Long-time Libertarian activist Jacob Hornberger has announced that he is running for the Libertarian Party’s Presidential nomination. Hornberger, 63, previously ran for the Libertarian presidential nomination in 2000 and 2020. In 2020, at the Libertarian Party’s National Convention, Hornberger finished second to 1996 Vice Presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen, who won the nomination on the fourth ballot.
His campaign positions include opening the borders, ending social security, ending medicare, ending the national security state, ending aid to Ukraine, and withdrawing from all foreign alliances. His website is https://www.jacobforliberty.com/.
His platform is exactly why I left the lp.
Jim: “Hornberger unfortunately has never learned to promote himself without attacking other Libertarians.”
That was my big takeaway from the 2020 nomination race. He was making the same mistakes from his 2000 run, when he went hard on attacking Harry Browne.
ATBAFT: “Bumper Hornberger was the keynote speaker at (I believe) the 1996 Convention and gave the most stirring, uncompromisingly libertarian speech one could image. He got a standing ovation.”
Yes, he’s a great messenger for unfiltered libertarianism. He also gave a great speech with similar reaction at the 1998 convention (my first). This makes it a bit sad that when he shifts into campaigns, he goes into attack mode, rendering his communication skills moot, as he ends up pissing off supporters of candidates he targets.
With his unwavering support for immigration and free trade, I suspect he won’t have the backing of the Mises Caucus again. I suspect they only supported him in 2020 because they liked the confrontational style and didn’t have anyone else within their ranks ready.
“Dave Smith is a rising star, and he is far more known outside the LP than Hornberger is.”
He is? Quantify please.
I love podcasts and listen to a lot of them. They’ve replaced radio for me. But podcasts are the definition of echo chambers preaching to choirs.
Well geez, Andy… Dave Smith is no Johnny Carson! He’s a sure loser as well.
The main reason the Mises Caucus would pick Dave Smith over Jacob Hornberger is because Hornberger is yesterday’s news and is barely known outside the Libertarian Party and sphere. Dave Smith is a rising star, and he is far more known outside the LP than Hornberger is.
Agree with Jim.
Hornberger sabotaged his last presidential run by throwing a desperate hissy fit over the prospect of Justin Amash announcing his candidacy. He was the Mises Caucus preferred candidate in 2020, but if Dave Smith (who, like they are, is Hoppean on immigration) wants the 2024 nomination, he won’t even need to campaign. They’ll hand it to him.
@Ryan….. The vast majority are subjected to the will of the largest minority in each party (aka the primary system; in our modern politics this is either Nationalist or Christian Nationalists in the Republican Party or Social Democrats or “progressives” in the Democratic Party). Voters (in the general election) hold their nose and vote for candidates they don’t like but align slightly more with than the candidate from the “other” party. This is what the plurality voting system gets you; two minority groups that control the vast majority of the public even though the majority don’t like either of them. Independent registration is at the highest it’s been since parties formed (in a lot of states that means no primary participation for those voters), and polling about the need for a third party is the highest it’s ever been in history.
(Classical) Liberalism is a spectrum not a single ideology, some marginally lean more towards a Republican while others a Democrat; most dislike both. A broader party (that encompasses classical liberalism as its core but neo-liberalism and other forms of liberalism also) like the FDP in Germany or the Centre or Liberal parties in Sweden is where most (read 30 – 45%) Americans actually fit; they just either don’t take part in primaries or are split between taking part in the Republican and Democratic primaries and thus become one of the small minorities in each party. Blanket primaries also make this worse; liberals split their votes across multiple candidates (there’s actually more liberals on the ballot in blanket primaries than other ideologies) while other political ideologues largely coalesce around a single candidate from their party.
Honestly I think we’re saying the same thing in different ways and coming to slightly different conclusions.
Aiden,
I don’t know if the vast majority of Americans are classical liberals. Right now it seems both parties which is who the vast majority of Americans vote for want greater state control of everything because they see empowering the state further as the best way to destroy the people from the other side they think are toxic to the country. The danger then becomes they can’t dare let the other side win the election with a superpowered state.
It’s what I don’t get with the Ron Paul and company historical argument of you can affect greater change inside the Republican Party. On a local city council level, yeah, I can see that. Nationally? Statewide? Congress? Hell no, because you’ll never win the primary. The Republican Party has fundamentally changed following Donald Trump becoming its nominee and then President in 2016 and our country’s politics have undergone a realignment. Small-l libertarian ideas in the party have never been less widely held since the party became Reaganist in outlook in 1980, and Trump finally killed Reagan. No one is winning an open Republican primary for Congress now with a libertarian message that they actually believe in and follow up on. They might say they’re small government but you get into what they think and believe government should do, it’s not there buddy. Republicans that cry small government and deficits now conveniently forgot all that when Trump was President, so they’re hypocrites.
There’s a great discussion to be had on all this and the direction of the country. Unfortunately the national leadership are more concerned with who is running the state parties and not doing anything looking outward except a lightly-attended rally in D.C. that blew up in their face.
@ ATBAFT. “those who dream of growing the LP into an effective political party“… They all left the party, so that won’t be happening. That’s exactly who the Mises caucus pushed out; me included.
The only way classical liberal ideas (where the vast majority of Americans actually are on the political spectrum; especially Millennials and Gen Z – no we’re not socialists it’s just that’s the only group currently that supports much of our social views, and we care less about economics than foreign policy and social policy) is if the Democratic Party does a hard swing to the right economically (with plurality primaries, that won’t happen) or a new party starts.
The one group the Mises Caucus is hell-bent on purging is classical liberals.
Bumper Hornberger was the keynote speaker at (I believe) the 1996 Convention and gave the most stirring, uncompromisingly libertarian speech one could image. He got a standing ovation. If the 2024 campaign is to be one of getting out a pure libertarian message, then Hornberger has the energy and the rhetorical ability to do it.
Of course, his campaign would probably result in Bergland-size vote numbers. So, I suspect, those who dream of growing the LP into an effective political party and not a philosophical think tank will do whatever they can to thwart his candidacy.
Hornberger unfortunately has never learned to promote himself without attacking other Libertarians. It leaves a bad taste in people’s mouth’s for an otherwise generally principled libertarian. All he has to do is talk up his own positions while attacking the R’s and D’s. Instead he has twice shown that he would rather attack the other LP candidates.
The Mises Caucus endorsed Jacob Hornberger for the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination in 2020. I doubt he will get the endorsement of the Mises Caucus this time, unless maybe every other possibility does not pan out.
It will be interesting to see how he fares in the “new” LP! My guess is he’s far too libertarian for those in control of the party.