The national Libertarian Party supports secession in the newly amended version of its platform.
The Libertarian Party is the United States’ third largest political party, with over half a million members. Founded in 1971 in Colorado, it now has state affiliates in all fifty U.S. states as well as Washington D.C.
The LP holds national conventions every other year. This year’s event took place May 27 – 29 in Reno, Nevada. It included elections for national officers, as well as regional and at large members of the Libertarian National Committee (LNC), the governing body of the Party. It also featured speakers such as former Congressman Justin Amash, 2020 LP Presidential candidate Dr. Jo Jorgensen, 2020 LP Vice Presidential candidate Spike Cohen, and 2020 Indiana LP gubernatorial candidate Donald Rainwater. Also, former Congressman and Presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul spoke at an after-hours event.
A sea change took place at the convention when candidates endorsed by the Mises Caucus won every elected position. The caucus is named after Ludwig von Mises, an Austrian School economist and prominent political thinker and writer. One of the Mises Caucus’ stated goals is to bring a greater focus on messaging back to the Party, because clearly expressing the Party’s values and policy positions will better differentiate it from those of the Democrats and Republicans. Because the Mises Caucus replicates the excitement and sense of community of the “Ron Paul rEVOLution”, it hopes to attract many new members to the Libertarian Party.
New Party Chair Mentions Peaceful Secession in Candidate Speech
Angela McArdle won the election for national Chair of the LP. McArdle is the current chair of the Libertarian Party of Los Angeles County. In her candidate speech on May 28th, she mentioned peaceful secession:
Consider this. The state of the world is pretty rough. But people are getting paid in Bitcoin… truckers and nurses led protests for freedom… peaceful secession is actually being discussed all across the political spectrum.
Angela McArdle, national Chair of the Libertarian Party
Platform Revision to Support Secession
After three full days of sometimes contentious debate, the final agenda item was the Platform Committee report. A team of volunteers had prepared a list of proposed changes to the Party platform. The eleventh proposal was to amend plank 3.7 Self-Determination. More than two thirds of the delegates voted to add this sentence to the platform:
We recognize the right to political self-determination, including secession.
Plank 3.7 of the Libertarian Party Platform
The full Libertarian Party platform is available on the LP website.
