Part Of The Problem - Dave Smith - Libertarian National Convention 2024
Aired: 2024-05-30
Duration: 01:13:46


=== Engaging With The Alt-Right (10:13) ===

[00:00:00]  Fill her up!
[00:00:02]  You are listening to the gas human.
[00:00:08]  We need to roll back the state.
[00:00:10]  We spy on all of our own citizens.
[00:00:12]  Our prisons are flooded with nonviolent drug offenders.
[00:00:16]  If you want to know who America's next enemy is, look at who we're funding right now.
[00:00:21]  Every single one of these problems are a result of government being way too big.
[00:00:26]  You're listening to part of the problem on the Gas Digital Network.
[00:00:30]  Tears your host, Dave Smith.
[00:00:33]  What's up, everybody?
[00:00:34]  Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem.
[00:00:37]  I am Dave Smith, and I am joined, as always, by the great Robbie the Fire Bernstein.
[00:00:42]  How are you doing, sir?
[00:00:44]  I'm rallying.
[00:00:45]  I got a little sick down in Texas.
[00:00:46]  There's a lot of travel, but we're making things happen.
[00:00:49]  I am closing out what is, I mean, I got to say, undoubtedly, the craziest month of my career.
[00:01:01]  And I've been with you and you've done Skank Fest right into going to Europe amidst other podcasting.
[00:01:06]  So I know.
[00:01:08]  But this is, I mean, dude, in the month of May, it was Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, the crazy Libertarian National Convention.
[00:01:18]  And then I got the debate with Chris Cuomo coming up in a couple of days.
[00:01:21]  Plus, we were doing gigs in Washington.
[00:01:23]  And, you know, I mean, we've been all over the place.
[00:01:27]  A ton of travel.
[00:01:28]  I am very happy to be home for a few days.
[00:01:32]  I was gone for, I think, nine straight days, which is a lot longer than I like to be away from my wife and kids.
[00:01:42]  Although Lauren did come and meet me down at the convention, which was very nice.
[00:01:46]  So that was great that I got to see her, but I really miss the kids.
[00:01:50]  And so anyway, it's been great to be home.
[00:01:53]  For today's episode, oh, before we get into the episode, we should, let's do some quick plugs because we have a big theater show coming up on, what is it, on June 1st at Harrah's Resort in Atlantic City.
[00:02:12]  We're going to be doing a big theater show out there.
[00:02:15]  So please come on out to that.
[00:02:16]  There are still tickets available.
[00:02:18]  So let's fill that place up.
[00:02:21]  Gonna be a good time.
[00:02:22]  And then we're out in Las Vegas, June 14th and 15th.
[00:02:25]  And then I will be returning to the comedy mothership in July.
[00:02:30]  I was told there were a few tickets for the Sunday show left.
[00:02:34]  It's almost sold out already.
[00:02:35]  So if you guys want to come, make sure to grab tickets immediately for that Sunday show because it's going to sell out.
[00:02:41]  Doing Joe Rogan's club isn't, it's not the same as my typical gigs where months beforehand, you're usually able to get tickets.
[00:02:51]  These things move fast.
[00:02:53]  So anyway, come on out to all of that stuff.
[00:02:55]  And of course, the big Chris Cuomo debate coming up in just a few days over on Valutainment on the Patrick Bett David show, which is I love Patrick Bett David.
[00:03:08]  That guy is a savage, just an incredible human being.
[00:03:12]  And I'm very excited to go back on his show.
[00:03:16]  Okay.
[00:03:17]  So, you know, on this podcast, there's a, I think this might be a first in a sense, because basically over the last few years, the show is pretty much about the news, what's going on in the world.
[00:03:34]  And then occasionally we would talk about the Libertarian Party.
[00:03:38]  This episode might be the first time where the news is the Libertarian Party.
[00:03:44]  And I think that's a first.
[00:03:47]  So I thought we would do a recap of this wild Libertarian Party convention that I was just at, that I was a keynote speaker and also running around just doing a million other things.
[00:04:00]  It was quite an experience, unlike anything I've ever experienced before.
[00:04:07]  And the podcast schedule has been all messed up as a result of this intense traveling that I've been doing this month.
[00:04:15]  And so anyway, I haven't really given my thoughts much aside from a few tweets.
[00:04:19]  So I thought we could do an episode where we'd talk all about it.
[00:04:23]  I will, I'll try to be quick with this, but I do think it's necessary just to give a little bit of background for people who maybe don't know.
[00:04:34]  But so I joined the Libertarian Party in 2018.
[00:04:40]  And essentially the story is I was introduced to libertarianism when I saw Ron Paul on the debate stage with Rudy Giuliani in late 2007.
[00:04:51]  He sparked my interest and I fell down the rabbit hole.
[00:04:55]  And I just got obsessed with this stuff.
[00:04:57]  And I was, when I first found him, I thought Ron Paul's foreign policy views were so compelling.
[00:05:05]  But the whole libertarian package, I was skeptical of.
[00:05:10]  When he first started talking about the Federal Reserve, I remember thinking to myself, there's no way it works like that.
[00:05:17]  Because someone would have told me.
[00:05:20]  You know what I mean?
[00:05:20]  Like I would have heard of that.
[00:05:21]  You're telling me there's a shadowy cabal of people outside of the government who control the money supply and can print money out of thin air.
[00:05:32]  And, you know, and I wasn't sold on this complete laissez-faire free market economics, but I was so interested in the guy that I was like, I got, I want to read his stuff.
[00:05:44]  And then through that, I'd find, you know, other people who were, you know, like you're Googling Ron Paul and then Peter Schiff pops up and Tom Woods pops up and Murray Rothbard pops up.
[00:05:53]  And so, and I just got totally obsessed with it.
[00:05:56]  And pretty quickly, maybe, I don't know, three or four books in.
[00:06:03]  I remember I read pretty early on.
[00:06:06]  I read The Revolution, a Manifesto by Ron Paul.
[00:06:12]  And I read Meltdown by Tom Woods.
[00:06:18]  And there were other books in there.
[00:06:20]  I can't exactly remember what order, but pretty quickly, I was I was converted.
[00:06:25]  Like I went in to try to be like, now what's the hole in this argument?
[00:06:29]  And I found out that there weren't any.
[00:06:31]  And in fact, that there were lots of holes in my assumptions.
[00:06:35]  So anyway, I became a libertarian, became completely obsessed with this stuff.
[00:06:39]  I was doing stand-up comedy and that was my life.
[00:06:42]  And then, you know, fast forward through the years, I started this podcast.
[00:06:48]  The podcast started to grow a bit.
[00:06:50]  Really in 2016, I had a huge year with the podcast, which was the first time I did the Joe Rogan experience and got a big bump from that and started developing a little bit of a following.
[00:07:01]  And, but I was always, it was the Ron Paul days.
[00:07:05]  It was the best libertarian ever was running as a Republican.
[00:07:08]  And then his son was going to take the mantle and run for president in 2016.
[00:07:14]  So after the kind of after that movement kind of collapsed in 2016 and 2017 with the rise of Donald Trump and in many ways, the liberty movement was replaced by different movements.
[00:07:34]  And the alt-right at the time was one of those.
[00:07:38]  For people who are like my age, if you remember back in those days, libertarians owned the internet.
[00:07:45]  We owned it back during the Ron Paul revolution.
[00:07:48]  Ron Paul broke fundraising records without setting up a fundraising drive.
[00:07:54]  It was just groups on the internet got together and decided to do it.
[00:07:57]  And he was raising millions of dollars in a single day.
[00:08:00]  And if you ever looked at a YouTube comment section of anything political in those days, all the comments were like, end the Fed, Ron Paul, end the wars, like all this stuff.
[00:08:13]  And then around 2016, around 2017, that changed and the alt-right owned the comment section.
[00:08:20]  And it was all, you know, whatever, deport them all or gas the Jews or something like that.
[00:08:27]  Was it Pepe, all that shit?
[00:08:29]  This is also, by the way, part of the reason why I engaged so much with the alt-right at the time, which around that time in 2017 was when I, you know, talked to a lot of those guys and made some enemies with left libertarians for doing so.
[00:08:48]  But I thought it was kind of necessary because it was so tragic to me that this thing that was bubbling up, this Ron Paul revolution was like dying.
[00:08:56]  And I thought it was like the best hope for the country.
[00:08:59]  And at one point in 2012, I actually thought we were going to win.
[00:09:05]  I was wrong about that, but or at least at least in the short term, I was wrong about that.
[00:09:10]  But it actually looked there to me for a little bit, like Ron Paul was going to become the Republican nominee.
[00:09:17]  And even though I thought he would probably lose to Obama, I thought it would change the world that he was going to get on the debate stage with Barack Obama three times.
[00:09:25]  Anyway, so in 2017, this kid, Michael Heist, goes on the Tom Woods show, and he starts talking about how he's bringing the Ron Paul Revolution into the Libertarian Party.
[00:09:37]  And then in 2018, I held out for a little bit, but in 2018, Tom Woods joined.
[00:09:45]  And then I was like, all right, well, that's my, you know, that's my sergeant.
[00:09:51]  And so, or my general, I should say.
[00:09:55]  And so if he goes, hey, we're going over here, then we're going over there.
[00:09:58]  And Michael Heist just really inspired me.
[00:10:00]  Really smart guy, really principled guy.
[00:10:03]  And he really believed in this mission.
[00:10:07]  And, you know, we went on to become like very close friends and he will be a lifelong friend of mine.

=== Lockdown Propaganda Embarrassment (03:28) ===

[00:10:14]  Okay.
[00:10:15]  So anyway, fast forward from that, after around 2020, amid the disaster that was the Joe Jorgensen campaign and just her embarrassment, Scott Horton and Michael Heist tried to.
[00:10:36]  I think it's worth mentioning why she was such an embarrassment to us.
[00:10:39]  The single biggest one is just dropping the ball against speaking out against COVID.
[00:10:44]  But I'll hand it back to you because if there's any newcomers to our universe, they might not know why we so disliked her.
[00:10:50]  Oh, I mean, it was, well, look, aside from just personally being like, I mean, she, she doesn't, she doesn't know stuff and she's not impressive and she's not persuasive and there's those issues, but she would not, it's not just that she didn't go hard enough against the lockdowns.
[00:11:11]  You had the Libertarian Party official account tweeting out, like, be responsible, stay socially distant, like just perhaps never explicitly endorsing the lockdowns or the mandates, but totally falling for the propaganda, if that makes sense, like buying every inch of the propaganda along the whole way.
[00:11:34]  I remember there was this one speech Joe Jorgensen was giving, and it was at a park.
[00:11:40]  It was an outdoor speech because that's all you could do at that time.
[00:11:44]  This is during lockdowns.
[00:11:46]  And she's speaking to an entire group of people who are wearing masks outdoors because it was mandated.
[00:11:55]  And the park that she's in a few days prior, a dad had been arrested for having a catch with his son without wearing a mask.
[00:12:06]  And none of it came up.
[00:12:09]  She literally just gave a speech that you could have given in 1996 about being a libertarian, about how centralization of power isn't as preferable as decentralized laissez-faire free markets and how the war on drugs has been a failure.
[00:12:23]  And we oppose civil asset forfeiture.
[00:12:25]  And like she's speaking to a sea of masked people forced by the government to be masks outside.
[00:12:32]  And like that didn't come up.
[00:12:33]  We're in the middle of the biggest crackdown on liberties in our nation's history.
[00:12:38]  And just never, anyway.
[00:12:41]  Then when the summer of love came and the entire, after ruining the country, after like probably the greatest crime ever perpetrated against the American people by the American government, the lockdowns, all of a sudden it was okay when you were protesting racism.
[00:13:00]  And all of the science changed because racism.
[00:13:03]  And in this moment, rather than point out that hypocrisy, rail against the tyranny, she joined up with the cause and had her infamous, it's not enough to be passively racist.
[00:13:16]  We must be actively anti-racist moment.
[00:13:19]  So like in the middle of all of this, the largest transfer of wealth from the American people to the politically connected billionaire class, the greatest crime against liberty in our nation's history, at least on that big of a scale.
[00:13:31]  Her comment was, you know what the problem is?
[00:13:34]  Impure thoughts in your head.
[00:13:37]  That's the problems, Americans.
[00:13:39]  You're not nice.
[00:13:40]  Anyway, the campaign was just a total disaster.

=== Handing Over To Vivek (15:16) ===

[00:13:43]  And there were lots of other screw-ups along the way.
[00:13:46]  But anyway.
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[00:14:49]  All right, let's get back into the show.
[00:14:51]  So as that disaster ended, Scott Horton and Michael Heist started really trying to convince me to run for president.
[00:15:00]  And initially, I was like, you guys are fucking nuts.
[00:15:04]  Like, get out of here.
[00:15:05]  Like, I'm the comedian on the Legion of Skanks.
[00:15:07]  This makes absolutely no sense that I should be the candidate.
[00:15:10]  But the thing about Scott Horton is he's really, really smart and really, really good at arguing things.
[00:15:17]  And he just relentlessly pursued me to do it.
[00:15:20]  And after a while, I kind of, you know, I was like, well, I do say this libertarian stuff better than anybody else says it.
[00:15:30]  I mean, not anybody else, but better than most of them.
[00:15:33]  And, you know, the truth is, like, even if they bring up the most outrageous shit I've ever said, I could be good enough to kind of like pivot that into, you know, it's like, oh, that's what you're outraged about.
[00:15:43]  Well, here's what I'm outraged about type deal.
[00:15:46]  And so I considered it and I openly considered it.
[00:15:50]  And then at a certain point, I was just kind of sold.
[00:15:52]  And I was like, all right, this is what we're doing.
[00:15:54]  This is what all my guys want me to do.
[00:15:56]  Okay, we're going for it.
[00:15:58]  And, you know, this built up tremendous enthusiasm within this Mises caucus.
[00:16:06]  And we, and we did it.
[00:16:09]  And we, we, it, it culminated in Reno in 2022, where we, we won the entire party.
[00:16:16]  We took every single seat with super majorities.
[00:16:20]  Um, we were 70% of the delegation and we could just do whatever we wanted to.
[00:16:25]  And that was it.
[00:16:26]  And we decided we were putting all of our people in.
[00:16:29]  And then ultimately the next year, I pulled out of running.
[00:16:36]  And there's family related issues and a whole lot of stuff that was going on with me at the time.
[00:16:40]  And it just wasn't, it wasn't something I could do.
[00:16:44]  And this definitely like pulled the rug out from under our guys and took the wind out of their sails.
[00:16:50]  And a lot of our guys quit the party.
[00:16:55]  And that's kind of how it went down.
[00:16:58]  So anyway, that is all, I just think kind of the lead up to this weekend.
[00:17:04]  If you didn't know that, I think it's worth worth knowing to kind of understand what our role in all of this has been.
[00:17:10]  And that it seemed, you know, at the time, I think it, and I still stand by it.
[00:17:17]  I thought it was like an awesome thing.
[00:17:18]  It was fun.
[00:17:19]  I mean, you were a part of this, Rob.
[00:17:21]  And we were just like, yeah, you know what?
[00:17:22]  We're doing this.
[00:17:23]  We're taking this thing.
[00:17:24]  We got a bigger audience than any of these awful libertarians.
[00:17:28]  The chair at the time was out there, you know, attacking Ron Paul.
[00:17:32]  That was also part of it that I left out is that I went, I kind of really, there were guys like Tom Woods really was the leader of the liberty movement and still is in many ways.
[00:17:47]  He, when he joined, that's why I joined the party to do that.
[00:17:50]  But I was a little bit more willing than him to like, look, Tom's got five kids and he's busy being ridiculously successful.
[00:17:59]  So I totally understand it.
[00:18:02]  At the time, I only had one kid, but I was the one who was kind of like, no, I'll go debate the chair because he had challenged Tom Woods and Tom Woods was like, this guy's like nothing.
[00:18:13]  I'm not going to debate him.
[00:18:14]  And I was like, I'll do it.
[00:18:16]  I'll do that.
[00:18:17]  And that was a big thing too.
[00:18:18]  I went and debated the chair of the party at the time.
[00:18:21]  This is back in 2018.
[00:18:24]  Oh, wait, no.
[00:18:25]  Do I have that wrong?
[00:18:26]  It was 2019.
[00:18:28]  I can't remember what year.
[00:18:29]  You could look it up when I debated Nick Sarwalk at the Soho Forum.
[00:18:33]  And that I thought was actually kind of like that, that moment might have really been the beginning of the takeover because it was the current chair.
[00:18:42]  And he was at the time the longest serving chair in the party's history.
[00:18:46]  And I just wrecked him in this debate.
[00:18:49]  And then I had him on my podcast the next day and really wrecked him and really just like he went from being the longest serving chair in the party's history to a guy who, and this actually happened, tried to get like a rinky dink position in his state affiliate and lost to Noda, which is none of the above.
[00:19:07]  Like they chose no one in the position rather than him.
[00:19:10]  No one was running for the position and he lost in election.
[00:19:13]  It was like he just got completely wrecked.
[00:19:16]  All of the energy was with the Mises caucus.
[00:19:18]  We were doing something awesome.
[00:19:20]  We were trying to revive the Ron Paul revolution.
[00:19:23]  We were trying to turn the Libertarian Party libertarian and we were having a ton of fun along the way.
[00:19:28]  And the thing just kept getting momentum and more momentum.
[00:19:30]  And then it culminated in Reno, where we took everything over.
[00:19:34]  So anyway, I dropped out of running.
[00:19:39]  We had.
[00:19:40]  We lost some people and we cut to um this convention.
[00:19:44]  So that's, that's where we'll start.
[00:19:46]  Okay, first day, me and you go down Robin did a stand-up comedy show in a live part of the Problem podcast.
[00:19:51]  That was a lot of fun.
[00:19:52]  Huh yeah, it's chaotic uh, it's.
[00:19:54]  Uh, when you get the core Mecock group together, they seem to be a chaotic bunch.
[00:19:59]  Yeah they, they sure are, but it was a.
[00:20:00]  It was a lot of fun.
[00:20:01]  Um, did we put that episode out or did that ever?
[00:20:04]  No, that hasn't come out.
[00:20:05]  Maybe we will, maybe we won't.
[00:20:06]  I'm not sure.
[00:20:08]  Was that decision?
[00:20:10]  Were there problems with like the audio or anything like that?
[00:20:12]  Or did it come out okay?
[00:20:13]  I don't know.
[00:20:14]  Okay, we'll figure all that out.
[00:20:16]  But maybe I don't have more insight.
[00:20:18]  No, that's fine.
[00:20:19]  We'll figure it out.
[00:20:20]  Maybe you guys will be able to get that to you.
[00:20:22]  So anyway, because of Angela McArdle, who was the person that we put the person that we all supported for chair of this party and for a reason, she made this convention a show that has never been done before in the Libertarian Party.
[00:20:44]  And I'm sure as many of you know by now, she was able to get Bobby Kennedy Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, and Donald Trump to all come to pitch the libertarians on them, or in Vivek's case, on Trump.
[00:21:00]  This was, it was so great because it really put so many eyeballs on to the Libertarian Party and really, you know, was set up to present us as like, oh, here's this group that matters that all of these national figures want to come and try to persuade.
[00:21:21]  So anyway, we can, I don't know, I am almost struggling with the order of what to tell what.
[00:21:28]  So should I just go through the experience of what the those speeches were like?
[00:21:33]  So, okay, so Bobby Kennedy's speech was, look, man, that Bobby Kennedy is a real smart guy.
[00:21:40]  And he delivered a very, a very good speech and a very intelligent speech for that audience.
[00:21:47]  Like he knows what a libertarian is.
[00:21:49]  He knows what they care about.
[00:21:50]  And he talked about the stuff that probably we would all agree on.
[00:21:54]  He gave this really great speech about like going through the amendments in the Bill of Rights and why each one is so important and how our government has grossly violated all of them, you know?
[00:22:08]  And he got a very good reaction from the crowd.
[00:22:11]  He drew booze a couple times just because he doesn't even get exactly where libertarians are.
[00:22:18]  He had one line I thought that was really funny or it was funny that it drew booze, but he goes, the bottom line is that the American people no longer trust the CIA or the FBI.
[00:22:30]  And that got a big round of applause.
[00:22:32]  And then he goes, but when I'm president, I will regain your trust in the CIA and the FBI or something like that.
[00:22:39]  And everyone's like, no, that's not what we're looking for here, buddy.
[00:22:44]  But overall, he did very good.
[00:22:46]  Vivek Ramaswamy came and gave a speech and then did a debate that I moderated with Clint Russell.
[00:22:54]  He did very good.
[00:22:55]  He got a lot of big applause in his speech.
[00:23:00]  And then at one point, like he was saying a lot of things that libertarians love and they were like eating it up.
[00:23:05]  And then at one point, he was like, that's why you got to support Donald Trump and the booze that reigned out over him.
[00:23:13]  You know, that room, there was like 2,000 people in that room.
[00:23:16]  And I think every single one of them was booing him.
[00:23:19]  And, you know, if there was any question beforehand, which there wasn't much, but if there was any question, it was like, oh, I know how this Donald Trump speech is going to go.
[00:23:29]  This is, he's in for a rough, rough reaction.
[00:23:33]  Then Vivek debated Clint Russell and Clint did phenomenal.
[00:23:37]  I mean, he was just great.
[00:23:38]  Just, I mean, look, I like Vivek and I think he's great on a lot of issues.
[00:23:43]  And I just like the guy personally, but there's a few issues he's bad on.
[00:23:47]  And Clint really did just an unbelievable debate performance.
[00:23:52]  I was really proud of Clint.
[00:23:54]  Like he really, I mean, he had the place like electric, obviously home court advantage and all, but hey, these guys were coming to the libertarian convention, not the other way around.
[00:24:01]  So that's how it goes.
[00:24:05]  And then, all right, then there's Donald Trump.
[00:24:09]  It was surreal and hilarious.
[00:24:16]  I mean, I just can't tell you how I was just in the middle of that thing, just dying laughing.
[00:24:22]  I mean, it was just so funny.
[00:24:24]  I got to know, backstage, did you get to meet him?
[00:24:26]  Was there any secret service coming through?
[00:24:29]  Did he get pushed out of the backstage?
[00:24:31]  Like, what was the, what was the, him rolling up dynamic?
[00:24:34]  So I, I spoke, I, uh, I spoke before him very briefly for like five minutes or something like that.
[00:24:41]  Um, and uh, so I went up and I spoke.
[00:24:44]  Uh, so I had to get secret service clearance.
[00:24:48]  Like they had to, the day before they sub, I had to submit like all my information to them so they could run like background checks on me and stuff to get backstage.
[00:24:55]  Um, and then, so then the secret service like brought me backstage, um, but it was just all the speakers who were going on before Trump.
[00:25:04]  And then, uh, I gave my speech, I came backstage again.
[00:25:07]  And then like, uh, before they brought Trump in, they brought me out.
[00:25:11]  So that, no, I didn't get to meet Trump or nothing like that, um, which I don't know, you know, like you want to, but I'm like, I don't even know if I really want to.
[00:25:18]  I don't know what I would have said to him or something like that.
[00:25:21]  Just, but anyway, so Trump comes out to, I mean, just, I mean, just booze before when they announce him before he's stepped onto even the path to walk up to stage.
[00:25:37]  He's getting booed out of the building.
[00:25:38]  He's then heckled.
[00:25:41]  I mean, it was like, it was exactly what I asked the Libertarian Party not to do.
[00:25:48]  And I spoke in my keynote speech, which is not recorded, but that was, I don't believe there was anyone was recording it, but that was earlier in the day.
[00:25:57]  And what I said earlier in the day was like very specifically, I was like, guys, like if we're just booing him and not even letting him speak, then the narrative is that we're basically a bunch of college woke leftists who can't hear opposing views and shouted down a speaker.
[00:26:18]  But if the narrative is that we're gracious and respectful and let him talk, and then when he says something we don't like, we boo, then the narrative is like, look, the libertarians booed Donald Trump for saying this bad thing that they don't like.
[00:26:33]  And I was like, that's way better.
[00:26:34]  I don't think we should just cheer for him.
[00:26:36]  And then the narrative is Trump won over the libertarians.
[00:26:39]  But anyway, you know, trying to, and this is maybe one of the broader themes of things that I've learned from this weekend, but man, trying to herd libertarians is good luck.
[00:26:50]  I thought I thought that was a missed opportunity with Trump.
[00:26:53]  From what I heard of the speech, he basically came hat in hand and was speaking to things that he thought was important to the Libertarian Party.
[00:27:00]  I didn't listen to the whole speech.
[00:27:01]  I'm sure he deviated at times.
[00:27:03]  I don't think putting up a sign behind him that said, become be ungovernable was, I don't think that was particularly classy.
[00:27:11]  It almost felt like a college prank on a guy that you're putting up.
[00:27:14]  And also, I don't even know why that's the messaging of the Libertarian Party.
[00:27:17]  You can have a lot of places that you want to preach being ungovernable, but the pitch is supposed to be, we're going to get into government and make it better or we're going to do things from the standpoint of governance.
[00:27:27]  It just seems to be a little bit, I don't really understand it.
[00:27:32]  I also don't attend these meetings when these people come up with it.
[00:27:35]  And so you're not wrong.
[00:27:38]  It's not really it's not really for me to criticize, but I think there was an opportunity.
[00:27:43]  If you're going to invite a guy to come speak, just be respectful.
[00:27:46]  I don't really understand having the guy show up to boo him.
[00:27:50]  And it seems like he actually came in good faith to try and potentially work with the party or win people over.
[00:27:56]  So I don't know why booing the guy and making it a hostile environment felt like a win to the people that did that.
[00:28:05]  Yeah.
[00:28:05]  Look, I'm.
[00:28:06]  I'm not going to argue with you on any of that.
[00:28:08]  I think you make good points.
[00:28:10]  Can I also say, what's his name?
[00:28:12]  The old guy you were talking about before, the old head of the party.
[00:28:17]  What's his name again?
[00:28:18]  Sarwalk?
[00:28:19]  Yeah, Sarwalk.
[00:28:20]  Did you see him on MSNBC?
[00:28:21]  No, what did he say?
[00:28:23]  Bobby Kennedy.
[00:28:24]  No, he's an evil man lying through his teeth where basically he said that the Meekhawks represented MAGA.
[00:28:31]  We were a secret MAGA movement coming in to hand over the party to Trump.
[00:28:35]  And that's why he was invited to speak so that this could be our moment to hand it over to him.
[00:28:39]  And I mean, you know, you're lying through your teeth.
[00:28:43]  Yeah, he's a liar.
[00:28:44]  He's just, he's a bad person and a liar.
[00:28:46]  Yeah, he knows that's not true, but he's just saying it because he thinks that's the best thing to say.
[00:28:51]  Well, anyway, so Donald Trump comes out.
[00:28:53]  He's met with just booze and the hecklers are, you know, so at this point, by the way, and this will come up later.

=== Rechtenwald Heckling Moments (15:18) ===

[00:29:00]  So at by this point at this convention, the Mises caucus, our guys are, we're about 45% of the, of the delegation.
[00:29:08]  So we were, we were the biggest block, but we were not a majority.
[00:29:14]  So, you know, there's like, there's the Mises caucus, then there's like kind of people in the middle who have just been in the Libertarian Party their whole life.
[00:29:22]  And then there's the like Mises caucus haters.
[00:29:26]  We were a bigger block than the haters, but we weren't an outright majority like we were back in Reno, where we could just do basically whatever we want.
[00:29:33]  But in a situation like this, it almost doesn't even matter because even if we were 70%, you still can't control that 30% from just, and there are, look, the Libertarian Party is made up of some weirdos.
[00:29:47]  Not all of them, but there are a lot who are there.
[00:29:51]  I'll get into that a little bit more later.
[00:29:52]  But they're not only heckling, they're heckling like in the most embarrassing way.
[00:29:59]  Just, I mean, just like, again, not just heckling, but like heckling with no class, just like the type of stuff that would turn any normal person off from this.
[00:30:11]  So in the moment while I'm sitting there in the, I'm laughing because Trump is so hysterical.
[00:30:15]  The guys are so hysterical, but I'm also like, man, we are just like blowing this moment.
[00:30:22]  You know what I mean?
[00:30:23]  Like it could just, I'm not against the booze.
[00:30:25]  I was for the booze, but just like at the right point, and I didn't like the kind of the way people were trying to shout him down.
[00:30:32]  The one guy, I actually snapped at one point on one of the hecklers who was behind me.
[00:30:38]  And so I'm watching the speech.
[00:30:41]  And at one point, Donald Trump goes, you know, he's talking about the things he did.
[00:30:47]  And he goes, I fired Comey.
[00:30:50]  And the guy behind me screams out.
[00:30:53]  He screams because he was exposing you.
[00:30:56]  And I turned back to him and I went, that's not even the right heckle, idiot.
[00:31:02]  And the guy actually took it pretty well.
[00:31:04]  And he came up to me and he goes, well, what's the right heckle?
[00:31:07]  And I go, well, that he replaced him with Ray, who's every bit as bad as Comey.
[00:31:12]  That's the heckle.
[00:31:14]  No, that Comey was, no, Comey was framing him.
[00:31:16]  Like, do you even know stuff?
[00:31:18]  Like, you're here heckling the guy.
[00:31:20]  It's like, you don't even know.
[00:31:21]  Actually, in this round, he's right and you're wrong.
[00:31:24]  Oh, God, it's just so fucking cringy.
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[00:32:12]  All right, let's get back into the show.
[00:32:13]  So anyway, Donald Trump, he doesn't break from his script.
[00:32:20]  He's, he delivers a teleprompter speech.
[00:32:23]  There was one moment and one moment only when he broke from the teleprompter speech, and it was because it was such a great line because that he owned the entire room, dude.
[00:32:33]  One line.
[00:32:34]  One little line and Donald Trump just gave it to him.
[00:32:37]  But that was the only real like Trumpian moment of the speech where he broke from the teleprompter and was like, oh, you're hitting me.
[00:32:43]  I'm going to jab back at you.
[00:32:46]  And yeah, and it was funny.
[00:32:48]  We could work together or he can be an irrelevant 3%.
[00:32:51]  That's what you guys want.
[00:32:52]  You want to be irrelevant.
[00:32:53]  Okay.
[00:32:55]  Listen, he got us with that one, right?
[00:32:57]  However you feel about it.
[00:32:58]  That was a good, all right, that cut.
[00:33:01]  Aside from that, I mean, there were moments where he's reading off like, you know, an article by some libertarian who said Donald Trump's a friend to libertarians and he's making all sorts of pledges.
[00:33:14]  He did promise that he would pardon Ross Ulbrich on day one.
[00:33:19]  We'll see.
[00:33:20]  Not holding my breath on that, but I sure hope that happens.
[00:33:26]  And he, you know, promised a bunch of other stuff about, you know, cutting taxes and deregulation and stuff like this.
[00:33:32]  And at one point, he, you know, he brought up the NRA and that got booze.
[00:33:37]  And I did, I did just think that was really funny because I know in Trump's mind, he does not understand that at all.
[00:33:43]  You know what I mean?
[00:33:44]  Like he does not understand that.
[00:33:47]  Like, wait, I thought you guys were four guns.
[00:33:49]  You must love the NRA.
[00:33:51]  Anyway, turns out there's, you can get further to the right on that issue than the NRA or to the libertarian, whatever.
[00:34:00]  So anyway, it was funny.
[00:34:01]  It was, it was a spectacle.
[00:34:03]  It was just wild.
[00:34:04]  It was kind of surreal, the whole thing.
[00:34:07]  And anyway, so that was the Donald Trump day.
[00:34:11]  So now, just to talk about a little bit about what happened with the Libertarian Party.
[00:34:17]  So we, so the day earlier that day, I think it was earlier this on Saturday, as I mentioned to you before, we're 45% of the room or something like that, or the Mises caucus guys.
[00:34:35]  So in order to win, we need to get like another 5% plus one of the room, you know?
[00:34:45]  So we just, we need, it's not like Reno where we can just do it all ourselves now at this point.
[00:34:50]  It's, it's us and we need a little bit of help.
[00:34:55]  And we get that help.
[00:34:57]  We, Angela McArdle gets reelected.
[00:35:01]  The Mises caucus still controls the LNC.
[00:35:05]  I think if you look at the chart, like almost all of our guys got in.
[00:35:08]  It's not Reno.
[00:35:09]  It wasn't 100% of our guys, but almost all of them got in, but not with the super majorities that they want.
[00:35:16]  They were winning with, you know, 53%, whereas in Reno, they were winning with 73%.
[00:35:21]  So it's clearly, we didn't have the juice that we had back then, but our guys are winning.
[00:35:27]  And I, I went into Sunday.
[00:35:33]  Well, I should say this.
[00:35:34]  I went into Saturday night feeling pretty good, feeling pretty good about where we were and thinking Michael Rechtenwald was the favorite to be our presidential nominee.
[00:35:47]  It wasn't a shoe-in, but he was our favorite.
[00:35:51]  He, you know, I don't want to say anything negative about Rectenwald.
[00:35:55]  I really appreciated that he ran.
[00:35:58]  He did a really good job at the presidential debates and he did a really good job throughout the weekend.
[00:36:03]  He had a bad, a bad moment on stage before Donald Trump.
[00:36:07]  And then that I was concerned about because I was like, oh man, that might have been the difference.
[00:36:11]  That might have put us in jeopardy.
[00:36:12]  We had very thin margins here to work with.
[00:36:15]  And ultimately.
[00:36:18]  Can I ask what the moment was?
[00:36:19]  I didn't hear about this.
[00:36:22]  He kind of choked, let's just say, in his in his speech before then.
[00:36:26]  I think there were some related reasons for it, but whatever.
[00:36:31]  I don't want to get too into it because it's over and we lost.
[00:36:33]  And so whatever.
[00:36:34]  I'm not trying to, but there was a thing that didn't go good for him.
[00:36:37]  Let's just say that.
[00:36:39]  So we go into the presidential elections the next day or determining the nominee.
[00:36:49]  And the way it works in the Libertarian Party is like the delegates vote.
[00:36:55]  They put up the results.
[00:36:57]  And then you have to break 50% in order to win or be the last man standing or whatever.
[00:37:05]  I guess you have to go till you break 50%.
[00:37:07]  I think actually is the rule.
[00:37:10]  And so it comes in, Rectenwald's in first place on the first ballot.
[00:37:15]  And then like people start coming off.
[00:37:17]  And then you have another round and another round and another round.
[00:37:20]  And this is, it went, I think, eight rounds, eight or nine rounds.
[00:37:24]  And Rechtenwald was in first the entire time.
[00:37:28]  So like Michael Heiss, who's a goddamn genius, had like mapped all of this out.
[00:37:33]  And he was like, listen, this is how it's looking.
[00:37:35]  According to my like projections, it's going to go like this.
[00:37:38]  And he was like completely right about the whole thing.
[00:37:40]  And he goes, when the last thing that's going to happen is this guy, Mike Termat, is going to come off the board.
[00:37:47]  And he's, he's already assured Michael Heiss and Rechtenwald multiple times.
[00:37:53]  He's promised them that he knows that Chase winning is the worst thing for the party.
[00:37:58]  And so he will endorse Rechtenwald when he comes off.
[00:38:02]  And we're like, with that endorsement, we're pretty much a lock to get the nomination.
[00:38:08]  He said that day on the floor, Rechtenwald checked in with him again, was like, you're going to endorse me, right?
[00:38:14]  He's like, 100%.
[00:38:15]  You got my endorsement when I come off.
[00:38:18]  It finally comes down to Chase at Rechtenwald and Termat comes off the board.
[00:38:25]  And he goes over and tells Chase that if Chase makes him his vice president, he'll support Chase.
[00:38:35]  So he lied to Heiss and to Rectonwald.
[00:38:38]  I mean, listen, it's politics.
[00:38:40]  This shit happens.
[00:38:41]  He did what was ultimately in his interest to the detriment of the party and to the detriment of keeping your word.
[00:38:51]  It's all's fair and love and war or whatever.
[00:38:54]  It's not something I would ever do.
[00:38:56]  I just think like, I don't know.
[00:38:59]  I think if you're, if you have an ounce of integrity, you don't, you don't lie like that.
[00:39:03]  But whatever.
[00:39:04]  That's, you know, that's, that's on him.
[00:39:08]  And that he endorsed Chase and that ultimately put Chase over.
[00:39:11]  And it finished with Rechtenwald at about 45%.
[00:39:15]  He got all of our people, but he didn't get anybody else.
[00:39:19]  And so that's where we are.
[00:39:20]  Chase is the presidential nominee.
[00:39:22]  The Mises caucus still controls the LNC, but this guy is going to run for president with Mike Termat, the lying cop, as his vice president.
[00:39:35]  Can we talk about why we'd like to disassociate with Chase as much as possible and how it's even possible that 55% of the Libertarian Party could be interested?
[00:39:44]  Well, look, sure, we can get into all of that.
[00:39:50]  I want it.
[00:39:51]  Listen, I'm really trying throughout this to number one, not be a sore loser.
[00:39:58]  And number two, take the blame for this, because I do think this is on me.
[00:40:05]  And I see people putting blame on Heiss and Rechtenwald.
[00:40:09]  And I just don't think that's right.
[00:40:10]  I don't think these guys did anything wrong.
[00:40:12]  It was me.
[00:40:13]  I was the one who like was planning on running and made that known.
[00:40:18]  I got people excited for that.
[00:40:20]  And I was the one who pulled out of that.
[00:40:22]  You know, I didn't exactly promise them that I was going to run, but I certainly led people to believe that because I was planning on doing it.
[00:40:35]  There was, I mean, there were different periods.
[00:40:36]  Like there was a period when I was considering it.
[00:40:38]  There was a period when I was like, look, I really don't want to do this, but if no one else better is going to do it, then I'm going to do it.
[00:40:43]  And then there was a point where I was like, all right, I don't think anyone else who will do a better job is going to step up.
[00:40:47]  So I'm going to have to do this.
[00:40:49]  Anyway, all of that being said, I have to acknowledge the reality of the situation.
[00:40:59]  And that is that the takeover failed.
[00:41:04]  And, you know, it's not as if it failed in some monumental way.
[00:41:10]  We really, it was really just the one thing we lost, but it happened to be the biggest thing.
[00:41:15]  And it's all that matters.
[00:41:17]  You know, even I'll say this, okay?
[00:41:19]  Cause I wanted to mention this.
[00:41:21]  Going into Sunday, going into the presidential elections, even though I had been, even though I had implored the libertarians to not behave in the way that they had, and even though I was kind of disgusted by the manner in which they heckled, just like I just found it classless.
[00:41:39]  And again, Trump's a war criminal.
[00:41:41]  He's a terrible president.
[00:41:42]  He's all these things.
[00:41:43]  I'm not against like, it's not that I'm saying like we got to be nice to him.
[00:41:46]  I'm just saying it's like to understand that you just don't want to be that.
[00:41:51]  There's a different way to do it.
[00:41:53]  But I wake up in the morning and all of the headlines, I mean, we were, we were in every goddamn media publication in the world.
[00:42:03]  And I mean, it was covered in the New York Times and the Washington Post in Reuters, in the Associated Press, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, the BBC, all of them.
[00:42:18]  And all of the headlines were like different versions of the same thing.
[00:42:22]  Like Donald Trump makes his case to libertarians, gets booed out of the building.
[00:42:27]  And I was like, oh, that's really cool.
[00:42:29]  Because when Rechtenwald is the nominee, it's like, oh, you got this like kind of right-wing libertarian guy and his party hates Donald Trump.
[00:42:41]  Well, why is that?
[00:42:41]  It'll lead people to ask questions.
[00:42:43]  Well, what is it?
[00:42:43]  What are our gripes with Donald Trump?
[00:42:45]  I go, okay, cool.
[00:42:46]  That could be like massive exposure.
[00:42:48]  This could be, this could all work out really good.
[00:42:50]  The problem is that then when the nominee is Chase, it's like, oh, it just answers the question itself.
[00:42:58]  It's like, oh, because you're all a bunch of progressives.
[00:43:01]  That's why you hate Donald Trump.
[00:43:03]  And it's just the whole thing kind of falls apart.
[00:43:06]  Look, as I said, I congratulated Chase.
[00:43:11]  I walked up and shook his hand and said, congratulations.
[00:43:14]  You ran a really good campaign, you know?
[00:43:17]  And I thanked him for being so good on the issue of war because he really is like very anti-war.
[00:43:22]  And I think he means it.
[00:43:24]  I mean, from listening to the guy and having brief conversations with him, I don't think he's just saying good anti-war things.
[00:43:30]  I think he really means it.
[00:43:32]  And so there's that.
[00:43:32]  That's a positive.
[00:43:34]  The problem with Chase is that he is so, has been so woke and like in the in the past, he, he moderated a lot of that stuff for the presidential campaign.
[00:43:53]  Like he wasn't talking about this, but I mean, just you could just see the reaction already since he's been nominated that it's everybody's found all the stuff that he believes in.
[00:44:04]  And so even when he has some good views, like he's very good on war, the problem is that when you're, when you're running for president, you're, you're essentially trying to sell people on this idea of libertarianism.

=== Selling Libertarianism For President (02:37) ===

[00:44:18]  You're going on a big speaking tour.
[00:44:20]  And when you marry it with some of the other views that he has, it's just, it's a non-starter.
[00:44:26]  You know, he's for, you know, if you're for transing the kids and open borders, you're just never going to get anyone.
[00:44:37]  It's, it's just, it's going to be a disaster.
[00:44:39]  And, you know, it's something that I think we need to distance ourselves from because that's not us.
[00:44:44]  That's not what we support.
[00:44:46]  And particularly, you know, it's like, I support, it's not just like I support the chemical castration of children, which is bad enough, but it's, I support that.
[00:44:57]  And you're a bad person if you don't.
[00:45:00]  That's always like the energy.
[00:45:01]  And I just can't be a part of anything like that.
[00:45:04]  So I don't know if there's anything you want to add about distancing us.
[00:45:09]  Well, I only, it's something when it's like you hold family to a higher standard.
[00:45:14]  And I felt that way with George Jorgensen when she started talking about anti-racism.
[00:45:19]  And it, you know, it's just, that's, that's not our pinnacle issue.
[00:45:22]  Our pinnacle issue is freedom.
[00:45:24]  It's getting rid of the Federal Reserve.
[00:45:25]  It's not being overly taxed.
[00:45:26]  It's about having your freedom and them having their freedom and government not being racist towards us.
[00:45:32]  You know, these are the causes that we're supposed to be talking about.
[00:45:36]  And by the way, also in the moment when Jorgensen's talking about this, government is being racist, but against white people.
[00:45:42]  Right.
[00:45:43]  You know what I mean?
[00:45:43]  Like DEI is the law of the land.
[00:45:46]  Anyway, keep going.
[00:45:47]  So I haven't, I never heard the name until he won.
[00:45:50]  I haven't watched all of his clips.
[00:45:52]  I don't have an absolute understanding of who he is or where he's coming from.
[00:45:56]  But the statements I saw along the lines of supporting the training story, happy hours.
[00:46:03]  Yeah, he was defending, defending Drag Queen Story Hour.
[00:46:06]  Oh, what's the big deal?
[00:46:08]  It's just a guy in a dress reading a book to a kid.
[00:46:10]  It's just a lot of this baggage.
[00:46:12]  And, you know, one of the things that's interesting, and it's been a fascinating dynamic to watch over the last few years in the Libertarian Party, is that those guys will call us culture warriors.
[00:46:24]  Like they're like, oh, you guys just care about culture war issues.
[00:46:27]  And really, for anyone who listens to this show, I don't think you can say that that's our emphasis, that we just want to get bogged down.
[00:46:35]  I have a, what I have is just like, to me, seems like an incredibly boring position on all of this stuff.
[00:46:46]  It's only controversial because this has made a controversy in the wild times that we're living.
[00:46:51]  Like, yeah, my position is that like, no, like, I mean, you can call yourself a woman, but you're not.

=== Questioning Party Character (17:16) ===

[00:46:56]  You're still a man.
[00:46:58]  Biology is real.
[00:47:00]  Men shouldn't compete in women's sports.
[00:47:03]  Keep anything sexualized away from children.
[00:47:07]  Are these controversial opinions?
[00:47:09]  Like, is that how crazy the world is?
[00:47:11]  And it's not the thing that I like to talk about the most.
[00:47:13]  And for the most part, when I'm talking about it, I'm talking about how it's a distraction that these war criminals are using to rob you blind and keep the war machine going.
[00:47:22]  But they, in a weird way, they don't see themselves as culture warriors, even though they're doing the same thing just from the other perspective and just going, yeah, what's the big deal?
[00:47:32]  The man in a dress wants to play with a boy, whatever.
[00:47:36]  Anyway, there's a lot of really bad takes.
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[00:48:30]  The point you made about like keeping family close or something like that, like Joe Jorgensen and Chase and the they are calling themselves libertarians.
[00:48:37]  They're representing libertarians.
[00:48:39]  That definitely plays a role in it for me.
[00:48:41]  But I also got to say, like, even if, you know, I was thinking to myself the other day, I was like, man, how would I feel about Chase if he was an anti-war leftist?
[00:48:50]  Because I love a lot of anti-war leftists.
[00:48:51]  You know, like, let's say he didn't use the term libertarian and he was just a leftist who was like, hey, I'm an anti-war leftist.
[00:48:58]  And even when I was thinking about it, I was like, even the anti-war leftists aren't woke.
[00:49:03]  Even none of them, none of the anti-war leftists that I love are ever talking about trans and the kids or defending Drag Queen Story Hour.
[00:49:10]  That's not their deal.
[00:49:12]  They have different differences on healthcare and education and stuff like that than us, but even they're not for open borders.
[00:49:18]  None of them say that.
[00:49:20]  And even they're not for all this woke stuff.
[00:49:23]  So it's just, it's tough.
[00:49:25]  It's tough to have that representing libertarianism.
[00:49:29]  But this is where we are.
[00:49:31]  And in large part, because of me.
[00:49:34]  So I got to take those lumps.
[00:49:37]  Look, when I said the thing like the takeover failed, I just, I can't lie to you guys.
[00:49:43]  That's the one thing.
[00:49:44]  It's the one currency that I trade in is that I tell you the truth.
[00:49:48]  And I value telling the truth as a value in itself.
[00:49:55]  But look, if us taking over the whole party, the outcome was this, then that's, there's only one word to use to describe that.
[00:50:04]  And that's failure.
[00:50:06]  This effort of ours didn't work out.
[00:50:08]  And that's okay.
[00:50:09]  You know, I've succeeded a lot in life and I've failed a lot in life.
[00:50:14]  And the failures are always a little bit tougher, but you always learn more from them.
[00:50:19]  And that's something I'll definitely teach my kids as they get older.
[00:50:25]  And that's something I try to keep in my mind in moments like this.
[00:50:30]  But there really is, there's no getting around that reality.
[00:50:35]  I think that the progress that I had made, the not unsubstantial progress that I had made over the last four years of really convincing a lot of right-wing, influential people that, hey, there was something to take seriously here in this libertarian party.
[00:51:00]  And we had generated a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of interest from people like, you know, in the whatever you want to call it.
[00:51:12]  I know we still use the word podcast, even though it makes no sense, but in the podcast news on the internet world, and I'm talking about people like that with substantial influence, a lot of them much, much bigger than CNN.
[00:51:26]  Then a lot of them had really started looking at the Libertarian Party and at least saying, oh, okay, this thing that Dave's leading is like a serious force.
[00:51:34]  This is something we should have a little bit of respect for.
[00:51:37]  And in one weekend, those four years of work was all completely undone.
[00:51:42]  I mean, it just evaporated.
[00:51:45]  And I can't even argue with it.
[00:51:46]  It's like, okay, yeah, I deserve that.
[00:51:49]  I mean, there's between behaving like a bunch of college leftists when Trump was there and the nominee ultimately being like, trans the kid, you're a bigot, make sure to socially distance, you know, guy, open the borders immediately.
[00:52:05]  Yeah, I mean, I can't even really argue with them.
[00:52:07]  I'm like, yeah, okay, this wasn't, this did not turn out the way I had hoped it would.
[00:52:13]  That's just the reality of the situation.
[00:52:18]  So I gotta, I gotta own up to that.
[00:52:21]  And I'll tell you, I don't know that I'm in a little bit of an awkward pickle here because my guys are still there.
[00:52:33]  Like the LNC is still run by the Mises Caucus guys, and those are my guys.
[00:52:38]  And I can't just abandon my people.
[00:52:40]  And so like I'm not, I'm still a member of the party.
[00:52:46]  And I think that I'm not like immediately like, hey, I'm leaving this party.
[00:52:54]  Angela McArdle is an absolute savage.
[00:52:59]  And I think she's done a phenomenal job.
[00:53:01]  She has put up with enormous amounts of shit and tons of stuff like thrown her away from all sides.
[00:53:10]  And I don't think she deserves any of it, or at least much of it she doesn't deserve.
[00:53:15]  And I'll do whatever I can for her going forward.
[00:53:18]  I mean, she's got my number.
[00:53:19]  And if she, if there's something I can do to help her, I'll happily do it.
[00:53:24]  But I will tell you, there was an experience really being there this year that I think I got to take a little bit of a step back just from the level of involvement I have in the party.
[00:53:36]  I don't think I'm helping them.
[00:53:37]  And I certainly don't think it's helping me.
[00:53:40]  And I think that my goal of putting these ideas that I really care about in front of as big an audience as I can get them in front of and saying it in the most compelling way, because I think that matters.
[00:53:56]  I think moving the needle matters.
[00:53:57]  I think ideas are powerful.
[00:53:59]  And I think the government sure thinks so too.
[00:54:02]  And that's why they rely on propaganda so much.
[00:54:05]  I can do that the same way I'm doing it now without the Libertarian Party.
[00:54:10]  And I don't think I'm particularly helping the Libertarian Party at all with my involvement at this point.
[00:54:17]  I think that, you know, when we were 70% of the room, it was a different thing because we could do what we wanted to do.
[00:54:28]  And I had my guys, you know, I had like Michael Heist being the point man organizer and they had all these guys and I have, and it was like, okay, we can decide how we're going to shift this thing.
[00:54:39]  But I think that to have that level of enthusiasm, it required me planning on running for president.
[00:54:47]  And I think the only way I could get that back is to run.
[00:54:51]  And I don't think, you know, I mean, I don't know, but I can't ever just like float out the idea of doing that again unless I'm 100% going to come through on it.
[00:55:01]  And I'm not in a position right now to say I'm 100% going to run for president in four years.
[00:55:06]  I can't say that.
[00:55:07]  I don't know what my life is going to look like, what my career is going to look like at that point.
[00:55:11]  I don't know what would be the best move for the liberty movement, for myself, for my family, you know, and short of that, obviously, Chase being the nominee is going to drive a tremendous amount of our people away.
[00:55:25]  And look, in the same sense that I said, I deserve that, like I deserve to take this loss and to take and to lick my wounds right now.
[00:55:33]  And like, I, I deserve that, but he also deserves that.
[00:55:38]  He deserves our people not to support him.
[00:55:40]  Chase went out of his way when we took over the Libertarian Party.
[00:55:47]  He tweeted that he does not want to be associated with the LNC at all, that something about them being racist and bigots.
[00:55:57]  I can't stand by with racists and bigots.
[00:55:59]  He said, please don't, I do not endorse this Libertarian Party.
[00:56:03]  Please don't like promote me or use anything like me.
[00:56:07]  By the way, there's a crazy thing here is these are still the people who control the Libertarian Party.
[00:56:12]  So I don't know how they're going to feel about that.
[00:56:15]  But now he's going to want funding and help from them, even though he specifically said no.
[00:56:20]  But the problem is when you say that, then it's like, okay.
[00:56:23]  Look, I got into this with somebody on Twitter, somebody who I like on Twitter the other day, but they were, you know, I congratulated Chase, but I had a long post kind of saying what I've been saying on this show, but in a more condensed version.
[00:56:40]  And I was I was saying that, you know, I congratulated him, but obviously I can't endorse him or vote for him.
[00:56:51]  And they were like, oh, how come you're not going to endorse him and vote for him or something like that?
[00:56:54]  Like, and it's like, listen, dude, if I had run and I had been the nominee, Chase and all of his supporters would have made it their mission in this world to ruin my life.
[00:57:06]  Like not only would they have not endorsed me, they'd have done everything they could to try to smear me and ruin me and get me canceled and all this.
[00:57:14]  Chase, by the way, celebrated when Donald Trump got kicked off of Twitter.
[00:57:18]  This is what these guys would want for me.
[00:57:20]  They would want me to lose my livelihood, to lose everything.
[00:57:25]  So no, I'm not supporting you.
[00:57:27]  And for all the other people in this block, which is still the biggest block in the Libertarian Party, although not a majority, that's how they're going to feel too.
[00:57:34]  I can tell you that with certainty.
[00:57:36]  But anyway, so to my point, when we had that type of enthusiasm, which I'm not sure how you can get without the centerpiece rallying around, we're going to do this presidential run.
[00:57:52]  Then it was kind of like, okay, the Libertarian Party has these, listen, there's a lot of freaks and weirdos in this party, but 70% of them are our guys who aren't that.
[00:58:04]  And so, okay, you can kind of get away with that.
[00:58:07]  And look, those freaks and weirdos are even, and I say this with love, but you know what I'm, you guys know what I'm talking about, but a lot of them are really good on a lot of issues, you know?
[00:58:18]  They're just bizarre people.
[00:58:21]  And that's okay.
[00:58:22]  So when we had 70% of the room, the fact that there's a lot of kind of weirdos in the party, it just didn't seem to matter as much.
[00:58:31]  But when we were 45%, it just seemed to matter a lot more.
[00:58:36]  And I got to say that this experience over this convention and just what, you know, what an opportunity we had.
[00:58:43]  What an opportunity Angela McCartle set up for us.
[00:58:47]  I mean, like, it's, you can't even like, I can't overstate this enough.
[00:58:51]  Rob, the former president of the United States of America, the frontrunner to be the next president, came here and said, I will free Ross on day one.
[00:59:01]  I will offered us something.
[00:59:03]  However you feel about that, I'm not saying take the deal.
[00:59:06]  I'm just saying, however you feel about that, that's a big moment.
[00:59:10]  Ooh, we could capitalize on this in some way.
[00:59:12]  And during this moment, they embarrass themselves and then nominate this guy who is just guaranteed to not be able to like to just be the death of the party.
[00:59:25]  And as I'm sitting there looking around, you know, I'm thinking about this thing that I've always said since I've been in the Libertarian Party.
[00:59:33]  I've always said this.
[00:59:34]  This was actually in my opening statement when I debated Nick Sarwalk.
[00:59:40]  He had said that he, it was a line he had said that I was quoting from where he said that the party is paramount.
[00:59:50]  And that's the way he looks at things, the health of the party above all else.
[00:59:55]  And I was like, that's not how I look at things.
[00:59:58]  I don't care about the party for the sake of the party.
[01:00:01]  What's paramount to me is liberty.
[01:00:03]  What's paramount to me are what I believe in.
[01:00:07]  The party is just a vehicle, you know, and if it's an effective vehicle, then great.
[01:00:12]  And if it's not, then who cares?
[01:00:16]  And the same way you feel about a car that's out of gas when you got to go somewhere.
[01:00:21]  It's not a car anymore.
[01:00:23]  Doesn't matter.
[01:00:23]  You know what I mean?
[01:00:26]  And I got to say, there was a lot of time this weekend when I was looking around and I was like, I'm not really sure what this vehicle is to me at this point.
[01:00:36]  What is it that it does?
[01:00:38]  Like, yeah, okay, you can run people for office, you know, but you don't really need the Libertarian Party to run people for office.
[01:00:45]  And so anyway, I was just kind of re-questioning all of this, but there was also something just about the character of a lot of the people involved in it.
[01:00:51]  You know, I had this one guy.
[01:00:52]  Okay.
[01:00:52]  Now, I'm not trying to say this is like, was representative of a lot of the people there.
[01:00:58]  He was one of the, you know, crazier people there, but there was this guy who's where he was like in a thong, like wearing some like ridiculous costume, a grown man with his ass hanging out.
[01:01:12]  And he comes over to me and he goes, I'd like to challenge your immigration views.
[01:01:19]  And I was like, oh, okay.
[01:01:22]  I was like, oh, I just did a big podcast with Bob Murphy about it.
[01:01:25]  If you want to go listen to that, you know, blah, blah.
[01:01:27]  And he goes, no, no, no.
[01:01:28]  I'm interested in a dialogue.
[01:01:30]  And I was like, listen, dude, by the way, you also got to imagine this thing, right?
[01:01:34]  Like when I'm walking around, I can't walk anywhere without getting stopped and taking pictures and talking to people, which I love to do and I love the conversations and stuff.
[01:01:41]  But it's like, there's a million things.
[01:01:43]  I'm doing all these different events.
[01:01:44]  I'm popping in.
[01:01:45]  Hey, Dave, can I get a selfie?
[01:01:46]  Okay.
[01:01:46]  Yeah, absolutely.
[01:01:47]  Blah, blah, blah.
[01:01:48]  Hey, a lot of people I know and love.
[01:01:50]  And it's like to sit down and be like, can we do like a debate right now?
[01:01:53]  You know, so I was just like, I was like, listen, I really don't have time to get into like debating issues, but if you're interested in my perspective, I've put it out there a lot.
[01:02:00]  And he goes, just launches into it.
[01:02:02]  And he goes, he goes, it's a racist policy and it divides and otherizes people.
[01:02:08]  And it's blah, blah, blah.
[01:02:08]  And I just had this moment.
[01:02:10]  I just went to him.
[01:02:11]  I went, buddy, I just can't get into it right now, but I appreciate your enthusiasm and walked away.
[01:02:16]  I just had this moment where I'm like, dude, the lack of self-awareness, like you're a grown man in a thong.
[01:02:22]  Do you think there's a chance that I'm about to enter into a serious conversation with you and consider your ideas?
[01:02:29]  And like, there is this issue that the Libertarian Party has that is like, look, we, we do, we believe in liberty.
[01:02:39]  I believe in that guy's right to live his life the way he wants to live his life, you know?
[01:02:45]  Okay.
[01:02:45]  And I think that's what attracts a lot of those type of people to this because like they're, oh, you guys are saying I have the right to do this, you know, but I can believe that and also recognize that you will never be taken seriously by the world if you present yourself this way.
[01:03:00]  And there's something kind of weird about that, that while libertarians have such a superior political philosophy, this is such a basic thing to understand that everybody else gets.
[01:03:11]  Like every Democrat and Republican knows you put on a suit and tie before you do politics.
[01:03:18]  You know what I mean?
[01:03:18]  Like, because that's the way people will think this guy might have something to say worth considering.
[01:03:22]  And okay, I'm not saying you have to put on a suit and tie.
[01:03:24]  I'm not a suit and tie guy, but I present myself in a way that you could take me seriously.
[01:03:29]  And I present these ideas in a way that they could maybe influence you or convince you.
[01:03:36]  And there's just this massive problem in the Libertarian Party outside of the Mises caucus who are like, who don't have this issue, but there's a massive problem of just like presenting these ideas in just the most god-awful way.
[01:03:53]  And I don't know what I can do about that.
[01:03:56]  I don't think there's anything I can do about that.
[01:03:59]  Just to be clear, and I want to hear your thoughts on it, but just like, like that guy who's in a thong trying to argue with me about borders, me and him, I'm sure we disagree on some policy issues.

=== Focusing On Serious Presentation (08:16) ===

[01:04:13]  Well, borders, for one, that's, that's clear.
[01:04:16]  And I'm sure you could find a few other things.
[01:04:18]  But the truth is, I'd imagine, and I don't know, I don't know the guy, but like if you gave him a Murray Rothbard test, I bet he gets 80%.
[01:04:27]  You know what I mean?
[01:04:28]  Like, I bet, I bet he agrees with me on taxes and guns and money and war and like, you know, like a lot of really, really important issues.
[01:04:37]  I bet me and him are in complete agreement on.
[01:04:40]  But that one thing makes it useless.
[01:04:43]  Like it doesn't matter at all.
[01:04:44]  It doesn't matter if we agree 80% of the time.
[01:04:47]  You think that a grown man in a thong might walk up to another grown man and convince him to change his views?
[01:04:53]  You think there's a conceivable possibility of that happening?
[01:04:57]  That's like, it doesn't even matter that we agree on guns and money and war and taxes.
[01:05:01]  You know what I mean?
[01:05:02]  Like it's like, and that's the dynamic at work with a lot of people in this goofy third party.
[01:05:08]  Now, I don't say this with animosity toward these guys.
[01:05:11]  Like I don't, it's not that I hate them or anything.
[01:05:13]  It's just that I'm sitting there and just going, man, this is so much of this is the problem of being a part of a team and particularly being a part of a political party.
[01:05:23]  There's just a real issue there.
[01:05:25]  I'm sorry.
[01:05:25]  What is it you were going to say?
[01:05:27]  I think I don't like behaving appropriately.
[01:05:30]  And lucky enough, I made investments into comedy careers, podcasting, and I get to spend a lot of time in places amongst people that don't have the normal conventions of how to behave appropriately, which includes I've even been in restaurants where I'm hanging out with other comics and like you realize I'm next to other people.
[01:05:46]  Other people don't normally talk this way.
[01:05:48]  Right.
[01:05:48]  And because the universe that I live in is a bubble of behaving inappropriately because that's kind of the way we act.
[01:05:55]  It's the way we talk.
[01:05:55]  It's why people like us on podcasts.
[01:05:58]  I fully understand these other adults wanting to behave inappropriately.
[01:06:02]  I even understand where they kind of look at this like, where it's like punk rock and they think that it's like their display of rejecting the system and that that's going to convince other people.
[01:06:12]  I just look at it where it's like, you got to pick where you are and what lane you're in and what you're doing.
[01:06:17]  And so if you're in the world of formal politics or you're trying to be a conventional party, then you're losing the battle if you think the punk rock is going to be persuasive to anybody.
[01:06:28]  You can go do a punk rock movement.
[01:06:29]  You know what I mean?
[01:06:30]  And you could probably win people over.
[01:06:31]  You could put up signs like become ungovernable and you could teach people about how they can make sure that they're living a libertarian lifestyle regardless of what the government's doing.
[01:06:40]  None of that's going to happen from an actual party.
[01:06:43]  Yeah, that's not party politics.
[01:06:44]  You're doing party politics.
[01:06:45]  You're doing something else.
[01:06:46]  And if you're going to show up for party politics and engage in part, like then you got to go do that.
[01:06:50]  You got to kind of like pick what you're doing.
[01:06:52]  You know, it's your choice.
[01:06:53]  And so I just think, I mean, and it's crazy.
[01:06:56]  I get it.
[01:06:56]  For me on the outside, I wasn't there.
[01:06:58]  I didn't participate.
[01:06:59]  I didn't show up to these meetings.
[01:07:00]  I'm doing my own thing.
[01:07:01]  It's very easy to be on the outside and tell everyone else how to do it.
[01:07:04]  But just the optics of it, it's like, if you want to behave inappropriately, which is what I like to do, you do it in other places.
[01:07:10]  You create other avenues.
[01:07:12]  So, yes, I completely agree.
[01:07:14]  So, I guess kind of like in conclusion in all of this, I still love all of the people who, you know, fought this battle with me.
[01:07:25]  I think there was something really noble and beautiful about the attempt to take the Libertarian Party and turn it into this force for libertarianism and recreate the Ron Paul revolution.
[01:07:36]  I don't see a path to doing that anymore through this party.
[01:07:41]  I'll continue to support Michael Heist and Angela McArdle in any way I can.
[01:07:47]  But I'm going to just focus on doing what I do, that I kind of, I have these things that I have a talent for and that which is very hard to exactly describe, but that are just my calling in life.
[01:08:03]  Like, this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
[01:08:05]  And I know I'm supposed to be doing this.
[01:08:06]  I know I'm supposed to be debating Chris Cuomo in a couple of days.
[01:08:09]  I just know I'm supposed to do that.
[01:08:11]  I know I'm supposed to be doing stand-up comedy.
[01:08:14]  And like, I'm very good at both of those things.
[01:08:16]  And that's how I can contribute to this thing.
[01:08:19]  And I'm never going to stop talking about all the issues I care about.
[01:08:22]  And, you know, but I don't know.
[01:08:25]  I mean, I'm almost at a point like maybe I should, maybe if Chase is going to represent libertarianism, the same way I kind of felt like when we, when we won with some of these other guys, I was like, oh, maybe you should use a different word.
[01:08:38]  Maybe I should use a different word.
[01:08:39]  I'll still believe all the same shit, but maybe I don't know.
[01:08:41]  I outsource it to the fans.
[01:08:42]  You tell me what's the word that I should call myself.
[01:08:46]  But I will just say that this is, I got to take a step back and kind of assess what I'm doing here.
[01:08:52]  Obviously, with the stuff outside of the Libertarian Party, my career over the last four years has exploded.
[01:09:02]  And I'm more successful and more influential than I've ever been before.
[01:09:08]  And I'm very appreciative of that.
[01:09:09]  I've worked very hard at this, but I truly love what I do, which is a great thing to be able to say in this world.
[01:09:16]  And I got to just keep pursuing that.
[01:09:19]  And I got to think a little bit more about the other stuff.
[01:09:23]  The other point that I'll make is just that, you know, when I mentioned the fact that I can't commit to running in four years, because I don't know what's going to be going on, you know, there was one other factor that was that, you know, the years kind of like through, you know, as I mentioned, like 2016 was the first time I got on Rogan.
[01:09:41]  This is when I started to develop a little bit of an audience.
[01:09:43]  It kind of started growing and growing.
[01:09:44]  Every year it got a little bit bigger.
[01:09:48]  In 2019, I had my first kid.
[01:09:53]  It's actually December of 2018, but essentially that year, 2019 started with me having a baby for the first time.
[01:10:00]  And I never wanted to leave.
[01:10:01]  I just loved being around my wife and my little baby.
[01:10:05]  And I really had fun just kind of doing the just being in love with my girls.
[01:10:13]  And it was a new thing for me.
[01:10:15]  I like had a family for the first time and the podcasts were doing good.
[01:10:20]  I was starting to make money.
[01:10:21]  And I was in New York City.
[01:10:22]  I was doing stand-up comedy in the city all the time.
[01:10:26]  And I was like, I don't really want to go on the road.
[01:10:28]  I don't want to travel.
[01:10:29]  I want to be home with my girls.
[01:10:31]  And then in 2020, the world shut down.
[01:10:36]  And then in 2021, I had my boy and he had serious health complications.
[01:10:40]  And then going into 2022, he was still recovering from all of that.
[01:10:45]  And it was only kind of like after that that me and you started to be able to really go on the road.
[01:10:53]  And you know what I mean?
[01:10:54]  like regularly tour the country doing stand-up, which is something that me and you really have, you know, a passion for that is our calling in life.
[01:11:03]  And it's something me and you are very good at.
[01:11:05]  Like, you know, and that, that's very important to me.
[01:11:10]  And that's something that I've kind of had to focus on.
[01:11:14]  It's, it's literally my first love is stand-up comedy.
[01:11:18]  And that's, it's, I'm just totally in love with the art form and I love performing and I love doing it.
[01:11:24]  And that in the run up to this convention was my focus.
[01:11:30]  Like I'm, I'm, listen, there's something I love to do that I have a passion for that I'm very good at that I get paid way too much money to do.
[01:11:39]  And I got a family to support.
[01:11:40]  And so like that was where my focus was.
[01:11:43]  And what that meant was that I wasn't at all these state party conventions in the year leading up to this.
[01:11:50]  And that's how you have to get the delegates, right?
[01:11:51]  Is you have to, to be a delegate at national, you have to go to your state party and then win a delegate seat there.
[01:11:58]  And so the whole leading up to the takeover in Reno in 2022, I went on the road constantly and just went to all of these state conventions.
[01:12:09]  And then Scott Horton went to like all the ones I didn't go to.
[01:12:12]  And Tom Woods went to a whole bunch of them too.
[01:12:15]  And we just had nothing like that this time.
[01:12:17]  None of us did it.
[01:12:19]  And that's not Michael Heist or Angela McArdle's fault.
[01:12:21]  Like they were doing everything they could.
[01:12:23]  We just, Scott's in the middle of writing his book and he was like, I'm never going to get this book done if I'm on the road constantly.

=== Road To Reno Conventions (01:16) ===

[01:12:29]  Me and you were going out on the road doing stand up.
[01:12:32]  And Tom is, you know, is has a wife and five kids and is wildly successful.
[01:12:38]  And he just had other stuff going on.
[01:12:41]  And so we didn't do what we would have needed to do in order to get this.
[01:12:47]  And, you know, in closing, I'll just say this that party politics people, the talents are elsewhere.
[01:12:54]  Yes.
[01:12:54]  Well, that's right.
[01:12:55]  And I'll just say I do a very sincere apology to anybody who feels like let down by any of this, by me not running for president or by me not making it to these state conventions this year.
[01:13:07]  I am sorry if I let you down in that regard, but I do think that, you know, perhaps my talents are will serve this movement best by doing what I'm doing.
[01:13:19]  You're going to make those people proud.
[01:13:21]  Yeah.
[01:13:21]  Yeah.
[01:13:21]  Listen, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing.
[01:13:23]  And I really do.
[01:13:24]  And I hope I make you guys proud.
[01:13:26]  But anyway, I just wanted to give that recap.
[01:13:28]  We do have to, we do have to wrap up.
[01:13:31]  But anyway, thanks for thanks for listening, everybody.
[01:13:34]  Come out and see us in AC, please.
[01:13:36]  We got some seats available for that one.
[01:13:37]  So come on out, comicdavesmith.com, robbythefire.com, and go check out Run Your Mouth Rob's other awesome podcast.
[01:13:44]  All right.
[01:13:44]  That's it for this episode.
[01:13:45]  Peace.