This week, The Free Thought Project was contacted by Michael Heise, founder of the Libertarian Party Mises Caucus who provided us with evidence that leaders within the Libertarian party have blocked Libertarian icon Ron Paul from appearing at their national convention, over comments he made about how the party needed to stick to principles instead of playing politics as usual.
This past year, Heise has been on a mission to shake up the Libertarian Party and steer it back in the direction of its origins—towards the principles of peace and economic freedom that he learned from people like Ron Paul.
"The LPMC has never been shy about our goal of shaking up the leadership of the party to give it a fresh look and principled direction that the majority of libertarians would be motivated to support. In fact, it is our first major milestone goal. We knew this would draw the ire of party leadership and it’s supporters. However, we feel, as most libertarians do, that it is badly needed and much overdue," Heise said in a statement on Thursday.
One of the main strategies in this plan for change is to bring advocates of the non-aggression principle and true libertarianism into positions of power and influence in the party. This includes promoting principled candidates who are running for leadership positions, as well as booking influential people to speak at conventions and libertarian events.
"It is only natural that we would want to feel represented at the convention and to have a voice both on the convention floor and the stage. Nobody in leadership seems to be championing and putting issues like foreign policy, specifically the absolute humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, blockchain solutions to statist problems and the Federal Reserve fraud on the forefront!" Heise said.
"We found success in this pursuit after connecting Jim Cantrell, part of the founding team for SpaceX, and CEO of Vector Space Systems, with Daniel Hayes, the chair of the LP’s convention committee," he added.
In recent weeks, Heise attempted to follow up with Hayes about the upcoming National Convention, which he is in charge of, in hopes of getting Ron Paul and Judge Napolitano booked for the event. After getting the cold shoulder for several weeks, Heise finally received the following messages, stating that Ron Paul was "definitely out," and that he "has no idea what the LP represents."
Hayes linked an article titled “Good News: Young Americans Want a New Political Party” that Ron Paul wrote where he was slightly critical of the direction that the LP was headed, as proof that he had no idea what they represented.
In the article, Paul said that,
“Unfortunately the Libertarian Party has failed to live up to what should have been its role as an ideological alternative to Washington’s one-party system. As was quite obvious in the 2016 presidential election, the Libertarians yielded to prevailing attitudes on war, welfare, the Federal Reserve, and more. In believing that winning was more important than standing for something, they ended up achieving neither. I would still like to have some hope for the Libertarian Party, but to really fill its role as a challenger to our two-party system (that is actually a one-party system) it would need a major overhaul. It would need to actually embrace the core libertarian principles of non-aggression and non-intervention in the affairs of others.”
Perhaps it is the Libertarian Party that does not understand Libertarian Values.
In further dialogue between Heise and Hayes, Hayes said that Judge Napolitano "would make a terrible chairman" and suggested Neocon Glen Beck as a potential speaker instead.
Heise says that the party is likely trying to avoid criticism over the change in direction that they have taken in recent years to appeal more to liberals and conservatives, and his assumptions were later confirmed when LP Chairman Nicholas Sarwark was questioned on Twitter about the party's rejection of Paul at the convention.
"We all know very well that this isn’t actually about Ron Paul, it’s about what he represents. This member of the Libertarian National Committee would rather hold a grudge over legitimate criticism than let Dr. Paul speak, just like the Republican Party tried to do to him. This type of pettiness is why this caucus (Mises) exists," Heise said.
It seems that the libertarian party has been co-opted with people who want to water down the radical principles of freedom that have been at the core of the libertarian brand for centuries, well before the existence of the US Libertarian political party.
This is the most absurd thing I have heard this week. If Ron Paul is not Libertarian then who is? Silencing people is what the other parties do.
Grrr the LP is going to force me to stop calling myself libertarian.
Don't let them run you off. Double down, work harder, take over your local party positions.
Just become an anarchist ;)
Oh I'm an an-cap for sure. I think an-caps are libertarians, but obviously all libertarians aren't an-camp. I always liked the label libertarian, but the party is ruining it!
I don't consider myself a libertarian at all. Neither do I associate with any an-hyphen. Just an anarchist. I have never voted for any political party and would only support the complete abolishment of the government
abolition -wink-
Interesting comment, in light of Adam Kokesh gunning for the LP nomination. Have you read his "Freedom!" book (or heard the mp3)? Are you aware of his Adam for noPresident campaign?
Don't let the 3 hrs. scare you. At least go to 8:05. That will give you enough info to decide if it's worth it to finish. Get back to me with your appraisal.
So far it's hard to tell what the actual truth is.
—
—
(Above) This dates back to October, about 2 months before the screenshotted text posted within the OP (original post).
What interests me is that the above screenshot dates back to October and appears to be a conversation between Hayes and (possibly) Heise regarding an arrangment, then there's a gap of about 2 months between that convo and the convo between the pair in December within the OP. What transpired between October and December would clear this whole thing up as what we see so far is an arrangement, 2 months of silence, then a text from Hayes that includes a link to evidence to justify a whole different reason in regards to what is claimed by an Andy Craig on Facebook. Until then the waters look muddy and no one can really determine the true reason behind blocking Paul. It could be a mixture of both reasons but we won't know unless we see the full correspondence between the two.
If I'm missing something, feel free to contribute any additional info.
This should solve the problem... A shout out goes to Andy "petition" Jacobs for a job well done.
This is why I have always disassociated from the LP Adam Kokesh has the best plan for the LP IMO. Only because he wants to end the Fed and that's a great step in the right direction
But I am an anarchist so any political party is not good for me
Curated for #informationwar by @stevescoins
Relevance: control of political parties?
Our Purpose
I knew when I shook Ron Paul's hand he was a scumbag. I have a gift for this kinds thing and I knew after that.