The Libertarian Party Chairman’s Underwhelming Case for the Party Leadership’s Success

Last week, I wrote about how the United States Libertarian Party’s new leadership put in place by delegates at the party’s May of 2022 national convention has through the November of 2024 general election to demonstrate its success through election results. It seems that the party’s chairman has a different take.

In April, Libertarian National Committee Chairman Angela McArdle posted at Twitter a tweet that remains pinned to the top of her Twitter page. Though the tweet was written months before I wrote about the party’s leadership, it looks like a response. Maybe McArdle has been hearing from many people concerned that party leadership may be off track. Here is what she wrote in the tweet in entirety:

How is the Libertarian Party doing lately? We're working hard and doing great. Thanks for asking.

Of course, that statement is just assertion. But, there is promise of backing information for that assertion in the form of a video included below the text.

When you watch the brief video, however, persuasive backing is fully absent. You might expect talk of success in campaigns that were completed since the new leadership took control, as well as about the promise of ongoing campaigns. Campaigns, however, received no mention. Instead, the talk is about (1) how bad the old leadership was, (2) how the new leadership is presenting better ideas to the public and party members than did the old leadership, and (3) how the new leadership has “been working diligently on fixing our internal processes, fine-tuning our project management, and understanding our priorities.”

All three of these things talked about in the video are of little significance in judging the success or failure of leadership of the party. The old leadership is long gone. Complaining about it and blaming it becomes less relevant by the day. Assuming the new leadership is presenting better ideas, that is nice but also a pretty minimal achievement that does not do much to advance election campaigns and can even inhibit them if the leadership becomes obsessed with advancing messages directly at the cost of neglecting advancing campaigns. Fixing how the party works behind the scenes is also nice, but at some point even a well-oiled machine that does not perform the work for which it is intended should be scrapped.

from Peace and Prosperity http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/peace-and-prosperity/2023/september/28/the-libertarian-party-chairman-s-underwhelming-case-for-the-party-leadership-s-success/

Ron Paul Has a New Book!!!

Here's the amazing news: Ron Paul has a new book! As you know, Dr. Paul is a New York Times bestselling author and has written numerous books including "End the Fed," "Liberty Defined," "Swords into Plowshares," and many more.

Paul's brand new "The Great Surreptitious Coup: Who Stole Western Civilization?" zeroes in on our acute social, political, economic, and moral crisis and goes back through history to explain what is happening, who is responsible, and how we can right a ship that has drifted seriously off-course.

From ancient Sumeria to the Enlightenment to the dawn of the Progressive era to the assassinations in the 1960s to the emergence of "woke" and Cultural Marxism to our current predicament, this book packs a mighty amount into a small package!

Published by Dr. Paul's Institute for Peace and Prosperity, the book is available for a limited time and in limited quantities as a "thank you" gift for your tax-deductible donation to the Institute. You will not find this book anywhere else...and you most definitely will want to read it!

How to get your copy of "The Great Surreptitious Coup"? There are three levels of support that will get you a copy of this book. For a donation of $50 or more we will send you a soft-bound copy of the book. For $100 or more Dr. Paul will hand-sign a soft-bound copy for you. And for a tax-deductible donation to the Ron Paul Institute of 150 or more, Dr. Paul will sign a HARD-BOUND "forever" copy of his latest book for you.

Looking for that perfect Christmas gift that you won't find at the corner store...or even the bookstore? Help out a great cause and get your hands on this collector's edition of some of Ron Paul's best work.

Here's the easy part: after you make your donation you don't have to do anything! Our staff will look at each day's contribution list and automatically mail you a copy of the book according to your level of support. The only thing we will ask is that you make sure your donation address is your mailing address. If not, drop us a line and we'll fix it for you.

Help the Ron Paul Institute continue making the case for peace and prosperity and enjoy Ron Paul's terrific new book! What's not to like? And thank you!

from Peace and Prosperity http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/peace-and-prosperity/2023/september/19/ron-paul-has-a-new-book/

Put Up Time for the National Libertarian Party Leadership

Reasonable people will look at Libertarian Party candidates’ election results — votes largely, but also the nature of attention obtained — through the November 2024 general election to judge if the new leadership of the national Libertarian Party has succeeded or failed.

The new leadership, put in place in May of 2022 by delegates at the Libertarian Party’s national convention, so far has seemed most focused on communicating in social media, helping put on an antiwar rally in Washington, DC, and urging officeholders from other parties to vote a certain way. Whatever success is achieved from these three endeavors can be expected to be viewed as largely beside the point by many people whose aid is important for the party’s functioning. Much else may be happening behind the scenes, though. Political parties are uniquely about candidates and campaigns, and it is mostly by the performance of candidates and campaigns that most people can be expected to assess a political party’s achievement or lack thereof.

The November 2022 general election — occurring less than half a year after the new leadership took charge — was too soon to pin on the new leadership. In contrast, the two years later November 2024 general election is all theirs, assuming they stay in charge through that election.

Has the party leadership been taking actions that will lead to impressive campaign results through 2024? We’ll have to wait and see. Without such results that are easily communicable and discernable, you can expect volunteer and monetary support for national party activities to slacken. The party leadership should be ready to be judged by this old, familiar standard: “Put up or shut up.”

from Peace and Prosperity http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/peace-and-prosperity/2023/september/18/put-up-time-for-the-national-libertarian-party-leadership/

Reject Masks and Mask Mandates Says the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons

You may have expected that by now all the mask pushers would have presented their mea culpas. But, some of them still cling to and bluster on about quack assertions that wearing masks is important for stopping the spread of coronavirus, as well as totally safe.

Anthony Fauci, the United States government’s former chief coronavirus fearmonger, is among these “wear your mask” diehards. Earlier this month, he was still advising that people wear masks to counter the threat of coronavirus despite the continually growing mountain of evidence that this course is both ineffective in achieving the stated objective and dangerous to one’s health.

With many individuals working in government, media, and medicine trying to stir up fear of new “variants” of coronavirus, expect more calls to “mask up” — as the American Medical Association puts it — and even the imposition of new mask mandates.

In their effort to protect freedom and health in the face of new pressure to wear masks, individuals can look to a statement issued Tuesday by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) for succinct information countering the “wear your mask” demand.

The AAPS statement lays out quickly and clearly that masks threaten multiple medical problems for wearers and fail at preventing the spread of coronavirus. The statement further argues that mask mandates are intolerable because they violate the fundamental medical principle of informed consent. And the statement provides links to supporting evidence.

The AAPS statement concludes with the following:

As masking mandates are contrary to the fundamental medical principle of informed consent, all masking mandates currently in place must be rescinded, and no future mandates should be imposed.

Furthermore, since masking mandates for viral illnesses provide no clear benefits, while creating potential for harm, individuals should be empowered to choose to not observe such mandates that are either currently in existence or that may be imposed in the future.

Read the AAPS statement here.

from Peace and Prosperity http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/peace-and-prosperity/2023/september/14/reject-masks-and-mask-mandates-says-the-association-of-american-physicians-and-surgeons/

Ron Paul at The Duran Discusses Nonintervention and the Military-Industrial Complex

Many supporters of the United States pursuing a foreign policy of nonintervention have benefited from information and insights presented at The Duran regarding developments around the world.

A recent The Duran episode is one not to be missed for these individuals, with prominent nonintervention proponent Paul joining hosts Glenn Diesen and Alexander Mercouris in discussing topics including both the noninterventionist US foreign policy supported by American Founders and the military-industrial complex.

Watch the episode here:

from http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/peace-and-prosperity/2023/september/08/ron-paul-at-the-duran-discusses-nonintervention-and-the-military-industrial-complex/

Drug Enforcement Administration to Consider Marijuana Rescheduling

Back in April of 2016, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informed members of the United States Congress that the DEA hoped to release in the first half of that year its determination of whether marijuana should be moved from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act to another schedule. Such rescheduling could result in a curtailment of aspects of the US government’s war on marijuana. Come August of 2016, the DEA announced it had decided marijuana should be left in Schedule I — the category for which the greatest drug war restrictions and penalties apply.

Here we go again. On Friday, Riley Griffin reported at Bloomberg that the DEA will be initiating another review of marijuana’s presence in Schedule I after receiving an August 29 letter from the Department of Health and Human Services recommending moving marijuana to Schedule III. We’ll have to wait and see if this review, unlike the previous one, leads to a schedule change.

All the while, despite approval of marijuana legalization being the majority view among Americans — be they Democrats, Republicans, or neither — Congress leadership has year after year refused to hold a vote on simple, straightforward legislation to end the US government’s war on marijuana and leave marijuana policy to state and local governments that continue to liberalize marijuana laws. This has been the case under both Republican leadership that blocked the consideration of legalization and Democratic leadership that backed exclusively legalization legislation including extraneous provisions that ensured the legislation would not gain approval.

American marijuana legalization can provide a much bigger gain for freedom than can shifting marijuana among the Controlled Substances Act schedules.

Keep in mind that the majority of American voters — and the majority of the subgroups of Republican, Democratic, and other voters — have supported marijuana legalization. In October of 2017, looking at such support for legalization in polling, I commented that I would not be surprised if the US government legalized marijuana within five years. Next month will be six years since I made that comment. Oh well. The US government has an impressive ability to resist taking actions favorable to freedom, even when such actions have broad-based public support.

from Peace and Prosperity http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/peace-and-prosperity/2023/september/05/drug-enforcement-administration-to-consider-marijuana-rescheduling/