David has been a Liberty warrior for more than 50 years. Here, he tells the story of completing his greatest Liberty project, a lifetime passion project and a concrete contribution to the Liberty movement.

by David Hoesly

LPNC

As many of you know, I've been active in the Libertarian movement for the last five decades, and one of my projects was to publish the book A Liberty Primer, which was authored by Alan Burris, a fellow key activist when we lived in the Rochester, NY, area.  Our aim was to provide, in layman's language, an introduction to the ideas supporting individual liberty. Alan and I created the first edition (July 1981) in 58 8.5x11 duplex-printed pages, bound by a plastic ring, and then in July, 1983, we did a much-expanded Second Edition, some 558 pages in a trade paperback format.

Since there are, to my knowledge, only two or three unsold copies of the Second Edition, and since I wanted to get more mileage out of the project after I've bought the farm, I decided in July 2023 to create a Third Edition, which corrected a few typos in--and did some updates for--the Second Edition (including, e.g., listing websites which weren't yet available in 1983 for many libertarian organizations). It also includes curricula vitae for Alan and me. My plan was to see if some libertarian organizations would publish this Third Edition on their websites.

Recently, I received notification that the Cato Institute has posted the book on their website, libertarianism.org, accessible by this link.

It's also available on the website of Students for Liberty, at this link.

Lastly, Biblioboard, a website that helps people to create and publish books through their "Indie Author Project" has also posted a link to A Liberty Primer.

If you choose to look at any of these, I highly recommendpurchasing from Cato's libertarianism.org, because the site includes a blurb from me about how the book came about.

I regard this as the single most important contribution of my life to the advancement of the ideas that undergird individual freedom, and I'm glad that after ten months, the project has been successfully completed!

For Freedom---

David Hoesly

PS: if you're a Twitter/X fan, you can scroll down here and that will bring up Cato's link to the book also!

This article originally appeared on Money Metals Exchange

U.S. Representative Alex Mooney (R-WV) has re-introduced sound money legislation to remove all federal income taxation from gold and silver coins and bullion.

The Monetary Metals Tax Neutrality Act (H.R. 8279) backed by the Sound Money Defense League, Money Metals Exchange, and free-market activists – would clarify that the sale or exchange of precious metals bullion and coins are not to be included in capital gains, losses, or any other type of federal income calculation. Gold and silver would be treated as a non-entity for tax purposes, putting it on par with the U.S. dollar.

Reps. Scott Perry (R-PA) and Randy Weber (R-TX) joined as original cosponsors.

"My view, which is backed up by language in the U.S. Constitution, is that gold and silver coins are money and are legal tender," Rep. Mooney said.

"If they’re indeed U.S. money, it seems there should be no taxes on them at all. So, why are we taxing these coins as collectibles?"

Acting unilaterally, Internal Revenue Service bureaucrats have placed gold and silver in the same "collectibles" category as artwork, Beanie Babies, and baseball cards – a classification that subjects the monetary metals to a discriminatorily high long-term capital gains tax rate of 28%.

Sound money activists have long pointed out it is inappropriate to apply any federal income tax, regardless of the rate, against the only kind of money named in the U.S. Constitution. And the IRS has never defended how its position squares up with current law.

Furthermore, the U.S. Mint continuously mints coins of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium and gives each of these coins a legal tender value denominated in U.S. dollars. This formal status as U.S. money further underscores the peculiarity of the IRS’s tax treatment.

A tax-neutral measure, the Monetary Metals Tax Neutrality Act states that “no gain or loss shall be recognized on the sale or exchange of (1) gold, silver, platinum, or palladium minted and issued by the Secretary at any time or (2), refined gold or silver bullion, coins, bars, rounds, or ingots which are valued primarily based on their metal content and not their form.”

Under current IRS policy, a taxpayer who sells his precious metals may end up with a capital "gain" in terms of Federal Reserve Notes and must pay federal income taxes on this "gain."

But the capital "gain" is not necessarily a real gain. It is often a nominal gain that simply results from the inflation created by the Federal Reserve and the attendant decline in the Federal Reserve Note dollar’s purchasing power.

Under Rep. Mooney's bill, precious metals gains and losses would not be included in any calculations of a taxpayer’s federal taxable income.

"U.S. inflation is not caused by CEOs of grocery stores or by outside world leaders, it is caused by the Federal Reserve and federal policy," said Jp Cortez, executive director of the Sound Money Defense League. "The federal government has a responsibility to remove disincentives for people seeking alternatives to the Federal Reserve note dollar to protect their savings."

"The IRS does not let taxpayers deduct the staggering capital losses they suffer when holding Federal Reserve notes over time," said Stefan Gleason, president of Money Metals Exchange, the U.S. company named Best Overall Precious Metals Dealer by Investopedia.com. "So it’s grossly unfair for the IRS to assess a capital gains tax when citizens hold gold and silver to protect them from the Fed’s policy of currency debasement."

The Monetary Metals Tax Neutrality Act aligns with a broader national trend. With most states having already eliminated sales tax on the purchase of precious metals, state legislatures are increasingly introducing and approving measures to eliminate state income taxation of gold and silver.

Alabama and Nebraska each passed their version of this policy this year. Arizona, Arkansas, and Utah approved similar measures in recent years. And Iowa, Georgia, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas also considered income tax exemptions in 2024, with several approving the bill across multiple committees and chambers.

The text of the H.R. 8279 can be found here and additional information on its current status is located here.

by Karla Nemitz:Petty Officer to pinup artist and everything in between! Featuring comics, artwork, and adventures. Karla is a Liberty warrior and brilliant artist who has graciously allowed us to run a few of her comics this month.

Check out all of Karla's Liberty focused and brilliant art on her website and Instagram.

PorcFest Ride Share

Traveling to PorcFest this year? LPNC members looking to carpool

The 21st annual PorcFest will take place this year from June 17-23 in New Hampshire. PorcFest, or the The Porcupine Freedom Festival, is an annual liberty camping event organized by Free State Project. This year, North Carolina Libertarians will be attending, and have reached out about carpooling or ride sharing. If you are interested, send an email to [email protected], and we will connect you with others who are going. 

---

Dave Smith to Debate Chris Cuomo

Later today, Dave Smith and Chris Cuomo will go toe-to-toe on Patrick Bet David's show

Patrick Bet David will host a debate between Libertarian comedian, host of Part of the Problem, and advocate Dave Smith and CNN washout and noted covidian Chris Cuomo, whose brother Andrew is arguably responsible for the deaths of roughly 20,000 elderly people when he was governor of New York and decided that they not be allowed to leave their retirement homes where covid ran rampant. (He later left office under significant accusations of sexual harassment). 

The debate will cover the covid regime, CNN and journalism, and a number of other issues. It will be live, in front of an audience, hosted on Patrick Bet David's podcast, from 6-9 PM ET. 

by Ben Weir
The "Emo Ancap"

Ben (X: @TheEmoAncap), longtime Liberty warrior, musician and songwriter, host of Shut the Punk Up!, and founder of the LP Emo Caucus (X: @LPEmoCaucus), provides some reflections on the convention and each of the candidates as an outside of NC observer with no loyalties to any faction or caucus.

First looking at the presidential candidates.

Regarding Michael Rectenwald (@RecTheRegime), who is someone I consider a friend now. I greatly appreciated a lot of his views, but I wish he had focused more on talking points and building a platform that resonates with people in the Party.

Overall, his platform was virtually non-existent compared to other candidates (on his website). And while his podcast interviews were pretty great most of the time, I think he needed more of his promised media coverage prior to the convention taking place. He knows he messed up Friday night, and he deserves the harsh criticism that he has received for that. I am not going to be the guy that continues to throw blows at the guy though, because half of the people complaining about it would laugh their ass off when Gary Johnson did the same thing on national media just a few years ago. I do think he would have won if that hadn’t happened.

I also think Clint Russell (@LibertyLockPod) would have been a great dynamic duo for his team and would have been able to carry his message across the finish line with strong results.

I don’t think any of our candidates would have topped 1 percent of the vote, so this ticket was my second preferred choice out of the lot.

Rec is extremely intelligent, and I hope he continues to stay involved with the Party after this gut wrenching blow. I know a lot of people revolved their lives around this campaign with no plan B, and I hope they stick to the decentralized plan for Libertarianism and local activism. This is their greatest strength.

Then there is Lars Mapstead (@LibertarianLars), who was my first choice throughout the night. He had a great team, best website, and best plan of attack to disrupt the duopoly while the rest of the candidates were still going to be chasing 1 percent of the vote. Stop 270 was an awesome concept that many people agreed was the best overall strategy for the Party.

I am glad he didn’t participate in the caucus wars. He drove a “middle ground” campaign that should have appealed to people on both sides of that. Unfortunately, many people aren’t able to be independent thinkers and need someone else to tell them how to vote.

He ran an honest campaign, and never attacked his opponents (despite the baseless shots fired at him).

If Lars had won this weekend, I don’t think we would be where we are today with the fallout. Some people might not have liked it, but he was never a divisive candidate and doesn’t have many of the awful public takes that so many of his opponents had.

Larry Sharpe (@LarrySharpe) made the ticket just that much sweeter. I think he would have been great as Lars’ running mate. He did a great job at his VP debate against Clint, and is almost unanimously loved throughout the Party. There’s a good reason that Josh, Rec, and a few others approached him about the VP opportunity before the people they ultimately settled with.

We aren’t gonna get 1 percent of the vote, but stopping 270 is an achievable goal that would give us more success down ticket as Libertarians and disrupt the corrupt electoral college. It’s punk rock as fuck.

My friend Joshua Smith (@JoshuaAtLarge) had one of the best platforms out of all the candidates… hands down. He brought the most energy and had the best speeches when the opportunities arose.

I think ultimately that he might have overestimated his support within the Party. I think overall, he wasn’t going to get any of the caucus support because of previous conflicts he had with them… which is fine. Like I said before, our Party lacks original thinkers and if people were thinking for themselves instead of collectively as a slate… I think Josh would have probably performed almost as well as Rec.

He’s a family man and just started a new job, so I know he’s happy to be home with them. Overall, I don’t think his campaign was ever equipped to handle 5 months of long winded campaigning after this past weekend anyway. Money raised wasn’t where it needed to be to make that happen, and family life should absolutely take priority for him.

I hope he decides to run for something again at some point, and I think he could have a lot of success running one of these campaigns at a more localized or State level.

Oh boy… then there’s Mike ter Maat (@terMaatMike). I’ve talked with Mike many times, and he raised two emo daughters. Admittedly, I can never get past the fact he was a cop for 10 years. To me, that means he voluntarily was prosecuting people for victimless crimes… and feeding into a system that is literally destroying communities and families. I can’t get past that.

I’ve had fantastic conversations with Mike, and I do think he was one of the best communicators while on his campaign run.

I spoke with him in the hallway after he pulled what I thought was a less than honorable move and betrayed people he claimed to have supported within the last a week, and really burned a lot of bridges. I told him I was extremely disappointed in what happened and how he handled that. I thought he over promised. He told me, “This wasn’t what was best for me… it’s what I believe is best for the Party” and seemed very depressed/disappointed throughout the brief conversation. Regardless, I walked away very unsatisfied with the answers he gave me.

He had absolutely horrible takes on COVID, and everyone knew that walking into the convention. But, Mike was the ONLY candidate with a plan B. He didn’t get the Presidential nomination, so he went with the next best thing. He’s doing what’s best for himself. I guess I can’t blame him for that.

Good luck as VP, Mike.

Then we have Chase Oliver (@ChaseForLiberty). Chase was never a top choice for me. The COVID takes from his past and constant need to push identity politics (which I hate), are just a few of the big things I can’t look past.

I’ve had great conversations with Chase, and I definitely think he’s one of the best communicators we had. He will definitely appeal to normies and I hope he focuses most of his campaign on dismantling the police state… which is one of his strongest points. I’ve talked with him about this at length several times and his knowledge on the topic is impressive.

He’s a young guy, with a lot of energy. I think he will be able to handle the campaign trail and all of its trials very well.

My advice to him is this. Avoid identity politics (orientation, race, etc.), it’s a horrible look for you and even worse for the Party as a whole. If you look back at some of your takes on COVID with regret, please speak out publicly against them and recant your old position on it. Focus on your strengths. Slow down your speech when you get flustered.

As I’ve already said twice, we aren’t going to get more than 1 percent of the vote this year. The best thing Chase can do is just be honest, do everything he can to fix his past mistakes, and move forward.

Congrats to Chase! My line is open if you ever want to rebut my criticisms or chat about it.

Overall, this weekend was insane. Everyone was bound to leave it unsatisfied in some way. I’m an anarchist. I’m a libertarian. I’m proud of the work our Party is doing to bring a message of Liberty to the world. I think we are the best messengers for that.

I’m ready to move forward and focus on my new responsibilities as Region 8 alternate. I want to strengthen the New England region and give the State affiliates the training and tools they need to succeed. I want to emphasize decentralization through localized activism, and encourage State affiliates to develop more supporting county affiliates to strengthen their reach/decentralize more locally. This is our strength as a Party. Let’s use it.

by Rob Yates
LPNC Communications Director

The shootout in Charlotte between the police and a desperate individual never had to happen. 

Yesterday, a nightmare scenario unfolded in Charlotte. Alerts were flooding people's phone and news stations were cutting into programming to follow the shootout that took place over nearly half the day. 

According to the latest reports, three federal Marshalls went to the home of Terry Clark Hughes Jr. to serve an outstanding warrant. Apparently, Hughes had previously been convicted and gone to jail on a breaking and entering conviction, but he had served his time successfully, and all his subsequent alleged offenses which initiated the warrant that led to the tragic deaths were for drugs, evading police, and possession of firearms. All of these things are victimless crimes.

Now I understand that these are, for sure, crimes under the law. Regardless of my personal feelings on the matter, I get that the police were following laws that many see to be reasonable. While at this time there do not appear to be any allegations that Hughes had engaged in violence against a person prior to yesterday, he had certainly committed violence against property, and there is a case that he should not be allowed to possess a firearm because of that, though I disagree with that perspective.

Without question, violent crime is a problem. While overall crime rates appear to be declining, and have been since 1991, there have been recent significant spikes in crime, especially violent crime. Even those appear to be back on the decline in much of North Carolina, although Charlotte is an exception.

This is not lost on the residents of Charlotte, either. When I ran for mayor last election cycle, in talking to people around the city, their top issues were affordable housing, transportation, and public safety, the last a refrain I heard repeatedly, and reflected in answers given by other candidates about their top priorities.

The role of police in society should be to protect person and property from violent aggressors, and I would argue that it is responsible to assist law enforcement in pursuit of that goal, provided they are held accountable when they violate people's rights. Unfortunately, when law enforcement is asked to enforce laws that exist solely to perpetuate a particular morality, bad things happen.

This is exactly what happened in Charlotte yesterday. Hughes had not committed, as far as we know, any subsequent offenses that would constitute acts of aggression against another's person or property. He was in possession of firearms. Unless they changed the Bill of Rights in the last few hours, I am fairly certain the Second Amendment reads "...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

This is not an argument against gun control, though I should state I am unequivocally opposed to any attempt by the state to impede your right to defend yourself, whatsoever. Rather, I am making the point that five people woke up yesterday for the last time ever because the enforcement arm of the state is obligated to enforce irrational and counterproductive laws.

One quick way to reduce crime is to stop making everything a crime based on personal moral preferences. You don't have to support people doing drugs to support people being able to put whatever they want into their own bodies. You don't have to be a gun person to support people's right to defend themselves. You don't have to believe in something to support other people's right to do it, provided they don't hurt others or take their stuff.

The sad fact is that yesterday's tragedy is a tragedy of our own making. That outcome was determined long ago. Hughes opened fire first, and immediate culpability for the deaths lies squarely at his feet. But the situation that created the shootout never had to happen.

If we really want to see public safety and criminal justice reform and improvement, we should start by getting every single victimless crime off the books (I will caveat that there is behavior so reckless that it ought to be potentially considered a crime even if no one is hurt, like firing a weapon into a crowd with wanton disregard). Today, the U.S. announced that is likely to reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III. This is absurd, as it still gives regulators and bureaucrats in some far away city the authority to deprive people of life and Liberty for ingesting a plant, even if no one gets hurt.

U.S. Congressional representatives from North Carolina introduced a bill to punish the Eastern Band of Cherokee for legalizing pot usage on their land. HB 189 189 continues to languish in legislative purgatory, as Republicans fail to act on making Constitutional Carry (as in legally carrying firearms as enshrined in our constitution) the law of North Carolina.

Understand this... neither political party has any interest in giving you back power or agency in your life. As entities, they are dedicated to consolidating their own, respective, power and enforcing the morality which they believe superior on the population they would claim to serve. Events like yesterday and the lives lost are collateral damage and photo ops for those politicians, and nothing more. They will issue vapid, meaningless statements, hold their moments of silence, maybe meet with a few families, and then move on, remembering the events only when it serves some purpose of theirs again.

This is a crucial year. For the first time in a long time, the cracks in the walled fortress the uniparty has erected are beginning to show. We have a chance to drive real, meaningful change, taking back some of our Liberty and helping create a more prosperous state. Events like yesterday should serve as a stark reminder of where things can go if we squander these chances.

by Joshua D. Glawson
LPNC Strategic Communications Adviser

Learning how to raise money for a cause can be a major game changer, especially when it means a possible win for you, your team, and your political party. Without having proper funds, a win can be next to impossible, especially against well-funded opponents.

It is quite common that local groups would like to accomplish certain tasks, but feel that they are unable because of a lack of funds. With being a political party that has not yet seen large-scale wins across the state or country, I can only imagine that the Libertarian Party of North Carolina as well as the National Libertarian Party are usually in need of such funds.

According to The Almanac of American Philanthropy by Philanthropy Roundtable, around two-thirds of households across the country donate 4 percent of their annual gross income to a charitable cause.

There are a multitude of ways to raise money for your cause, chapter, state party, and the national party. In this article, I will provide 3 easy ways to raise money while building awareness for your cause, chapter, state party, and national party.

Cause-Based Merchandise

There are several causes for liberty in need of serious attention in the state of North Carolina. Such examples include but are not limited to, ending the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control System (ABC, ABCC), legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana, ending Certificate of Need laws, privatizing federally owned land, ending state income taxes, and eliminating bureaucratic red tape and laws that make housing less affordable.

Solutions to gaining greater public awareness and understanding, political traction, and making a difference will require extra work while raising necessary funds. Creating merchandise that people in your city, county, or even the state and beyond would be interested in buying will help with your causes.

Some cause-based merchandise ideas include creating stickers, t-shirts, mugs, and shot glasses that call for the banning of the NC ABC System while promoting the Libertarian Party of North Carolina (LPNC). Or for marijuana legalization or decriminalization, create t-shirts and stickers that appeal to diverse audiences. Both of these would be perfect for setting up a booth at a city social district that allows for open containers, or while tabling at a college or university.

For Certificate of Need laws, make pens to sell and give away to local doctors’ offices that have a link to an online petition that calls for the end of such overreaching laws. As for privatizing land, find creative ways to make shirts, posters, and other merchandise that highlight successful private organizations in North Carolina that take care of significant amounts of land or have done better with the land since acquiring it from the government. These do not have to be outright blasting the federal government, they could instead just focus on the positive side of privatization. These organizations may even join in on our causes.

To make housing more affordable, consider networking across architecture schools, wood companies, builders, and shipping container manufacturers to construct more affordable housing options. Shipping containers were invented in North Carolina, so there is a higher chance to find a local company that would want to assist in such a project.

Consider finding out how much a tiny home will cost as a group and find a way to Airbnb it out to raise funds to build homes for the severely disabled, mentally ill, and elderly homeless. Making shirts and hoodies that donate a percentage of total sales to such a cause will likely cross political boundaries while promoting a reduction in bureaucratic red tape that makes housing so much more costly in North Carolina.

Your cause-based merchandise does not need to be restricted to cups, mugs, t-shirts, hoodies, bags, pens, or stickers. It can go far beyond these ideas, but hopefully, this gets your imagination jogging.

Fundraiser Events

Another easy way to raise money for a Libertarian candidate, cause, chapter, state party, or national party is to host fundraiser events. With these events, they can be a number of different types of fundraisers, but one thing they all share in common is that they have a specific number in mind for the funds they wish to raise. By having a target number in mind it is easier to strategize.

Show your audience how much you have raised and how much you need to raise. As you begin to fill the gap between where you are and where you need to be, keep your audience informed and engaged.

Some examples of fundraiser events may include a series of speakers, lectures, comedians, singers, performers, or people in the group explaining their projects and why they need the money, and what they will accomplish with it.

Be sure to get each attendee’s name, zip code, and email address to stay in contact with them. Just because they don’t give on that day does not mean they won’t on another. Staying in contact with each person who attends increases the chances of donors giving later.

Auction

There are likely people in your group or network who have things they want to get rid of and would be willing to give away for a noble cause. There may be things in your home that you’d be willing to donate.

By having an auction, either a percentage or all of the money raised could go to the respective cause. The items auctioned could be themed which would get people more excited about it, and it would likely bring out a larger group of people interested in the types of items being auctioned. Some examples may include jewelry, coins, cars, furniture, tools, kid toys, paintings, instruments, books, clothes, etc. It may also be more themed like retro, mid-century modern, western, bohemian, Hawaiian, Renaissance, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, patriotic, liberty, etc.

Just like the fundraiser, the auction and its continued successful results would be contingent upon communication and persistence. By having each guest’s name, email address, and zip code, you can best optimize the chances of further success. They can be regularly emailed or notified of the next scheduled events, their themes, the causes, and the money needed to be raised.

All three of the listed ways Libertarian groups can raise money for their chapter, their candidate, their cause, the state party, or the national party. These ways include selling cause-based merchandise, hosting a fundraiser event, and hosting an auction. Each of these ways can help raise money and help with the success of those missions.

Don’t let the lack of money stop you from achieving your goals. Instead, calculate an exact amount, set a deadline, and make a plan while incorporating one of the listed methods for raising the required amount of money.

Joshua D. Glawson is Content Manager for MoneyMetals.com and a writer and speaker in the Liberty Movement. He has been active with the Libertarian Party of California since 2015. He now resides in his home state of North Carolina. Check him out at Home - Joshua D. Glawson (joshuadglawson.com)

by: Todd Pukanecz, LPNC

You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist or believe the 2020 election was stolen to recognize that there are obvious irregularities in many of our elections. It is hard to determine if any of them actually rise to the level of election fraud, and I was thinking about that when I went to the polls in 2022 and the worker asked me if I’d like to volunteer. I gave them my name and contact information and forgot about it.

Late in 2023 the recruiter for the Forsyth County Board of Elections contacted me asking if I would like to be a judge for the 2024 elections. Great, I’m in and get to see how the sausage is made.

Even though we are volunteers, we do get paid for our service (somewhat more than jury duty), including the mandatory training prior to each election. And we are committed to work the full day at the polls. This involves setting up the night before and a 15-hour shift completing setup in the morning, 13 hours of processing voters, and an hour or so of lock up and clean up after the polls close.

Each county Board of Elections (BOE) uses a different mechanism and process for tabulating vote totals. Forsyth County uses paper ballots where voters fill in a bubble sheet to select their choices, then feed that into an optical scanner which collects the ballots and tabulates the totals. Our scanners are not connected to the internet and produce both printed results in quadruplicate as well as a USB thumb drive with the vote totals.

The thing that most impressed me was the level of detail to ensure a clear chain of custody for the ballot sheets, thumb drives, and paper receipts. Equipment is sealed with a numbered tag, judges confirm that the machinery starts at zero, that the number of ballots at the end of the day match the number at the beginning of the day, that the vote totals align with the number of ballots used, and that the machinery is resealed with new numbered tags.

I thought I was volunteering to be a poll worker, but I volunteered to be a judge. The work is the same, but as a judge I have to sign off that the processes were followed, the counts match, and the evidence bags are untampered.

This was the first election where North Carolina required a picture ID to vote. None of the 750 voters we processed complained about it and all of them had some form of ID. The NC law is pretty broad, so voters can use military ID, government worker ID, and in some cases student and expired IDs. Even without ID a voter can cast a provisional ballot as long as they produce a valid ID within nine days of the election.

In North Carolina, people can register as a Libertarian for their party affiliation. This greatly improves visibility for the party on several levels. The party and candidates appear on all state and county election materials. And we have a partisan primary so voters can only vote for candidates of one party. Since many voters are unaffiliated, we get to ask those voters which party ballot they want to use and verbally say "Libertarian" along with the other parties when we ask them.

One of the poll workers didn’t know what the LP was and I got to (discreetly) describe the LP and its principles. She didn’t seem impressed but at least it sparked some curiosity. That Argentina’s Javier Milei has had good success implementing libertarian ideas was a huge bonus.

Overall this was an enjoyable and interesting experience. The chief judge had worked many elections and was easygoing, the other workers were diligent and friendly, and the voters were mostly appreciative of our work.

The precinct I worked in is a semi-rural suburb and I didn't really expect to encounter any election shenanigans. But I would encourage all LP members who have the opportunity to volunteer to work the polls on election day. It will be a good use of your time and a valuable service to your community and party.

by Rob Yates
LPNC Communications Director

If you took a stance on the designation of March 31 as “Trans Day of Visibility” (TDOV) by the Biden administration, you were wrong.

It really doesn’t matter what it is, Libertarians bite – hook, line, and sinker – on every culture war issue that’s dangled in front of us. This time, it was the Biden White House proclamation declaring March 31 to be “Trans Day of Visibility,” a designation the Biden administration was the first to adopt, starting in 2021. The reason for all the online caterwauling was that Easter also happens to fall on March 31 this year.

Easter, the holiest day in all Christian religions, is the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection three days after His crucifixion. In most Christian religions, Easter is observed on the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, which is the first full moon after the Spring equinox on March 21 (contrary to popular belief, this date has nothing to do with then-existing pagan holidays, and is actually related to a Germanic translation of the Latin word for “dawn;” English is a Germanic language.). Easter can be any date from March 22 through April 25. The next time Easter is on March 31 is in 2086.

Meanwhile, Transgender Day of Visibility was first championed by transgender activist Rachel Crandall in 2009, in an effort to increase recognition around the transgender community separate from “Transgender Day of Recognition,” which is in November, and from Pride Month in June. Rachel claims that there is no other significance in choosing the March 31 date except trying to keep trans issues in the spotlight and thus being significantly spaced out from those other two days. However, the more I research the more I suspect that Rachel was both aware and deliberate in choosing March 31 to stir things up. If so, it’s working.

The virtue signaling began quickly and predictably. Republicans, from Vivek to Trump and everyone in between, raced to see who could accuse Biden of going to war with Christianity the loudest. Meanwhile Democrats predictably summed up all Republicans as transphobic bigots, and used the opportunity to signal their virtue, from Kathy Hochul (one of the worst governors of all time) who had landmarks - including One World Trade Center, the Kosciuszko Bridge and the Niagara Falls - lit pink, white, and light blue, to the National Women’s Soccer League, which posted a TDOV message at roughly 9 AM ET, and then a Happy Easter message around non, leaving a three-hour window where there was no doubt which side they were on.

As an aside, lost in the finger pointing and pearl clutching, of which both sides of the uniparty are equally guilty, was the fact that Biden issued 48 executive actions in March, including these 19 other designations for a day, week, or month:

• Read Across America Day
• National Consumer Protection Week
• U.S. Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day
• National Poison Prevention Week
• National Agriculture Day
• National Donate Life Month
• National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month
• National Donate Life Month
• Cesar Chavez Day
• National Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Month
• Arab American Heritage Month
• National Public Health Week
• National Child Abuse Prevention Month
• Care Workers Recognition Month
• Month of the Military Child
• Second Chance Month
• Greek Independence Day: A National Day of Celebration of Greek and American Democracy
• National Equal Pay Day
• U.S. Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day

The entire recent discourse around the trans thing is almost entirely a western phenomenon, with the U.S. at the vanguard. This is not at all because of good intentions by any politicians, but rather is a symptom of the fact that culture war issues are incredibly effective at stirring up each party’s respective base. We gain nothing by engaging in these battles from a political perspective. Instead, we should be advocating for the complete removal of the government from anything around who can use what bathroom, childcare and education, and proclamations or designations of any day for anything (except Columbus Day, but that’s to remind us how awful the government is).

If you are a Christian who thinks that the whole trans thing is an abomination, I ask you this – how many people died today in wars the U.S. is funding? That should be where you focus your outrage, not on a perceived attack on your religion by president poopy pants (which, to be fair, he knew exactly what he was doing, but he probably was far more interested in rallying his base and donors than he was in provoking you). And, if you think everyone falls somewhere on a gender spectrum that only exists as a social construct, and you can’t see how some Christians (and non-Christians) might be upset with the coinciding of TDOV and Easter so they all must be fascist bigots, you believe in neither diversity nor inclusion, and you are the close-minded hate monger you would claim to stand against.

Of course, none of this means you can't or shouldn't have an opinion on the recent rise in challenges to the gender binary paradigm. I certainly do, and strong ones, which I am happy to share, in good faith, with anyone who wants to discuss them, outside of politics, not as a representative of the party, from the persepctive of how a free market might address the issue. I certainly don't think the state should dictate that schools can transition children without their parents knowledge. I also don't think the state should dictate anything to schools. I think the "science" supporting biological males in female sports is nonsense. But I think the leagues should determine who is eligible to play for them, and the government should have no part in it. In fact, no matter where you fall in this current debate, the only thing that should hold true no matter what is that we need to stop looking to the government to solve our problems and make our moral decisions.

Here are the facts… Trump is one of the least popular figures in American politics, outdone currently only by Biden, who is polling even lower. We have somehow again decided that the leader and face of our country should be either a sociopath megalomanic war criminal, or a sociopath war criminal with advancing dementia. The leadership in the uniparty is well aware the neither major presidential candidate can really stand on either his achievements or his moral standing, so they have nothing left to do but drive division, polarization, and hatred. We need to stop taking the bait.

by: James Higgins, LPNC IT and LPMeck Secretary

Are you new to the party? Did you get sick of the uniparty and let social media memes lure you into believing you’re a Libertarian? Yeah, me too. Well not really, but it pushed me over the edge and gave me a name for my beliefs. I’m still sure I am a Libertarian but it brings me little comfort. I am working to change that. 

Being in a bastard third party is hard. It’s work. We are against two entrenched parties with billions at their disposal. That’s not a typo...Billions, with a B, and many times over. How much is legitimate or legal is debatable, but it’s of little consequence because the lawyers and judges we could petition share the same party loyalties as those taking potentially illegitimate monies and those verifying the legitimacy of said funds.

So, where does that leave third parties like us?

Not in a great starting block. We’re lucky to hear the starting pistol as the other parties gave us the wrong track, at the wrong field, in the wrong county, in the next state, on a different day, and that's before they paid off the refs. 

How does a party compete when they’re so obviously beset with roadblocks?

I wish I had all the answers, but I honestly don't know. 

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that I’m here to find out. I had kids young. I’m reinvigorating my career at the stage where my kids no longer need me. I have time to learn new things and money to spend to help me get there. I’m spending on travel, family, politics, and community, and I’m motivated. I’m trying to build a better future for my kids and (hopefully) future grandkids, and here I am, faced with the two worst candidates the Rs and Ds could possibly be stupid enough to run against each other again. I appreciate the value in life, in each of our lives, and I will give everything I can to give the people about whom I care a better future.

Not the Kumbaya steal all my money and government is going to fix everything future. Not the "inflation isn't coming," "oh wait, inflation is not that bad," " oh wait, inflation is actually a good thing" future. Not the 40 bombs a day for two decades future. Not the digital ID, thoughtcrime, total autocratic control future.

I am fighting for the “I got this” future.

• The “I understand economics more than the Fed chairman” future.
• The “I know stealing women’s luggage isn’t part of safely storing nuclear waste” future.
• The “Ignoring crime isn’t criminal justice” future.
• The “I will own everything and THEN I’ll be happy” future.

It seems a vast majority of the population is ready and yearning for a change, but how do we get there? How does the party with the right answers get a foothold? How do we grab the mic?

Altruistic Libertarian platitudes are everywhere. We have the widest set of the most deeply correct people on so many subjects; from human rights, to war, to economics, to foreign policy, and so on, and yet we can’t get any kind of groundswell. Maybe if we offered free stuff paid for by other people’s money? That surely works for pretty much all R and D causes.

But Libertarians can’t justify it, nor should we. We don’t take people’s stuff without consent, including their money, and we don’t hurt people, including our enemies, unless we are defending ourselves.

But this leaves a question that looms ever larger the more the uniparty tightens the clamps around us. How do we affect change, and how do we recruit?

I haven’t figured it out yet, but I’m new here. I won’t be new here forever, though. I have met so many great people dedicated to the cause of Liberty, and I am calling on everyone reading this to join the fight, or do a little more than you are already, if you can. We can figure it out together. The best-case scenario is we can get the folks that have felt the same in our party since the 70s to come out to the next meeting, the next event, the next election, and sit alongside the Ron Paul Libertarians who joined at the turn of the millennium, the members who were activated recently because of covid-related tyranny, and the new recruits who couldn't take the deliberate push by the uniparty to drive us apart, and everyone in between. Let’s share stories. Let’s build a community. Let’s volunteer together. Let's learn together and grow the next generation of Libertarian activists and politicians together.

Let’s grow the party.