Libertarians discuss challenges, moving forward

FREMONT- On March 22, the local Libertarian Party members held a meeting at Casa Fiesta in a casual event to review party notes and share their views.

Affiliate Development Coordinator Joshua Lape started by addressing one of the most significant issues the Libertarian Party faces — discrimination.

“We’ll go back to 2013 to 2014 when John Kasich was running for governor. He was trying to get re-elected. The Republicans in Ohio decided to come up with a scheme to basically kick the Libertarians off the ballot, so they raised the threshold for our percentage (to be on the ballot)," he said.

"We had to meet a certain percentage, and they upped that and basically kicked our candidate off the ballot so that John could get re-elected. Everybody says Libertarians can’t win. Well, yeah, by the design of the people that make the rules, which are the other parties so.”

Poll worker said he was told to have people identify as one of two parties only

Another Libertarian, Ben Machoukas, said he volunteered once as a poll worker and felt limited.

“The people came to vote, and they tell you (the poll workers) to ask, ‘Democrat or Republican?’ You can’t just ask 'What party?' You had to ask 'Democrat or Republican?' There were so many people that were like, I don’t want to pick either ... so, it makes the numbers look like nobody wants to pick a third party, because everybody’s affiliated with one or the other.”

“I don’t know if you remember Gary Johnson?” Lape asked. “He would say we’re the best of this and the best of that, we’re fiscally conservative, but we’re socially liberal, and so we had ballot access for the next three years because of how well he did.”

“And that’s the beauty of it,” Machoukas added, “you can have somebody so far from one end to the other, but you can still agree on 90% of the stuff.”

“Exactly," Lape said, "so we had an anti-war rally, and there was a big issue, because we had a lot of Socialists that teamed up with us, and some people were like, why are we teaming up with the Socialists, they’re not Libertarians? No, the point is we can work with the people we disagree with for a common cause, and that’s what we need to do more of.”

Logan Dold said, “Some people, especially on the left, think that we don’t want to help people, because we want to reduce taxes, but we just want to help people through our own free will.” Dold is a fellow Libertarian and owner of Alchemy for You and Sweet Freedom Sweet Treats.

Machoukas said, “Yeah, we haven’t mentioned volunteerism which is a main (Libertarian) ideology; most things can be accomplished through voluntary measures; you don’t need the government mandating.”

Libertarians say other parties make bad assumptions about their members

The party members at the discussion said they were frustrated that members of other parties make assumptions about them.

Lape explained, “If you’re for something, they automatically assume you’re with the other party, and that’s frustrating because not everyone is the same. You can have different views on things, and sometimes there are not two choices. Sometimes there are three or four different ways of thinking or going about something.”

Machoukas added, “Anything anti-authoritarianism ... if there’s a decision between, OK is this giving the government more control? That is not libertarian.”

Lape said, “You’ll hear a lot of Republicans run on Libertarian ideas (on small government), but when they get in there, they don’t do it.”

“It’s OK to disagree. I find that that’s hard if you’re a Republican or Democrat," Lape said. "You almost have to follow everything the party stands for straight down the line or you’re a 'RINO' (Republican In Name Only) ... you’re a traitor. But Libertarians are like, we can disagree. We’re more like a family, I guess. A dysfunctional family.”

Machoukas said he wants to convince more people to turn out at the polls.

"At least 33% of registered voters don’t vote ... they choose not to, they think that sends a message, but actually going out and voting for somebody in a third party sends a bigger message.”

Lape said the Libertarian Party is still young. "We got started in 1972 and were the fastest-growing third party in the United States. But the media always covers us when there’s silliness in the news.

"Joe Exotic, the Tiger King, is going to run for President in 2024, from prison, as a Libertarian," he pointed out. "The Libertarian Party says he should not be taken seriously. That’s the official word and on the record.”

For more information about the Libertarian Party, visit lpo.org.

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Libertarians look for ways to compete fairly with GOP, Dems