Dave Smith and Justin Amash were together on a “call” tonight on the app Clubhouse. There were 1,000+ listeners and tens of random participants who asked questions. It was all very cordial; they said the things you would expect them to say if you have been following their careers over these recent years. And while they (and we) can circle jerk about “unity” and how we are all on the same team, the unspoken battle for who will carry the torch of liberty for the Libertarian party is already underway.
While I certainly enjoyed the call, what inspired me to write this article (or whatever the fuck this is) was what somebody said in a different post-call discussion “room.” This room had many LP participants, some Mises Caucus members, and a hell of a lot of people whom Tom Woods would classify as “The Loser Brigade.” Archie Flowers and “Br1anna Taylor” (I think, I have this person blocked) from Twitter were in attendance, to name a couple. Spike Cohen (I’m not ready to call him loser brigade) was also an active speaker.
One of the participants posited the big question, and did so in a very disingenuous way. He said something to the effect of, “So guys, we all are supporting Justin Amash over Dave Smith right? Because that would be a joke, we all know Amash is a well-established statesman with national appeal and a serious candidate.”
This really fucking pissed me the fuck off, for several reasons. I was not a speaker on the call; I could have “raised my hand” to be “allowed to speak,” but you have to be called on; nobody knows who I am; I just joined Clubhouse today and have zero “followers;” I was very unlikely to be called on, I was drunk, I was feeling inarticulate, and I was distracted by the end of the baseball game. But I have still been thinking about what I would have said for the past 1-2 hours, so I will write it here on my shitty blog instead.
First of all, this is an extremely disingenuous (and disrespectful) way to frame the question. We all know that a very large and influential faction of the Libertarian Party (The Mises Caucus) absolutely will support Dave Smith over Justin Amash. The person who asked the question knows this; everyone on the call knows this. So don’t be a disingenuous douche and just fucking make your case why you support Amash without being a fucking douche.
Spike Cohen was a speaker on this call. He ran for the VP slot AS VERMIN SUPREME’S RUNNING MATE. Vermin Supreme. The guy who wears a boot on his head and is offering you a free pony in exchange for your vote. Looking at who was on the call, I know for a fact many of these peoples’ first choice for President in 2020 was Vermin Supreme. So hand-waving away a presidential candidate’s run as “a joke” is not a compelling argument.
Dave Smith for President 2024 is not a “joke.” It is very serious. And he is the far better choice than Justin Amash. Let’s talk about Justin Amash.
Amash said during the main call, when responding to a marketing professional who brought up polling, that he does not look at polls. This is a fucking lie. Amash chose not to defend his congressional seat precisely because he looked at the polls and saw he was poised to suffer an embarassing defeat. So he started a public feud with the sitting president of his own party, supported his impeachment, left the party to join the Libertarian Party, and chose not to defend his seat. Okay, broheim.
This rubbed me the wrong way because I was a Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) kid right after college. YAL helped him get elected. We sat in a room at the Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia and made phone calls for him 12-15 hours a day during the stretch run to promote his candicacy and get him elected. What is YAL’s strategy? To work within the Republican Party to promote libertarian ideals. He signed a pledge agreeing to this strategy in exchange for financial support and an army of young people. He agreed to play nice, but vote libertarian. Do you think publicly feuding with the Republican president and then leaving the party honored his pledge? I think not. And I will never forget.
So where is Amash’s national appeal? By the end of his congressional run he was deeply unpopular in his own congressional district, to the point where he didn’t even defend his own seat. We are all aware of the incumbency advantage in American Politics, and he couldn’t even bank that. He as done. Only then did he join the LP. And where does his national name recognition come from? From breaking with his party to support the impeachment and oppose Trump. He’s the anti-Trump guy. How far does being anti-Trump get you in mid-2021 when Trump is no longer president? You need only look at the ratings of CNN and other left-wing media outlets in the post-Trump world to find the answer to that question. But by far the main reason I support Dave Smith over Amash was how Amash acted when he was kinda/sorta/maybe running for president in 2020.
When Amash announced his presidential exploratory comittee he had a brief moment in the national spotlight. He was invited onto national televison. He was askedd the softball of all softball questions: “Why are you running for president?” And how did he use his moment to shine? He said something to the effect of, “Americans are tired of partisan bickering and are looking for a rational, level-headed 3rd option.” SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!! I was ashamed and embarassed.
Just imagine for a second what Dave Smith would have said if he was given that platform. What do you think he would have said? Would he have squandered the moment? What are we even doing here? Dave would have said politicans and their institutions are fucking evil. They are liars, thiefs, and murderers. I am running for president to dismantle the Military Industrial Complex. I am running for president to End the Federal Reserve.
Justin Amash failed the test. You have to know by know that the alphabet agencies have infiltrated the LP from the get-go. If you aren’t willing to say what Dave Smith is willing to say, you are a presumed Fed. That’s really all there is to it. If you aren’t willing to go on national television and call the press the enemy of the people, call politicians liars and murders, you are at best a fucking bitch, and at worst (and the more likely option) a Federal Agent. See Joshua Ferguson’s video on this subject for more (although I will add the disclaimer that I do not think Pete Quinones is a Fed; I think he’s our guy). Read his excellent Substack “By Any Memes Necessary.”
Thank you for reading my blog post. End Medical Fascism; End Foreign Wars; End the Drug War; End the Fed.