An Update on 2020 Libertarian Presidential Candidates
In my last post here, “Why lower case libertarians should be upper case Libertarians…”, I had now dated info from Wikipedia on the 2020 race. Zoltan Istvan withdrew and John McAfee re-updated his campaign site and campaign is officially on again.
Adam Kokesh
Vermin Supreme
John McAfee
Arvin Vohra
As soon as I heard of the John McAfee campaign being back on the Wikipedia article and Zoltan Istvan withdrawing, I knew I had to write this post.
My knowing Medium even existed in the first place was the John McAfee 2016 presidential campaign. Gary Johnson got the nomination at the 2016 LNC.
John McAfee’s Platform
My campaign platform contains one item: how do we free ourselves from a government that no longer serves us, but instead has become our master — controlling our every action, down to the detail of what we may or may not put into our bodies and minds.
Our two party system created a voting process which is an illusion, and a government that fluctuates between two extremes — each extreme annulling any progress made by the opposition in the prior administration. It is a government that has gone insane. While we carry the burden of this government we are not free.
Any attempt to address national problems, of any nature, is doomed to failure. The best that can be hoped is a solution driven by conflict and incomplete in substance. Until we free ourselves, we are powerless to create any real change. And since our insane government keeps massive secrets from us and is masterful at disinformation, there is not a single National issue that we know the true state of. How then can we address it? You cannot fix what you cannot see.
So do not ask me about immigration, foreign relations, education etc. I have no idea. Those claiming that they do are lying to themselves, or if not, they are purposely lying to you. We must first be free. Freedom for The People is my only goal.
2016 Endorsements
Political Positions
McAfee identifies as a libertarian, advocating the decriminalization of cannabis and an end to the war on drugs, non-interventionism in foreign policy, and a free market economy which does not redistribute wealth, and he upholds free trade. McAfee supports abolishing the Transportation Security Administration.
McAfee advocates for increased cyber awareness and more action against the threat of cyberwarfare.
McAfee has advocated for religious liberty, saying that business owners should be able to deny service in cases that contradict their religious beliefs, and, “No one is forcing you to buy anything or to choose one person over another. So why should I be forced to do anything if I am not harming you? It’s my choice to sell, your choice to buy.
2016 Political Ads
Ok, the last video is a Free State Project ad, but goes well with the 2016 campaign ads.
10 Things You Can Do To Help
Make a realistic forecast and budget
Join our online community (Discord)
Contact media outlets and personalities
Start a PAC
Grassroots messaging and recruiting
Join the LP and tell them why
Consider being a Libertarian delegate in 2020
Double down on social media
Start a campaign jar
Learn about cryptocurrency
Coin Bros Campaign Song (Official)
John McAfee and Vermin Supreme are the only declared Libertarian candidates with I Side With profiles. John McAfee is a great Libertarian candidate and Vermin Supreme is a perennial candidate performance artist with a low percentage score when compared to the Libertarian platform.
Adam Kokesh option
The platform is simple. When elected, I will swear in, walk to the White House, and sign one executive order. This executive order will lay out the process for dissolving the federal government in a peaceful, orderly manner. With it, I will be resigning as President to become “Custodian of the Federal Government.” The executive order will appoint heads of each federal department, or “Custodians” who will be instructed to carry out a mostly predetermined plan for their departments. The only authority that I will retain will be to replace Custodians if they are unable to complete their responsibilities or are not faithfully executing the plan.
Some agencies will be very easy to do away with, like those that perform only regulatory functions like the Department of Education, or those that perform completely illegitimate functions, like the IRS. Some departments, like Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Interior, need to be handled carefully and in some ways transferred to state governments. National Parks will be preserved as independent non-profits that will be open to the public. American troops abroad will be immediately brought home in a responsible and orderly manner that does not endanger their lives. All foreign federal properties will be liquidated. The offensive weaponry of the Department of Defense will also be liquidated (while defensive weaponry and appropriate personnel will be apportioned to the states) and the funds will be used to create endowments for the newly privatized Department of Veterans Affairs owned by veterans, and Social Security Administration, owned by every American who has paid into it as of the signing of the executive order.
Without your support, the inevitable collapse of the US Federal Government will not happen in a peaceful, orderly manner. In one sense, the message of this campaign is, “We can do things the easy way, or the hard way.” The hard way is to keep our heads buried in the sand. The easy way is to apply a solution as big as the problem. However, there is no guarantee that the American people will choose the easy way. It’s quite possible that there will be a collapse before a critical mass of us see the light. We may have a very broad secession movement. Regardless of how the federal government comes to an end, I will run until it ends.
More important than the politics of this campaign is the education about the nature of government and how we can apply it to live more free NOW! This campaign is about encouraging people to minimize the role of government in their lives and their role in empowering government. When you understand government properly, you relate to it properly. One of the most important ways to disempower government is to stop paying taxes (legally or illegally.) One of the most effective ways to do this is to stop using government money, and with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, this is easier than ever.
Well before the 2020 campaign season, I’ll be releasing the exact plan of this campaign as a book, AMERICAN FREEDOM!, which will lay out the general plan and principles of the platform. Because the executive order will be constantly under development in order to stay current with the state of the government, as the campaign progresses, we will have an updated version of the executive order on this site by the time I will be seeking the nomination of the Libertarian Party at our 2020 convention. Until then, join the revolution you’ve been waiting for by signing up under your state in the forum and check out 10 Things You Can Do RIGHT NOW To Help End the Fed!
The same idea in a simpler read follows:
Kokesh states that upon swearing in as President, he will issue one single executive order peacefully “dissolving the federal government”, and then resign to become “Custodian of the Federal Government”. The executive order would then appoint “Custodians” for each department, who would work to systemically dissolve them. As a combat veteran, one of Kokesh’s main priorities is privatizing the Veterans Affairs Department and spinning it off into a private not-for-profit corporation wherein every US veteran has 1 voting share.
Kokesh believes that the legal basis for dissolving the federal government and all its powers under the Constitution is the Declaration of Independence, which lays out the criteria for dissolving political allegiances: “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…” Kokesh believes that whereas the Constitution grants powers to the federal government, the Declaration of Independence is the legal document that establishes the United States of America and is therefore a higher authority than the Constitution.
Other Potential Candidates
Jeffrey Miron, Peter Schiff, and Bill Wild are the speculated Libertarians who may run. Justin Amash, Tom Campbell, and Joe Walsh are the speculated libertarian Republicans who may run. Patrick Byrne, Gary Johnson, Darryl Perry, Mary Ruwart, Nicholas Sarwark, and Larry Sharpe are the Libertarians who have declined to run. Thomas Massie, Rand Paul, Austin Petersen, and Mark Sanford are the libertarian Republicans who declined to run. Kmele Foster and Jesse Ventura are the Independents who declined to run. Will any speculative candidate enter the race or will any decliners change their mind about running before the 2020 LNC?
Wings of the Party issues
Moderate/Pragmatist/Centrist Wing: Gary Johnson, Bill Weld, Nicholas Sarwark, Arvin Vohra
Philosopher Wing: John McAfee, Darryl Perry, Adam Kokesh
Republican Revolving Door/Hustler Wing: Austin Petersen, Justin Amash, Tom Campbell, Joe Walsh, Thomas Massie, Rand Paul, Mark Sanford
Anarchist/Really Left Wing: Vermin Supreme, Sam Seder, Zoltan Istvan
