Why Jo Jorgensen should be Graceful, and Perhaps Critical

With the election down to a couple of states that seem to be stressfully in play, Pennsylvania and Michigan chief among them, we see the Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen scoring anywhere between 1 to 2 percent in the Pennsylvania polls, and a bit higher on average in Michigan.

She also is polling significantly in Florida, North Carolina, Arizona, Ohio and other states. In several states, including some of the aforementioned, she was polling higher than the Trump-Biden spread. Her numbers have shrunk in recent polling since many of her supporters already know what I posit in this article, but this piece is for Mrs. Jorgensen and for those that still don’t.

Admittedly I am far from an expert on Jorgensen. Her positions alone command admiration and respect, and from a brief review, I am humbly in agreement with the vast majority of them. I wish her and her supporters much health and success. However, the following must be stated.

Polling these numbers at this stage of the race is crazy! Put plainly, the numbers are sufficient to potentially cost Donald Trump and the GOP the Presidential race in certain battleground states (and thus nationally), and they are infinitely too small to indicate any possibility of victory.

The Libertarian party is not the GOP, and Jo Jorgensen is certainly not Donald Trump, and this is why I would never imply that Jorgensen, any libertarian, or anyone else for that matter not enter a race, and campaign vigorously. In the case of the Libertarian party at the very least there is a crucial important message for the citizenry during a campaign, and there is no reason why any Libertarian candidate should not plan and campaign for victory.

That phase is behind us now. The American people heard the Libertarian message to the extent Jorgensen and the party were able to convey it. It is part of the political conversation and definitely does not fall on deaf ears when it comes to Republicans. But at this point, it is inconceivable that any patriot with Libertarian beliefs, would endanger their country falling into communist hands. If not communist in name, certainly in espirit de corps¹.

Let me try to address these points briefly, as this is not the place for a full analysis of libertarian principles. Sufficed to say that a quick perusal of posts in the Lighthouse, have convinced many that your humble author is himself a libertarian. Certainly, I am not opposed to its core principles, and am a fierce proponent of individual liberty, and enemy of the detestable swarms of powerful state bureaucracies.

The GOP in Libertarian Eyes

The GOP can be seen generally in two ways in its relationship to the libertarians, depending on the specific GOP candidate.

If we are talking about a good GOP free-market loving candidate, then depending on what type of a libertarian you are and to what degree, you either see the candidate as mostly correct, but with some important differences in specific issues such as the military and foreign policy, OR basically a “politicaly correct” libertarian candidate.

In democracies, we recognize that people either always say what they truly believe, or they can be elected for office, but not both. In some ways the GOP is just an electable version of the libertarian party.

On the other hand when we are talking about a poor (and all too common) GOP candidate, the more accurate way of seeing the candidate from the perspective of a libertarian, is that he represents the same socialism as the other party. One may be bigger on tax and spend, while the other is bigger on deficit and spend, but neither will cut the power nor scope of the federal (or state or local) government. The GOP, in the hands of that type of folks, can be seen as a Democratic party that pays lip service to liberty and the free market but no more.

So it really depends on the candidates. When you only have two major parties, there is a big variance within them over time and between candidates.

Donald J Trump is not an ideologue by any stretch. But ironically, he may be closer to a Libertarian President than any other president in modern history. His willingness to do things and cross lines that other Republicans wouldn’t, regardless of their ideology, is simply awe inspiring. He also has shown an amazing ability to learn ad improve his positions. The socialist bureaucracy, the entrenched state crony-capitalist, corporatist, authoritarian regulatory and judicial tyranny, which Trump calls the “swamp” has no bigger enemy than Donald Trump.

Some libertarians may focus on a few specifics, such as tariffs and trade, which in the totality of the situation is closer to nitpicking and missing the forest for the trees. This is not the place for an in depth analysis of appropriate trade policy in regards to trade deals, and Trump’s positions in comparison, but sufficed to say that it must be understood that Trump uses tariffs as diplomatic tools and not a preferred economic policy for the United States.

For example, in the real world, though perhaps not in a libertarian utopia depending on your specific brand of it, countries are in conflict with each other at various levels. This can mean full scale war, and often means any number of lower intensity conflicts including diplomatic disputes and economic clashes. As long as you accept that situation, you realize that sometimes, if not nearly always, the tools used in these conflicts may not be the best policy for your nation and citizens in and of themselves. That is, when viewed in a vacuum.

For example, going to war may not be the best economic policy. Embargoing a nation whose allies embargo you back many not be the best economic policy. Shooting nuclear missiles at an asteroid heading for earth may not be the best economic policy, if taken out of context.

The left loves tariffs themselves, not as a tool in the diplomatic arsenal, but for the taxation (and pillaging) effect it has on its own citizens. The left hates international trade and loves embargoes and barriers to trade, not as a means to reign in enemy states, but for the very protection it provides its corrupt industry supporters, the regulatory control over the what the country’s own citizens will consume, and for the restriction of free market competition.

Trump and Trade

Trump uses trade policy and tariffs, as part of his negotiation toolkit with other nations, usually in the hope of achieving freer trade, and not as a preferred policy to punish his own citizens. One may agree or disagree with this position, but the fact that it is more nuanced than reported should be noted.

Trump, for all his love of tough negotiation, detests military conflict. He loves (probably over-estimated) Generals and fiercely respects the troops, but he is the last one to send them into harm’s way, often in sharp conflict with many Republican figures. This reality lies at the core of the conflict between Trump and Bolton, who is the type of Republican that would like to bomb everyone (what the leftist media often calls a neo-con). Trump is no pacifist I imagine, but is very far from a Bolton.

Culturally, Trump’s lack of classism, racism and sexism might appeal to libertarians. He treats everyone, man or woman, black or white, the same. Equally good or equally bad. Democrats should love this about him, instead they call him antiwoman and a racist for it (he insults many more white men than women or minorities of either gender, but they never call him “anti-man” or “anti-white”). The truth is he praises and criticizes people with equal opportunity.

Conservatives often treat people differently, especially men and women due to the western historic values they hold; values such as chivalry, and at the least some scaled down versions of it. I certainly do. Trump doesn’t really do that, and ironically the left hates him for it.

In many ways Trump is a Libertarian President. He is not a dictator, and works within the possible framework, and so his reforms are limited, but he pushes it further in that direction than anyone we have seen in recent memory.

The Biden-Harris Alternative

Then we have the opposing side. While Trump may be in fact one of the most appealing candidates for a libertarian, the Biden-Harris ticket should be one of the most odious.

These are not the two major parties of a few decades ago, where both believe in mainstream American ideals, and both are leaning towards a larger government (that a libertarian would obviously like to halt). The Democratic party bears no resemblance to one where Kennedy could say “Ask not what your country can do for you..”.

Without digging deeply, just look at the ad Kamala Harris recently released. It is not only creepy, cringeworthy and weird, but a blatant call to Marxism seldom so honestly seen in the United States.

#communist much? https://t.co/H1F3ng1Ga8

— Erik Zimerman (@ZimermanErik) November 2, 2020

For the past two election cycles, I have called Bernie Sanders either the only honest Democrat or the only Democrat with a dictionary. I always found amusing that it was headline news that he admitted to being a socialist. Barak Obama is not a socialist? Hillary is not a socialist? John Kerry is not a socialist? But Sanders is? Their platforms are identical, and they are all socialists obviously. Some actual believers like Obama and Sanders, while others politicians who will follow the polls such as Biden and Hillary, but all have and will push for a socialist America.

In the last few years, the Democratic party has taken another large step to the fringe. It is now trying to appease a rampaging mob of hippies and losers who threaten to burn everything down if they don’t get other people’s toys. This has combined with the extreme leftist education where genders are no longer knowable, all countries, religions and cultures are better than our own (whatever those may be), all things including science (which they think or claim they believe in) must pass their politically correct censor to exist, and total control is given up to their elites so that they may dictate to the peasant mobs how to live.

The contrast could not be sharper, nor the stakes higher. A Trump Presidency leaves an America under the constitution, where further free market initiatives are welcome in the debate and a libertarian candidate may one day take office. A Biden-Harris administration, especially with the House and Senate in their hands, is the end of the Unites States as we know it. A place where neither the GOP, nor much less small parties like the Libertarian party, can dare to challenge the new order.

A gluten free, vegan and socialist new order that they will enforce at the point of a gun.

For the libertarians, there are local elections, congressional elections, and future elections that may all be very relevant and make sense. I personally wish them many electoral victories. A presidential one does as well up to a point. And we are passed that point. If the US was a parliamentary democracy (Gd forbid due to a myriad other reasons), as is Israel and much of Europe, then there rarely is such a case as a “wasted vote” as your party can obtain one member of parliament, twenty, or fifty… either way part of the process and a potential member of the ruling coalition. This is not the case when voting for the President of the USA. Every vote for Jo Jorgensen will be wasted because she was not able to convince a sizeable portion of her compatriots that she was the right choice. One day before election day is cutting it as close as possible.

I am sure Jo Jorgensen is a very nice, very intelligent and very competent lady, and for her intellectual independence and courage alone, as a long time libertarian leader, she has my respect and admiration, but as a patriot, she should urge her supporters to vote for Donald Trump, and help stop a marxist takeover of her country. Certainly her dislike for statism does not go to the extent of canceling her patriotism? We know better than that, a people and a nation are not their government.

The opportunity for her, her supporters and her ideology is great. The coverage of such an announcement alone would likely dwarf any coverage by the mainstream until now. She would have the opportunity to highlight and differentiate her agenda from Trump’s, and Biden’s, and explain her choice, with a hope that next time Americans will allow the libertarian candidate to be a major ticket if not win outright. There are many ways to bow out gracefully, productively and creatively.

If she does not however, I trust that many of her supporters, who rightly have no problem telling a pollster that they will vote for the Libertarian party candidate, will inherently know the danger we are in and as patriots throw in their lot during the actual ballot casting with Trump in 2020!

1. In this piece of course I am assuming that the vast majority of Jergensen supporters are ideological libertarians. It is quite possible that she also attracts all sorts of other hippies, greens, lefties and snowflakes for whom Biden is too “right wing”! It is possible that many of her polling supporters are confused and attracted to the candidate or party more as a “Third way”, “Independent” or “Other”, than with the understanding of what the libertarian party is. To the extent that this is the case, it may change the calculations herein. But my uninformed gut feeling in the matter is that though these may exist to some extend, Sander supporters and the like, I would think the vast majority of her supporters understand and agree with the ideology.