. At the end of the day, elections are popularity contests. It's got to be someone who can inspire, or it will be more of the same

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RocksCanOnlyWait@reddit

Top of the ticket (president every 4 years) gets the most visibility and most money. Its useful for communicating party platform, which influences down-ballot. The down-ballot races are based more on name recognition than policy.

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Chrisc46@reddit

There's a catch-22 here.

It's very difficult to win local elections without some form of widespread presence. Most people vote single party down ballot.

It's very difficult to win national elections without having proven success more locally.

Many positions locally are elected without party affiliation. We've had libertarians win some of these elections, but it doesn't resound with party support because the person was elected without obvious party attachment.

I'm of the opinion that local elections cannot be won at any meaningful rate without a strong national showing first. Most people focus their attention on national news and national elections. This is where the message must be in order to gain widespread support. Then state and local elections will follow.

Don't misunderstand. I'm not suggesting we should not try our damndest to win locally. I'm saying it will be easier to do so with a strong national presence. 5% in a presidential election should be the primary goal. That will free up significant funds for campaigning at all levels due to less money spent on ballot access.

There's another significant issue, too. It has to do with the success of libertarian policy. I believe it cannot be successful locally while so much local wealth is extracted and regulated by the Feds. So, until we stop taking so much money from the people, big"ish" local government is necessary to fight for the return of that money.

It's a major uphill battle from all directions. So, even if someone like Massie could secure ballot with a 5% showing as a Libertarian candidate, we'd be throwing away a real opportunity for him to win as a Republican. So, we both need a good LP candidate, but don't want to waste that person in the LP.

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sonicmouz@reddit

Massie would be good. Although at this point I think the party just needs to rebrand as something new and fresh and drop all the "democrats who like guns" from party leadership. There is too much baggage associated to the LP and an endless amount of fodder for them to use against the party each election.

But really, anyone will be a better choice than Chase Oliver.

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Flamadin@reddit

They won't be perfect, I guarantee you that.

But I think we need to be cool and push the cause forward.

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confederate_yankee@reddit

Massie - hands down

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230Amps@reddit

I do believe he is the only person with public visibility who has any chance of garnering as many votes as Johnson or Jorgensen, other than maybe Justin Amash.

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