“Mises” PAC
The “Mises” Caucus is a PAC of the “Libertarian” Party which it took over in May 2022 [2]. It is not a caucus but a PAC, and it is neither libertarian nor related to Ludwig von Mises in any way. It is more accurately described as the “Hoppe Caucus” or the “Misnamed Caucus”. It is anti-libertarian, not libertarian.
History
Platform changes
- Equality of the rights under law should not be denied or abridged by the United States, or any political subdivision thereof, on account of sex, race, color, creed, age, national origin, or sexual preference. We shall oppose any governmental attempts to regulate purely private discrimination. However, we condemn bigotry as irrational and unjust.
One of their first changes was the removal [3] of this plank from the party platform.
- “Racism is pretty much a non-issue in America. Libertarians suffer more oppression than black people.”
- “The 1964 Civil Rights Act should be repealed.”, November 20, 2022
Statements and publications
https://twitter.com/SLibertarianism/status/1531642076848349184
https://lpmisescaucus.com/war/rethinking-the-good-war-laurence-m-vance/
https://twitter.com/GABrown4Liberty/status/1531798713873465344
https://twitter.com/LPNational/status/1532802789184872448
https://twitter.com/LPNational/status/1532802344190197762 https://twitter.com/LPNational/status/1533139402616078337
State parties
Even before the LP national takeover, they took control of state parties.
- The US Government backs and arms Al Qaeda in Syria/Yemen and Nazis in Ukraine.
- Which “freedom fighters” will they be funding and arming with US taxpayer’s dollars in Taiwan? #NoWarWithChina
May 24, 2022 Libertarian Party NH @LPNH
- Foreign Libertarian parties are likely CIA operations.
Libertarian Party of Kentucky @lpky· May 24 https://twitter.com/lpky/status/1528955118607007745
Criticism
Libertarian criticism
- Here’s my view of the libertarian to alt-right pipeline
- First: It exists. Alt-right actors have quite literally hijacked the US Libertarian Party. A significant contingent of libertarians (or shall we say, former libertarians) have gone Trumpist.
- Shawn Huckabay, “Call To Action: Open Opposition to the Mises Caucus” (stopmises.today)
- How was the Libertarian Party taken over by a white nationalist group? Former LNC chairman @jbhenchman & CATO’s @AndrewRCraig join @JeremiahDJohns to discuss what’s gone wrong with the Libertarian Party, and what principled libertarians should do now.
- The Mises Caucus isn’t libertarian, but is instead a right-wing, nationalist, xenophobic, reactionary, fascist/fascism-adjacent movement. That they’re taking over the Libertarian Party means that the LP is no longer a libertarian party.
anti-libertarian
Suspicion of deliberate sabotage
- The Mises PAC is a GOP “infiltrate and neuter” operation aimed at ensuring there aren’t any libertarian alternatives to whatever authoritarians the Republican Party puts up for various offices. That’s its goal. That’s its purpose.
- Thomas L. Knapp, “The Mises PAC is a GOP astroturf operation with the goal of driving votes to the GOP by neutering the LP. Its supporters who didn’t know that before the LPPA fiasco got scammed. They don’t have any excuses for not knowing it, and acting accordingly, now.”, March 8, 2022
I don’t think people really appreciate what a strong worth ethic the Mises PAC brought to @LPNational. Getting from “last best hope of liberty” to “even dumber and more evil than the Republicans or Democrats” in four months didn’t happen by accident. It took EFFORT. Sep 17, 2022
- Thomas L. Knapp, “Success” and “failure” are functions of objective. Since the Mises PAC’s objective is to make the LP look so batshit insane that marginal Republicans will vote for even the most wild-eyed MAGAt before voting Libertarian, this one checks the “success” box.
- Joe Carl White, “Suppose that the goal of the Mises PAC/Mises Caucus was to to destroy the LP. How would their actions differ from what they are currently doing?”, February 5, 2023
- Joe Carl White, “Imagine for a moment there was an outside group bent on destroying the Libertarian Party by taking it over and discrediting it. How would their actions differ from those of the Mises Caucus?”, February 28, 2023
This is corroborated by:
- Kevin Gaughen, “The bad publicity the LP is incurring has led many to question the recent Mises PAC takeover of the LP and the motivations behind it. In this thread, I will demonstrate that it was likely a sabotage operation by the Trump camp.🧵” (thread) (pdf)
- Advisory Board Member Walter Block having explicitely, publicly and aggressively called for libertarians to vote for the Republican Party instead of the Libertarian Party: “Pardon me while I beat my head against the wall. How could libertarians in purple states be so stupid?” —Walter Block, “Libertarians Spoil the Election”, WSJ, November 8, 2020
- Suggestions to support Republican Party candidates instead of Libertarian Party candidates in state elections, for instance Ron DeSantis in Florida [4][5] (for the new “L”P, anti-covid mandates are bad https://twitter.com/angela4LNCChair/status/1546959845055614976, voluntary masking is bad [6][7], but pro-covid mandates are good [8]. that’s really pushing dumb contrarianism to the extreme.)
funding Republicans:
https://twitter.com/gaughen/status/1634634627108200449
- Tyler Harris, Former National Executive Director of the Libertarian Party “You are correct. It is on purpose. No other explanation at this point. Hanlon’s razor be damned —at some point malice is just malice.”
Other criticisms
Advisory Board and “Heroes”
https://twitter.com/LPNational/status/1532802789184872448
- The Libertarian Party is now a home for @RonPaul supporters. We welcome you with open arms. We represent the tradition of Mises and Rothbard and are eternally grateful to @lewrockwell @jeffdeist and everyone at @mises for keeping their legacy alive. We do not throw our heroes under the bus to gain acceptance from the regime. We regard the regime as criminal.
- Walter Block, founder of Libertarians for Trump, considers stupid voting for the Libertarian Party: “Pardon me while I beat my head against the wall. How could libertarians in purple states be so stupid?” [10] [11]
- Gene Epstein, another Kremlintarian [12]: "A)Russia’s Ukraine invasion is a war crime the civilized world must condemn.
B)Civilized world excludes the US gov’t: its war crimes are worse; its actions provoked the invasion & its aim is to further the carnage. Folks who believe A often find B an affront to their identity." [13]
- The same, however, cannot be said for their leadership. The amount of grift, ideological rot, nastiness and outright prejudice which I have seen in the higher ranks of the Mises Caucus simply cannot be ignored. I do not believe that these people have the best interests of the liberty movement at heart. To be blunt, I don’t think they care one iota about creating a world set free in our lifetime. To the contrary, their actions have established that they would burn the national and state parties to the ground if only to have dominion over the ashes and the opportunity to monetize every smoking ember. And I suspect they will soon get their wish.
- Most distressingly, I question the extent to which the Mises Caucus and its leadership is actually committed to the Libertarian Party and its affiliates. The fact that leaders have consistently suggested an openness to not running candidates against Republican opponents, running farcical candidates (see New Hampshire), and taking steps which intentionally alienate older members and generous donors, leads me to honestly suspect that the end of the Libertarian Party as we know it is not just a danger of their stewardship, but a goal.
https://theunpopulist.substack.com/p/how-the-libertarian-party-became
Reactions from other caucuses
Results
- https://twitter.com/gaughen/status/1594170970155225089
- https://twitter.com/gaughen/status/1594719763451846657
- https://twitter.com/gaughen/status/1594814533042069504
- https://twitter.com/Bwarzy/status/1590766364591280130 Congratulations to Jeremy Kauffman for the worst non-Presidential year result for a Libertarian Senate candidate in New Hampshire since 1984 and to Boryshenko for the worst result for a Libertarian Governor candidate in New Hampshire since 1988. Rock stars. Both of them.
Messaging
https://twitter.com/MisesAZ/status/1664129904450080768
Personnel
- https://twitter.com/cz85b/status/1594811151388483593
- https://twitter.com/GoldWedge/status/1594819458404687883
- https://twitter.com/gaughen/status/1594811149077413888
- https://twitter.com/BowdenOnBass/status/1594863211655856130
- https://twitter.com/BowdenOnBass/status/1594884909004476416
- https://twitter.com/gaughen/status/1595162206710034432
billing
Finances
- One year ago, @LPMisesCaucus "took over" @LPNational. The day of the convention, @MisesChair told @nickgillespie that "we'd know them by their fruits." Now that they've had a year to run the party, let's take a look at those fruits.🧵 (thread)
See also
https://reason.com/2022/09/15/libertarian-party-faces-state-rebellions/
https://twitter.com/XOmniverse/status/1581710064670253057
- Justin L. Smith, “So more stuff on #ClintRussell who had #ElizaBleu & #ThaddeusRussell on his podcast #LibertyLockDown.”, January 28, 2003 (thread) (pdf)
Resignations
Suing of state affiliates
Michigan
https://twitter.com/fakertarians/status/1667622280233402370
https://www.facebook.com/groups/lpm.discussion/posts/6415701371840455/
Members and elected representatives leaving for the Forward Party
Discussions with Libertarian Party of Russia
Kremlintarianism
They have no idea what the NAP is:
Taiwan
Implosions
https://twitter.com/gaughen/status/1639518786452586496
Calls for violence
https://twitter.com/LPMisesCaucus/status/1664609810052939778
More
Michael Heise
https://twitter.com/gaughen/status/1689838336414773249