Here’s Why Austin Petersen Should Be the Libertarian Party’s Presidential Nominee

By the original rabble rouser, R. Brownell

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Time For Adult Talk

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“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.”

~Dr. Ron Paul

I’m a collective person, I don’t jump into things I feel will waste my time and efforts, because I like to think that when I commit to something, it better be damn well worth it. I was upset in the 2012 election, I have been upset whenever I see the Democrats destroy our nation the same way Republicans did when Bush was president. I shed a manly tear when the GOP took over the Congress in the 2014 midterm elections, only to see them do nothing but bow to Obama’s agenda because they ultimately don’t obey the will of the electorate, just the special interests.

I admire Senator Ted Cruz, he isn’t a libertarian, but by the will of God he is truly a courageous conservative I can get behind. Sadly, though I would like to see Ted Cruz become the nominee, I understand this sad, sad truth; the best person doesn’t always become the nominee unless the party bosses allow them to be.

Case in point, Ron Paul…

What breaks my heart for the nation I love is when I see conservatives that joined hands with libertarians to form the original Tea Party jump behind the ultra progressive, neoconservative populist, Donald J. Trump, who is the leader of the GOP pack with 27% as of today. Now if Cruz, or even Paul were right behind him, I wouldn’t worry, but come on already! How is Jeb Bush actually in the top three? Are principled conservatives such cowards they will do anything for the Republican establishment to win, even if the candidates aren’t even conservatives in their heart and the electorate just wants to see someone with an “R” next to their name in office? If that is the case then conservatism is dead and I’m glad I’m not one because a group of people who would choose men like Donald Trump or Jeb Bush over men of principle such as Ted Cruz or Rand Paul aren’t the people I want to associate with anyway.

This is why we need to understand that as long as the party bosses and special interests still run the game, we need to stand by principle, because without that we truly have nothing. As a Christian before all things, there is one thing I know is certain, it is better to fall having lived whole than continue on with cognitive dissonance in the face of an empire of lies, making you a hollow person.

I believe that in the face of an election where it might as well be Coca-Cola arguing against Pepsi, we need a candidate on the ballot who can and will be the only authentic voice for modern American constitutionalism, small government, maximum freedom, and pro markets.

 That man is Austin Petersen, because at this point, why not?

Capitalism in the Chrysanthemum Fields

Before Austin Petersen was called out by Alex Jones and causing ruckus in DC Beltway, he was born in a small, rural community called Peculiar. It’s important to know the background of the people running, because their story ultimately shows you a glimpse into their heart and worldview, and for Austin, his is as all-American as is it can get.

He was raised with his two siblings by their widowed father after Austin lost his mother, Donna Petersen, to cancer at the age of 15. She was a victim of a Kansas City area pharmacist named Robert Courteney, who diluted chemo treatment to patients for profit, and now sits in federal prison. As Petersen grew into adulthood, he learned to accept the loss of Donna in his life, but never let go of the love he had for her, a love which pushes him to take on any challenge, no matter how great.

Austin Petersen learned early the value of hard work and perseverance. He managed to graduate with honors in his high school class, and competed in forensics and choir, all while working a part-time job on the family’s Stonegait Farm and Nursery, as well as at the local Raymore Wal-Mart.

When speaking to Austin when I first got to know him, I could see how those rough patches and life lessons cultivated his understanding of the meaning of work.

In a recent interview I had with him, he shed some light on his earliest capitalist ventures:

“When I was a young boy, my mother and father instructed my brother and I to go into the fields to plant chrysanthemums… When the fields were planted, we took care of them throughout the hot and humid summer, where we watered the fields, and maintained the crop. When the flowers were ready and fully grown, we harvested them and put them into buckets. My brother and I then went into town, and sat out on the trailer of ours selling buckets of flowers to the local townspeople, making friends and money. Our parents would let us keep the proceeds, and instructed us in how to save. To this day, I’ll never forget the lessons of how hard work, and responsible saving for the future could result in such self fulfillment and reward. I can’t explain the joy I had knowing the  community loved our flowers, and how we nearly always sold out.”

 Igniting The Fire Of A New American Revolution

Austin eventually left Missouri to cultivate his passion for media and the arts by moving to New York to find work. Living in Progressive New York though, Austin began to struggle as the state hiked up the income tax rates, which hurt him and many other hard-working people.

At that point, Austin began to develop an understanding of the negative intervention of the State into the lives and pockets of taxpayers, leading him to discover a man who offered to fight the government’s grasp over your pocket-book: Ron Paul, the only 2008 GOP nominee offering to kill the IRS and the income tax.

Austin got together with other like-minded people in 2008 and started a grassroots team called the NYC Ron Paul Meet Up Club, which helped Paul raise over a million dollars for his campaign. During this time Austin helped coordinate and lead 1,200 activists across the political spectrum, managing websites, events, and phone banks in order to help Paul’s message reach new heights.

 Libertarian And Loving It

Though the Paul presidency never came to be, Austin’s hard work was far from misplaced, it helped him gain new knowledge and talents, which led him to be offered a job in 2008 at the Libertarian Party National Headquarters in DC. Here he put his new skills and political passion to good use as the LP Volunteer Coordinator, eventually earning a promotion to Director of Outreach.

Unlike some candidates running for the Libertarian Party presidential nomination, Austin actually spent time to help grow the party and put in the effort to help candidates and events throughout the country.

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 Spreading The Message Of Liberty Around The World

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Austin left the Libertarian Party in 2009 and accepted a position with the Atlas Network, where Austin was in charge social media and video production. Through his efforts, Austin helped Atlas in their mission of establishing pro free market think tanks and organizations throughout the world. At Atlas, Petersen was mentored by prominent libertarian Dr. Tom Palmer, who educated Austin in his philosophical and historical ideas of classical liberal theory.

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 Breaking Down Barriers For Libertarian Voices

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A long-term and secretive project Austin led with the help of many of his friends and allies helped Fox News’ Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano gain even greater national notoriety.

After years of grassroots marketing and petitioning, Austin helped the Judge’s popular podcast, Freedom Watch, fight its way to the executives at Fox News, eventually in 2010 getting the Judge on air. Austin stayed with the Judge as his Associate Producer until the shows unexpected cancellation in 2012, despite its growing success and popularity amongst Fox’s viewership.

 A Free Market Voice For The Tea Party

The end of Freedom Watch wasn’t the end of Austin’s involvement in the liberty movement; Austin eventually landed on his feet and received a job at FreedomWorks as Director of Production back in Washington D.C.

Austin joined FreedomWorks when Tea Party activists began to mobilize and shake the DC establishment across the nation, and working there gave him the opportunity to understand the importance of building coalitions between conservatives and libertarians alike if they wished to do what former FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe called, “a hostile takeover” of the Republican Party.

This also helped Austin get opportunities to speak on a national level on various syndicated media outlets, where he took the issues of today and spoke about them from a libertarian pserspective, sending out ideas many Americans had never heard before.

In reflection of his time at FreedomWorks, Austin stated in our interview:

“I wanted the Tea Party to win. I believed that a new form of Buckley’s fusionism could emerge between social conservatives and libertarians. Together we could crush the big government conservatives, and a libertarian might be elected. Men like Rand Paul gave me hope, and I was happy to see that true conservatives like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee were also elected.”

A Libertarian For A New Generation

Petersen left FreedomWorks in order to start a for-profit libertarian magazine to find new ways to spread the message of free markets and personal liberty to untapped audiences. Thus The Libertarian Republic online magazine and Freedom Report Podcast was born. The Libertarian Republican reaches an average of 1.5 million viewers a month.

Thanks to the launch of The Libertarian Republic, Austin was able to enlist the help of popular libertarian writers and personalities, such as famous youtube star and FreedomWorks employee Julie Borowski, who launched her own independent venture in 2015.

Petersen’s recruitment of young libertarian voices helped launch the careers of budding economists, reformers, and journalists, like young libertarian Laura Meyers, a former co-host of the Freedom Report and current writer.

Enter The “Freedom Ninja”

In 2010 when Austin was working at Fox Business Network, he became known for turning Judge Napolitano’s social networks into a tremendous machine of activity. He grew the Judge’s presence to over 650,000 fans, cranking out millions of clicks a month for freedom fighter Judge Napolitano. It was because of this, and because of his martial arts experience, that Petersen became known as the Freedom Ninja.

Here’s the story in his own words:

“In 2010, Eric Bolling was in the green room at Fox asking people if they knew who was running Judge Nap’s social media pages. The rumor is that he was interested because he wanted to possibly recruit Petersen to help him with his own online presence, after he had seen the explosive growth in Napolitano’s networks.

Now, the green room is where all of the famous people hang out before their interviews, so a lot of gossip, politicking, and networking goes on there. Nick Gillespie of Reason Magazine happened to be there at the time when Bolling was asking ‘Who runs the Judge’s Page?’

Suddenly, a female publicist who knew me shouted out “It’s the Ninja!” causing the entire green room to go silent and ask… ‘Who’s the ninja?’

‘It’s the Freedom Ninja! Austin Petersen!’

And that’s all it took. Later, Gillespie would approach me in the halls of Fox and say… ‘So I hear you’re the Freedom Ninja?’

And the name stuck.”

Austin Petersen is also a ten-year Karate veteran, studying traditional Japanese Karate in the style of Shotokan, and Kyokushin-kai. If we need someone as president who could beat Putin in a fight… Petersen’s our best chance.

Charity, Community, and Activism

In 2013, Petersen decided to give back to the community by holding a demonstration, rally, and fundraising event for Toys for Tots. After carefully considering the theme, Petersen decided on a Toy Gun March in Washington DC, which would be a rally in defense of the 2nd Amendment and fundraiser for children. The idea was to march across the Arlington Memorial Bridge carrying realistic-looking toy guns, gather on the national mall, and demonstrate that American children should never get in trouble for playing with toy guns.

Austin mustered together all of his media and networking contacts, applied for the proper permits, and set off on an adventure that raised over $1,200 for charity, and exposed to the national and international media in attendance the insanity of gun control, as well as the wrongheadedness of the demonization of little children playing with guns.

 Taking A Consistent Stand For The Philosophy Of Freedom

Because of Austin’s self-development and work within the liberty movement, his new-found popularity put him center stage and in the targets of progressives, neocons, and other strains of socialists alike. Yet this only gave Austin another way to spread a consistent message of libertarian principles across the country and the world. Austin has been a guest star on dozens of networks, podcasts, and radio programs.

Why Not?

Austin Petersen has been a consistent leader in the liberty movement, and he has enough experience, tenacity, and knowledge to put him heads and shoulders above the other Libertarian Party candidates running. It’s time we have a candidate who is a consistent libertarian, a candidate who has invested his time and toil to the advocacy of economic freedom, and personal liberty, all day, everyday.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT AUSTIN’S PLATFORM, CLICK HERE

MILLENNIAL WHO WANTS TO JOIN THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL? CLICK HERE!