Liberty Lovers Shouldn't Support Trump Just Because He Pisses Off Leftists

So it’s not a secret. I am not a fan of Donald Trump.

And I don’t care at all about Russian conspiracies. I just think he’s not what the country needs. I don’t hate Donald Trump as a person.

My issue is with supporters. And actually it’s not with all supporters. It’s with supporters who claim to be pro-liberty. Now I don’t believe there is a perfect candidate. There are always going to be politician with things in that platform that are just going to fall short of my personal expectations. I don’t begrudge people for that. But there are things about Trump’s platform that are complete non starters.

To me I find that it has almost made some people in the liberty movement far more docile. As if there shouldn’t be any criticism or skepticism towards Trump. The excuse being “I’m forced to defend him” or “He pisses off the left”. First these are weak excuses. It is possible to disagree with the left, and disagree with Trump. This isn’t “take the side of Republican Authoritarianism or become a socialist”. Also I find that one year into his presidency, we should be over the whole “he pissed off the left” excuse.

I’m not going to tell people who they should or shouldn’t support. That’s none of my business.

But more and more I find that people who are liberty minded are OK with things just because they’re anti-leftist, and not pro-freedom. And while this is a bit fun, at times I feel there isn’t enough critical dialogue about where the liberty movement goes from here.

And of course occasionally Trump will do things you personally like. But at his core, he’s not pro-liberty bin the slightest. And I feel people who are his core supporters and his base are different than libertarians who are on the “well he pisses off the left”.

I also find that people are afraid to be on a different side of the “pro-authoritarian right”. Because somehow someway there is this expectation that these are somehow our new generation of libertarians. When honestly they’re the same threat to liberty as the left is. Remember both sides of the aisle believe in freedom. They just believe in freedom for certain people or certain types of freedom. Anything other than a full embrace of freedom is a problem. So any fantasy that you’re going to convert people who believe in the tyranny of police, billions of economic intervention, stop and frisk policies are somehow going to be some sort of ally to liberty is nonsense. And I don’t think we should have any problem pissing off this group similarly to how we have no issue pissing off the left.

I just find that since Trump’s presidency, I’ve seen libertarians just join in the fun of partisanships and counter productive bashing of “the other”. and anytime you’re willing to call out the issues of big governemnt (even the big government that righties love), you’re called “hyperbolic” or “counter productive”. As if right wing authoritarianism cares anymore about freedom than left wing authoritarianism.