One year ago, would you have thought it possible for the Libertarian Party to cohost an event in Washington DC with 3,000 attendees, headlined by Ron Paul, Tulsi Gabbard, and Dennis Kucinich?
It seems surreal.
We hosted the largest anti war rally in 20 years.
During the Iraq war years, the Democrats were the anti war party. They marched, rallied and lobbied against war. They owned the cause. It was embarrassing to be a Republican and have to defend "weapons of mass destruction". Libertarians were politically irrelevant in the larger anti war conversation. That is no longer the case.
The new anti war movement is spearheaded by Libertarians and people on the left who are NOT Democrats.
We began working on this rally in November of 2022. A few months prior, Will Hobson (OR - LP) had introduced me to Nick Brana, Chair of the People's Party. Will is a Mises guy who comes from the left and he's been passionate about making sure we do outreach to the dissident left. Yes, there are leftists who are still anti war, anti mandate and pro free speech, but they're scattered - much like the parable of The Remnant.
Nick and I had a productive livestream conversation where we compared & contrasted our areas of agreement and decided to continue having a working relationship. In a small group chat, we decided that our next project would be putting together an anti war action.
We slowly gathered people from the LP and the Peoples Party and began holding once a week organizing calls. We started out extremely disorganized and moved the rally date twice, finally settling on President's Day weekend and the one anniversary of the war in Ukraine.
Things began to really take shape in late December and early January. During this whole process, I had a baby, spent time in the hospital, had a trip to the ER, the holidays passed, and of course Nick and I both had the responsibilities of chairing our national parties. In spite of it all, we set a date, invited a slew of speakers, began to assign tasks to other volunteers, and started to work on fundraising. (Our volunteers are currently working on a post mortem review right now.)
By mid January, things were looking good. By late January, I was panicking that we weren't bringing in enough money and our some of our speakers were fighting. A week before the event, it was clear that we were actually going to pull this thing off. The whole experience was a serious rollercoaster, and I have newfound respect for people who promote large events like FreedomFest and INC.
People flew in from all over the country for this event. A few people traveled from Europe. We had multiple hotel blocks. We had multiple afterparties. A "Free Assange" advertising truck was hired to drive around DC.
The morning of the rally, our volunteers were excited, everyone was in good spirits, and I was as anxious as ever, running around and trying to do as much as possible. Slowly, but surely, everything came together and thousands of people slowly trickled onto the Lincoln Memorial lawn.
The whole experience was surreal. I co hosted while feeding Arthur backstage and trouble shooting the livestream, green room woes, and Russian flag wavers. But it all worked out. Watching Dennis Kucinich, and then Tulsi Gabbard, walk to the stage and take the microphone and give fiery anti war speeches was an incredible moment. Introducing Ron Paul and handing him the mic blew my mind. Thanking him while I held Arthur was probably a defining moment in my life.
But it's not about me. It's about the party and the rebirth of a much needed anti war movement. By working closely together and having skin in the game, we've solidified a wonderful working relationship with many people on the left. We've found that we share a common cause. We want to oppose the American war machine and we're willing to work together.
As scary as the threat of nuclear war is, I'm optimistic for the future of the Libertarian Party and the potential we have to effect great change.
