US Libertarian Party Convention: Trump visits radical skeptics

Donald Trump is doing something tonight that has never happened before in US history: He is giving the closing speech at a Libertarian Party convention. Why is the hopeless party being courted so much?

Anyone looking for a prime example of the political horseshoe model that describes the programmatic rapprochement between the extreme right and the extreme left will find it in the early history of the American libertarians.

Angela McArdle, the current party leader, tells C-SPAN about the beginnings: “The Libertarian Party was founded in 1971,” says McArdle. “An interesting mix of founding fathers, left-wing hippies and right-wingers who were not involved in the government had come together in opposition to the Nixon administration to advocate for less government spending and a peaceful foreign policy, no overseas wars, no to Vietnam!”

Radical individualists and Government skeptics

Peace movement met government scepticism and extreme individualism, seasoned with a pinch of anarchy. What started as a movement mutated into a political party – with two wings, to this day. “Our party is split between the minimalists, who want little government, and the anarchists, who want no government at all! No one in our party wants to pay taxes. A few are in favor of small taxes to finance the military and a few selected government functions.”

At best, national defense, that is the libertarian credo. The radical individualists consider transferring billions to Ukraine or Israel to be an irresponsible waste of money. “We reject both! We want the USA to stop all support for Israel and all other countries. We should not finance conflicts overseas. The USA should stay out of other countries’ foreign policy!”

What does Trump expect from the libertarians?

Education also does not belong in state hands, says Angela McArdle. The head of the Libertarian National Committee advocates homeschooling and, if possible, private schools. This radical distance from the state, coupled with unshakable faith in the self-regulating powers of the market, goes far beyond what is thought on the right wing of the Republican Party. So what does Trump hope to achieve with his guest appearance with the Libertarians?

“We have to join forces with them,” Trump said last weekend at the gun lobby NRA, “they will get at least three percent of the vote. Three percent that we could be missing against Biden!” In any case, Trump’s appearance today is attracting enormous attention to the libertarians and their concerns. A win-win situation, then?

It is not clear whether the likely Republican presidential candidate will be able to draw votes from the libertarian camp. “Maybe a few votes, but not mine,” said delegate Anne Lepeltier at the Voice of America.

What role does the independent Robert Kennedy Jr. play?

And what about Robert Kennedy Jr., the independent who, according to a recent CNN poll, could receive 11 percent of the vote in the presidential election?

We will see whether there is a common future with him and the small party, Kennedy recently told “NewsNation”. There have long been rumors in political Washington about a formal merger for mutual benefit.