The Mises Caucus just wrapped its tour of Austrian economists and libertarian influencers with its last stop in Austin, TX. I planned to speak at the afterparty, but the event location, Parler & Yard, totally messed up our reservation and scheduled a live band at the same time. Fail.
I spoke at the candidate training the next day instead, and touched on some important things like data collection and walk lists, in addition to my planned talk for the afterparty. Here's a rough draft of the talk I gave. I have a lot more to say on some of these topics as they become increasingly relevant in intraparty politics and as we enter into the 2024 election cycle.
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LP Texas is in a difficult spot. The GOP is fighting an existential threat here, against democrats and gun control. The thought of Texas turning to a blue state chills me to the bone. I understand why Republicans are trying to drive out the Libertarian Party. Sometimes LP Texas comes across as California, when it needs to be more like Davy Crockett. We need to be seen as the backup, the reinforcements, not the leftists who champion cringe causes like child transition.
What do you want your little slice of the world to look like? Think about that and put it out there for people to see.
The shit that we’re doing is hard.
We’ve got to run administrative processes, fundraise, train candidates and understand policy while responding to current events and setting our own cultural trajectory.
It’s challenging. It’s a lot of work, but no one ever said it was going to be easy.
The levels get harder and harder, like a video game. Taking over party leadership is like level 2 in a 20 level game.
2024 needs to be a year of Reckoning for the people in positions of political power. 2018 was weak sauce. Republicans have no idea how to play the game.
When Saul Alinski was asked if he could organize any place, which place did he choose? He said he would organize hell. That's what these people want. They want to unleash hell on Earth.
And we can't let them.
That's what we're up against.
And the work that's involved in combating them requires a lot wisdom and discernment.
We have to recognize our ability to become monsters in order to defeat monsters. But we cannot allow ourselves to actually become that monster.
Because evil can never drive out evil. Evil invites evil in. That's the lesson of communism. That's the lesson of Nazi Germany.
Evil can never overcome evil and then switch back to good. And that's why Alinsky tactics cannot be successfully employed by libertarians or conservatives.
There is great political evil afoot. Sometimes people get uncomfortable with that word because it’s a spiritual sort of word. Well maybe we’re fighting a spiritual battle and maybe we aren’t. But the first step in losing the battle to evil is to explain it away or try to pretend that it doesn’t exist.
There is no room for naivety going into 2024.
I think our mistake in the past has been that we were far too lenient with allowing evil into our midst and it's put us at a great disadvantage.
The evil people have risen to power and they're ahead of us. On some level, many of us (throughout history) felt bad about calling it out. We wanted to be inclusive, we didn't want to seem like bullies, we wanted to be progressive. And evil got a foothold. And it crept in. And it took charge.
But the story isn't finished yet. And I do believe that in the end, good triumphs over evil.
Now we have to use our best judgment to figure out who around us is just misguided and who is truly evil. That's where issue coalitions come in. Truly evil people wont share common cause with you.
It's our duty to lovingly but assertively share the truth with misguided people so they do not fall prey to evil.
And we must give no quarter to evil. We are a new generation. We are not the complacent boomer generation. We are not McCains or Cheneys. We have the energy and fortitude to run principled, local campaigns and to rebuke evil all the way up to the World Economic Forum, not just in words but through our actions.
We can win local elections. We can run counter economies. We can drive them out of our towns. We can cut them off from our people. We're gonna be like the shepherds who defend their flocks from wolves.
Embody that energy going into 2024. No predators allowed. There's a new sheriff in town and we're here to drive out the evil.