Scott Horton Show - Just the Interviews - 12/21/23 Angela McArdle on How the Libertarian Party is Opposing the War State

Episode Date: December 25, 2023

Libertarian Party Chair Angela McArdle returns to the show to talk about the upcoming antiwar rally and the broader antiwar strategy of the Party. She shares the plans in the works for a second Rage Against the War Machine rally in Washington DC early next year. They then talk about the importance of having the country’s biggest third party stay committed to a doctrine of strict noninterventionism and a willingness to work with any political faction to push back against the war party.  Discussed on the show: Rage Against the War Machine 2: Defeat the Deep State Angela McArdle is the Chair of the Libertarian Party. Follow her on Twitter @angela4LNCChair This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Moon Does Artisan Coffee; Roberts and Robers Brokerage Incorporated; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; Libertas Bella; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott. Get Scott’s interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, you guys, Scott Horton here to remind you that it's fun drive time at the Institute right now. We only do this twice a year, but it's got to be done. And I'm proud to do it, too. We've got an incredible crew of the best writers, authors, and podcasters in the Libertarian Movement. From Jim Bovard, Lori Calhoun, Tom Woods, and Ted Carpenter, to Keith Knight, Kyle Anzalone, Hunter Durenc, Connor Freeman, and all the rest of the guys. It's the best team around. We've published three books this year. Keith Knight's Voluntaryist Handbook, Lori Calhoun's questioning the COVID company line,

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author of the book, Pools Aaron, time to end the war in Afghanistan, and the brand new, enough already. Time to end the war on terrorism. And I've recorded more than 5,500 interviews since 2003. Almost all on foreign policy and all available for you at Scott Horton.4. You can sign up the podcast feed there, and the full interview archive is also available at YouTube.com

slash Scott Horton's show. Hey, guys, on the line I've got Angela McCartle. She happens to be the chair of the National Libertarian. Party, the United States of America. How are you doing? I'm doing great, man. Thanks for having me. Good. Very happy to have you here. Merry Christmas and all that kind of stuff. Merry Christmas to you. I have you on not to talk about party politics in case any IRS agents are listening to this nonprofit organization.

But you are, which is not illegal, but, you know, as to percentages and whatever. The Libertarian Institute and the Libertarian Party are only coincidentally named. They don't have anything to do with each other. That's the point. Except that you have invited me and my managing editor, Keith Knight, to give speeches in Washington, D.C. soon. Can you tell us about that, please? Absolutely.

So last February, we had a big rally in Washington, D.C. at the Lincoln Memorial called Rage Against the War Machine, where we collaborated with people on the left to put together a big anti-war message and really unify. behind the anti-war movement and try to reignite it, a left-right coalition, you know, spearheaded by minor parties and independence. And we have decided to come together and do it again. So we are having rage against the war machine to defeat the deep state in Washington, D.C. at the Lincoln Memorial

on February 17th. That's a Saturday. And I'm super stoked to be inviting you and Keith Knight there. We had a wonderful rally last year, but I did notice that we were, we were, we were, a little bit lacking in libertarian voices. So I'm trying to bring more libertarians out so we can balance it and just, you know, send a really strong rebuke of the war machine and the deep state. Sounds good to me. And, you know, last year was such a success. And I think some people on the internet might have gotten a false impression of that based on a bunch of hype. But for anyone who was there, including the thousands of people in the crowd, it was a great success. And A lot of new people were won over and a lot of great new networks of anti-war people, you know, among libertarians as well as leftists and others who were there were established.

And the whole thing was an absolutely fantastic success. And so I can't wait to participate in the thing again. And I wonder, well, for example, how's it going on the invite so far? Are we going to top the big event last year, you think? I think we are. I mean, we've sent a lot of invites out. I don't have confirmation from everyone, but Ron Paul has been invited again. You know, we're inviting, you know, many, if not all of the same speakers from last year. And we're trying to broaden it too and bring in more libertarians and maybe even a couple of principled anti-war conservative voices if we can find them. You know, we're hoping for a bigger turnout this year. We had about 3,000 people. If we could get 5,000 in D.C., that would be phenomenal. But the more speakers we invite and the broader we make our coalition the more successful it's going to be right um yeah that's true and you know be interesting to see whether we could get some good conservative anti-war leadership to show up as well yeah we've invited we've invited colonel douglas

mcgregor i have not i've not had a confirmation yet but i just i want to put it out there that we are putting out the invites you know we we want people to feel welcome at this event. That's really what makes it successful is when we bring a lot of strong voices and, you know, they attract their own audiences as well. I'm sure you, I mean, you probably feel it more than I do with your work, but everything that's happening in Israel and Palestine right now, as miserable as it is, I do think it's a good opportunity to make people aware of, you know, why all that stuff happens and why and how our government. here in the United States enables it.

And there are a lot more conservatives questioning things than I thought there would be. So I just think it's a great opportunity to do some outreach to them. You know, I was just having this conversation with Daniel Davis on his show about how Anthony Blinken and the Democrats, that's the Secretary of State and the administration and their proxies in the media, they're actually officially hyping military industrial complex spending as one of the primary benefits of American foreign policy specifically I guess when it comes to Ukraine

but they're saying this is a great investment in America's military industrial base and all of these things the military industrial complex that Ike warned you about this self-licking ice cream cone of the American military empire yeah that's right that's what it's all about baby we gotta keep licking

that ice cream cone says the secretary of state says Joe Biden, the least credible president since the last one and the one before that and the one before that. So, you know, who the hell is he to lead anyone into war at this point on either side? It makes a perfect kind of, you know, avatar for the empire itself, President Biden does, you know? Yeah, it's just, it's completely nuts. It's like the mask has totally dropped. They want to say things like war is good for the country. I can't imagine what it must be to hear that being someone who's like a veteran or if, you know,

if you've had family killed overseas in some of these conflicts. It's got to be the most insulting, like infuriating thing. And it's grossly out of touch to, you know, look at failing infrastructure here in the United States, inflation, and hear people say, yeah, let's spend money on war, you know. It'll be good for you. Suck it up. Yeah. Well, and especially with the homeless crisis, we've got hundreds of thousands of people.

And some of them are just bums who like living outside and being bums. But a lot of people are just what they call the lowest rung on that economic ladder. And when it comes to inflationary times, priced right out on an apartment. Yeah. You go from living in a, you know, a studio apartment to your car. And then it's just a, it's just a slippery, you know, downward decline. when you're impacted by inflation like that you know your your one parking ticket away from homelessness is the way that I like to put it you know you pay your parking ticket or you pay

your rent and then you you you know you just start this cycle the series of events and then you're homeless and you get parking tickets and they impound your car or they put a boot on it you know and you can't get to work yeah you can't get to work and the government just pumps money over and over into foreign wars it's got to be the most you know know, insulting slap in the face to working-class Americans and people who are strong. And like, you know, to middle class and upper middle class and rich people too. I mean, this is the difference between, you know, whether you're able to have a good Christmas for your family or not, whether you're able to invest in a retirement account to take care of

yourself and your old lady when you actually get old, or, you know, medical care for your people, or a nicer and safer place to live or, you know, whatever, better food to eat instead of junk food wrapped in plastic, or, you know, all of the things that sound like what to, like that's supposed to be selfish or something that people of America want to have a decent standard of living, want to be able to maybe take their kids on vacation every couple of years or something, do something for their family other than,

just, you know, keep their nose to the grindstone, you know, all year round just to survive. And, and then, as you say, just were they right in their face, another $100 billion for this, another $100 billion for that while the American people have to go without, while they inflate us right out of our homes and right out of our standard of living, to give money to people that kill people overseas. Yeah, there's just, there's no. excuse for it. As awful as it is, though, I do think it's a good opportunity to wake up just the average

American people who are, like, they don't pay attention to politics right until they feel the pain of it personally or until they're just completely inundated with it on social media and news. I think there are a lot of normies out there who are saying, like, I don't understand what's going on, but I don't think it's a good idea. I think their interest is piqued and I want to reach out to them. And that's one of the reasons that we do it in Washington, D.C. people ask, oh, why do it there? You know, why do it in the swamp? You know, and, well, first of all, it's a sharp rebuke to the swamp.

But also, there are a lot of people who are just tourists who go, oh, let's go look out the Lincoln Memorial. Let's go see what, what's happening in Washington, D.C. You know, that's the place to go, right? That's what we do. We go and look at where all the stuff happens for the country. And I love that we can be there and just share a message with them. And they can just share a message with them. and then they can just wander into it and wander out, you know, with their minds blown and opened, hopefully. Yeah, absolutely right. Hey, y'all, I got a new coffee sponsor, Moondose Artisan Coffee at Moondoseartisan Coffee.com.

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Hey guys, I had some wasps in my house. So I shot them to death with my trusty bug assault 3.0 model with the improved salt reservoir and bar safety. I don't have a deal with them, but the show does earn a kickback every time you get a bug of salt or anything else you buy from Amazon.com by way of the link in the right-hand margin on the front page at Scott Horton.org. So keep that in mind. And don't worry about the mess. Your wife will clean it up. Well, folks, sad to say, they lied us into war. All of them. World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq War I, Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq War II, Libya, Syria, Yemen, all of them. But now you can get the e-book, All the War Lies, by me, for free.

just sign up the email list at the bottom of the page at scott horton.org or go to scotthorton.org slash subscribe get all the war lies by me for free and then you'll never have to believe them again and um and it is it's such a great precedent set last year to see people who are not on the same page about all different issues but who are able to prioritize opposites opposites opposition to the very worst thing our government is doing above all these other sectarian differences. And I know, you know, I'm sure there'll be critics of last year maybe that are listening to this

who say, oh, you know, you can't get commie cooties on you or whatever, but I say to you, well, Danny Shurston's a communist and we all love him. You know what I mean? Are you kidding me? Yeah. We miss you, Danny, wherever you're at now. But, and he's not really a communist. communist, but he's a leftist, you know what I mean?

But he fought in Iraq War II and Afghanistan, and he wrote 10,000 articles about American foreign policy. And, you know, he also wrote his own kind of Howard Zinn-like history of America as well. And so nobody's perfect, man. But here's a guy who's the MVP of anti-war people of our generation, right? One of the most productive anti-war writers of our time. and based on his personal experience, leading guys in those fights over there in Iraq War II and Afghanistan. And so that's just one example.

Or look at Cindy Sheehan. You know, I subscribe to her substack and she still is plugging away. Every day she puts out stuff. She hadn't cut one iota of slack for Barack Obama or any of the Democrats this entire time. People say, where's the anti-war left? Cindy Sheehan ain't quit complaining out loud and typing with them fingers of hers this entire time. Same thing for Code Pink. You know, sometimes people go, well, you know, these ladies doing their stunts with their pain on their hands or whatever.

Some of those stunts are really heroic. Sometimes they really confront powerful people with deadly horrible truths and in a way that God bless them for doing it. You have to appreciate the work that Medea Benjamin and her best people have put in this whole time. And that goes for a look at the viewpoints at anti-war.com, too. Probably two-thirds of them are leftists and liberals who write all the best anti-war stuff in the country. Well, good. Thank God for them, too. What would we do without them?

You know, we'd be completely sunk. She had a great moment approaching Marco Rubio recently about the death of Palestinian. Palestinian children. And he just, you know, shrugged it off and said, I blame Hamas and thought that he had some gotcha moment. And it was just the most embarrassing, like, worst moment I thought for him PR-wise, that he just said, you know, he acknowledged that everybody was, was dying over there and said that it's not my problem. I don't care if Palestinian children are dead. I just blame Hamas. It's their fault. It's just totally wild. Yeah. They're disgusting. And, you know, more and more, I mean, I'm sure you saw the polls were, Half a Republicans want to ceasefire. And they still favor Israel. They still want to continue to arm and protect Israel. But they don't want to see this continue here.

I thought it was very apt when Daryl Cooper martyr made on Twitter the other day compared this to, or in fact, compared the apologist for this policy to the people who rationalized the Milai massacre. That, of course, everybody said then to, oh, yeah, that's war, this, that, the other thing. But no, it ain't either. It's not what you're supposed to do, throw grenades in the houses where you know there's women and children in there. Rape and murder women and children throw their bodies in a ditch. That is not, that's what you do if you're the Gestapo. That's not what you're supposed to do if you're the U.S. Army infantry. And what the Israelis are doing in Gaza right now is, as, you know, really great Israeli journalism has absolutely demonstrated.

They are deliberately targeting and killing innocent civilians. including children. And America is a party to it. They want to demoralize. They want to decimate the population. They want to just make it so that no one's left to fight back or negotiate with. You know, I'm not involved in it. And I'm still horrified, like embarrassed on behalf of my country that we've,

that we're just kind of turning our heads, you know. Yeah. And by the way, you know, look, I don't know if you were on that Twitter space thing that I did or if you heard that where, you know, they had me on to, I think the guy's question, I forgot who it was that was hosting the first question was like, so tell us the entire history of all of this. And so I kind of refused. And instead I said my first answer was that I personally, my own personal opinion is that my own personal opinion should not be the doctrine of the Libertarian Party on this. and that I have, you know, a lot to say about it. I think for the Libertarian Party, what's most important is strict non-interventionism.

On the other hand, I think it's very admirable the way you and the Twitter account and I presume Instagram and whatever, representing the LP, have been so good on this issue and talking about it. And I would ask the audience to consider for a moment what it would be like if the old regime of the LP was still in charge when we can see how the classical liberal caucus and these people are they've been pro-Ukraine war and pro-Israel in their slaughter in Gaza this whole time so not only would they not be good on it they would be absolutely horrible on it and speaking in the name of the libertarian party and therefore in the eyes of the broader political culture in the name of our movement and i gotta say that i think that out in the broader libertarian movement there is still this

leftover resentment of the party left over from back when it was under the control of those guys and yep we need to not have that and what the hell i'll go ahead and say everybody's a bit disappointed that dave ain't running but still we absolutely have to make the most of the fact that the party belongs to the libertarian movement now that that weird kind of who never met each other thing, relationship between our party and our movement that we've had over the last 25 years or so, or longer, whatever, is over. And that what the libertarian movement consensus is, is the way the libertarian party thinks and speaks. And that, to me, is one of the most important political inventions of my lifetime, that this

Mises caucus takeover, narrowly defined, but also much more broadly defined, the libertarian movements merger with the Libertarian Party as represented by that Mises Caucus takeover is just absolutely huge. And for everyone who was a part of it, you know, don't lose sight of how important your achievement was and is and has been and must continue to be. I mean, imagine if people who denounced Ron Paul for being pro-Russia supposedly were still speaking for the Libertarian Party during these wars that we have going on right now, the Biden era wars. There is nothing more important than making sure that Mises caucus folk show up at their conventions and show up, you know, at the state conventions and at the national

convention and keep the momentum going and just forget. I think about it really. Whatever problems you have with the LP are from before, right? That's what we're working together to prevent from coming back and not that i think there's much of a risk of it what the hell do i know i doubt it because um you know clearly the lp now is sounding the right tune on all of this stuff and that's what's most important yeah man i'm going to try really hard to hold on to it i i am running again it's you know like this is i don't think that it was as much of a you know watershed moment as COVID, but this is a huge moment and it takes a lot of courage to stand up and say, no, we shouldn't be involved in war. We are anti-war. And not everybody makes that litmus test, unfortunately, you know,

but that's why we're here. We're going to keep doing it. We're going to keep opposing war. We're going to work with other people that oppose war. And, you know, one of the things that I was, you know, people were critical of me for. It was they thought, oh, you know, here comes Angela McGardell and the Mises Caucus, they're just a bunch of alt-right sympathizers. They don't reach out to the left. They don't care about, you know, working with anybody outside of their tiny little niche base. You know, but here I am hosting a rally with Garland Nixon and Gerald Salente and Jose Vega and Craig Pasta Jarjula. We're making it happen because the principles of libertarianism are what are important. And that's what we're to support. Absolutely. Okay. So tell us,

Which website do we go to to find out all about this thing? Because I got to go. Absolutely. Go to defeat the deepstate.org. Click that little button and scroll down and click Donate, please. We are trying to raise a nice little pile of cash here to rebuild the stage, the sound system, all of that. This is a passion project. You know, we're all volunteers right now. But we've got to, we've got to get this thing funded so that we can make it happen on February 17th.

You can see our list of demands. You can see all of our awesome speakers as well, defeat the deep state.org. Okay, thank you so much for your time, Angela McArdle. You're great. Thank you. The Scott Horton Show, Anti-War Radio, can be heard on KPFK, 90.7 FM in L.A. APSRadio.com, anti-war.com, Scotthorton.org, and Libertarian Institute.org.