“It’s the most important election of our lifetime” is a regular sarcastic quip from Libertarians. Who can blame them really? It’s repeated every single election cycle, and the world has not yet ended. This election may not be any different, but it is an irregularly consequential election. I don’t believe there is an intellectually honest way to deny that it’s consequential.
We’ve seen the lawfare against Trump meant to destroy both his candidacy and himself. We’ve seen the party claiming “Democracy is on the ballot” attempt to wipe Donald Trump’s name off that same ballot. We’ve watched as he was convicted of 36 felonies for doing exactly what Hillary Clinton’s campaign paid a mere $8,000 fine for. We watched as Matthew Colangelo resigned from the Biden DOJ so he could prosecute Donald Trump in New York, while the Biden Administration claimed with a straight face that they were not involved in any way.
We have watched two assassination attempts, one where bullets flew and another where they were waiting. The second attempt was prompted by rhetoric from the Democrats that Trump was a fascist and a danger to Democracy. Rhetoric that the Democrats have only ratcheted up since that attempt.
We have watched as the Democrats have installed a different Presidential Nominee without a primary for voters to select their candidate. While this is pretty uncharted territory, I do not believe history will look back favorably on this, and future precedent will likely be written by the Supreme Court in opposition to it.
This is an election unlike any other, and it is indeed consequential.
Trump has courted Libertarians specifically by coming to their convention where he promised to free Ross Ulbricht, protect Bitcoin and place a Libertarian in his cabinet. These are definitely some wins. However there are even bigger wins that Trump did not announce at the Libertarian convention.
One common criticism that Libertarians have of Republicans is that they never actually cut spending or eliminate wasteful departments. This has been true up until now. Trump is tapping Elon Musk to launch a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to address this very thing. Who better than Elon Musk to drastically reduce Federal agencies like he did to the headcount at Twitter? OK OK fine, yes Ron Paul, you got me there.
It’s a good thing Elon Musk agrees with you.
Would be great to have Ron Paul as part of the Department of Government Efficiency!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2024
Trump has assembled the likes of Vivek Ramaswamy, Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr, Elon Musk, and yes, Ron Paul now too. It is a team of great people all tapped for specific strengths to be used in Trump’s second cabinet which is shaping up a whole lot better than his first one.
However the most consequential thing may come after the next 4 years are over. If Trump wins this election, then all the establishment Republicans and neocon warmongers who have aligned themselves with the Democrats will be stuck there. They will have no credibility after such a loss. If Trump loses however, they will have credibility to ooze their way back in.
A Trump win creates a vacuum in 4 years when Trump’s 2nd term is over. It’s a vacuum that beaten neocons would not be able to recapture and fill. The Ron Paul conservatives, the Vivek Ramaswamys and JD Vances and those who love liberty should position themselves to fill that vacuum.
This is a consequential election, and getting Trump over the finish line sets us up for even bigger wins in the long term. These are wins we can actually pat ourselves on the back for and take credit for. We’re responsible for freeing Ross. We’re responsible for Republicans cutting spending. Let’s take those wins and own them.
