It is hard to imagine a starker contrast in outcome than what unfolded at two major political party roundups over the 2024 Memorial Day weekend. The national Libertarian party met in Washington D.C. to choose their party leadership as well as their candidates for president and vice-president of the United States, kicking off their federal election campaign for 2024. Meanwhile, halfway across the nation in San Antonio, Texas, the local Republican Party of Texas held their state convention to choose local party leadership, finalize the local party platform, and kick off their state-level election campaigning. The outcome and message of the two conventions were dramatically different; as widely divergent as national ambitions and local responses have been in the last few months. The party stage at every level is set to showcase the contrast between elitist dream-world and local, real world. It was these two conventions that seemed most likely to sign their names to the coveted titles: “best imagination” or “best turnaround story.” Voters can sign in to decide who won soon.
The Libertarian convention was an unmitigated disaster (this is not the suspense/thriller section so no spoiler alert needed). Public image disasters, shady backroom dealings, and possible Deep State interference left the party looking like they took a wrong turn and missed the circus. Supporters of small government, natural law, and Austrian economics, who had hopes of building up the party Murray Rothbard helped to establish, were short changed and robbed at the concessions stand. In other words, the results left them feeling grossly unrepresented. One of the convention’s major players, presidential candidate and Austrian scholar Michael Rectenwald, later summed it up with: “The lack of integrity amongst these people… I’m stunned.”
The Republican Party of Texas convention had its fair share of political bull moose fighting – forgive the term; it was only for lack of access to the urban dictionary. However, these side shows were dealt with and nullified by Texit supporters. Ironically, this was the group that most of the preliminary antler-clacking was aimed at. After the recent denial of a non-binding vote on Texit, Republican party leaders had hoped to use the convention to begin purging pro-Texit elements from the party platform and ranks. The effort failed thanks to a dedicated stand by Texit supporters who not only resoundingly defeated the effort to remove the Texit endorsement from the platform, but also elected a chairman who had signed a pledge to allow a vote on Texit in the near future. While there is still a lot of work to be done to make Texit a reality, grassroots supporters notched up a huge victory defeating the machinations of the national Republican party leaders who disdainfully consider them “the wrong kind of voters.”
The stark contrast in results between the two conventions should not come as a surprise. Though they have not held any real government power over the fifty odd years of their existence, the Libertarian party still has a national presence which in turn grants them a significant amount of influence power with the public. This power is a temptation for those with the worst motivations; the kind of people whom great thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas, Lord Acton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Philip Zimbardo, and Michael Huemer seemed to preemptively (as much as for their contemporaries) write eloquent warnings about through the centuries. The Libertarian party fell victim to individuals more interested in exercising power than sticking to principles. Thanks or no-thanks to the fact that distance will protect many of these scoundrels from the ire of local voters and activists, this was a gathering where those who were guilty of the grossest usurpations of power will never feel real consequences.
Comparatively the state Republican party, though it has held government power locally, is limited in the exercise thereof because of its closer proximity to its base. This means it is easier for the local people to influence party leaders and convention organizers. It also ensures they can hold them accountable later on. It was these handicaps on the power of the party which was a key to enabling the Texit supporters to succeed where Libertarian believers had failed.
The lesson that should be taken from these two conventions is a very simple reality: power is best reserved and best checked at the most local level possible. The more widespread an organization (of any kind), the more opportunity exists for abuses. In short, it is simply not possible for a national organization to implement a small government policy from the top down. History shows the failure of the Jeffersonians to stick to their principles when they came to national power, a story explained by both Patrick Newman in the first book of his Cronyism series and Kevin Gutzman in his most recent work, The Jeffersonians. It is a lesson which many who want to salvage the founding principles of America would do well to implement.
The good news is that there are many signs of improvement in local autonomy. Nullification and secession practices are growing more popular with common people, and both terms are shedding the derogatory association that has burdened them since the mid-nineteenth century. As states and other localities nullify orders from the imperial capitols, the impotence and crumbling power of these massive national and international entities will become more obvious for citizens. This will open the doors for secession to be implemented by more and more localities until governance is returned to the people, where it ultimately belongs.
In the meantime, there will be more wailing and grinding of teeth as the worldview of “top-down solutions” crumbles under its own weight. It is not that the party usurpers are bothered too much, but the Libertarian Convention fallout has been loud enough to make it hard “to hear oneself think,” quoting British comedian Jeremy Clarkson. However, pain will give way to the joy of discovering the truth: that “we the people” have the power to take back governance ourselves. We only need the courage and discretion to use the tools we already have to make it a reality.
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