Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / Libertarian Party Chair Angela McArdle Joins One Leg Up With Alex Garrett 12-23-23

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Libertarian Party Chair Angela McArdle Joins One Leg Up With Alex Garrett 12-23-23 · OneLegUpAlex Media

0:01
Here's your host, Alex Garrett. Well, I'm very honored to welcome the
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Libertarian Party National Chair Angela Miccardio. Angela, thanks for joining me today.
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Absolutely thanks for having me. I jumped on this opportunity when I saw you
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guys talking about, well, what everybody's talking about, right, what happened
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this past Tuesday. And libertarians may not like Trump per se, but we
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do like our rights, don't we as American citizens? So let's start there.
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Why were you guys so strong about releasing a statement on this? And
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should have come to a surprise that libertarians put aside the maybe differences with Trump
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and say, hey, what rights are being violated here? Sure? I
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mean, we work with people of all different political backgrounds on single issue coalitions.
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You know, right now, I'm planning a big anti war, anti
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deep state rally for February next year. We work with people on the left,
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and it's a really good opportunity to work with people on the right as
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well, who are suspicious of all of the you know, obstruction and political
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attacks on our former president. Libertarians don't want to live in, you know,
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a dystopian world where the criminal justice system is weaponized against political opposition.
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That's atrocious. It is, it is atrocious. And I know that you
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guys go deeper than just voting rights. You deal with you know what do
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they call them when you're you're sort of personal civil rights are violated as well
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with the with the surveillance and whatnot. But have you seen this kind of
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behavior under the Trump administration? What I mean is has the Biden administration gotten
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worse with these kind of tactics, utilizing the dj maybe even utilizing the Colorado
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Court. I mean, are you seeing that as well? You know?
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I think so, I think, yeah, the Biden administration has gotten worse,
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but I think it really goes beyond the Biden administration. There's been a
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push by you know, progressive activists to take hold of the judiciary for several
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years now and district attorneys as well, and they've done a very good job
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from their perspective of capturing these institutions that are supposed to be extremely impartial,
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and they've weaponized them against their political opposition. And so I think that's what
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we're up against. And certainly, you know, they're coming for President of
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Trump right now, but that doesn't mean they're not going to come for other
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people who disagree with them. In the future, we got to be a
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lot I'm worried about. And you might have reached out to him as already
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because RFK is pretty much independent right now. Have you guys reach out to
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him, for example, someone who's outside of the main thing and they're really
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shuting him down. You don't even have protection as a product as under candidate.
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Has Libertarian Party reached out to him to join and run on their on
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their line? Oh, we've, yeah, we've spoken with him quite a
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bit. And I mean, you know, as the chair of the National
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Party, I have to be someone impartial but welcoming, you know, when
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it comes to our presidential candidates. But there have certainly been a lot of
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members who wanted us, who wanted us to, you know, recruit him
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and have him, have him join our party. And I've personally had several
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cordial conversations with him. You know, as of right now, it seems
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like he's still going to go the independent route. But you know, we've
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had talks about ballot access and joint debates and you know, just sort of
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helping each other out because you know, what we're up against collectively is you
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know, it's some monolithic state apparatus that has absolute contempt for freedom of choice
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at the polls obviously. Yeah. Well, and I know one guy that's
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speaking out about this is Vivek, and he's been the only one I've seen
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saying, hey, don't be on the primary if they're not allowing Trump.
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I'm pretty admirable. I'm sure you're following how many other candidates may not.
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Do you see a boycott coming uh from your personal and from the stance of
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the libertarian part, do you see a boycott coming up those primary a boycotting
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against what against the ballot? Do you see others being no? I mean,
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I appreciate that Vivek is speaking out against it. I think at a
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certain point it could you know, he may change his mind, or it
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could become like a grand standing effort. But it is good that he's speaking
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out. It's really like a prisoner's dilemma, you know, if you you
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put yourself at great disadvantage if you refuse to participate in the political system and
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you're trying to get elected. But I think there are other creative ways that
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people can boycott, you know, boycotting debates. That's been an interesting thing
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that certain members of the GEOP have done. You know, President Trump's not
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engaging in any of them, right also committing to you know, gutting some
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of these agencies and institutions. That's that's a that's a take that some Republicans
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could could adopt at the core of the Libertarian Party. While I have you,
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Angela mccardal, you want to break away from both parties yet sort of
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have ideas from both of them. So how does that work? If that
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makes sense? How do you stay independent while embracing both ideas. I mean,
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we just rather than operate within the paradigm of adopting ideas from both major
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parties, I'd rather say, you know, we're really our own thing.
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We are very you know, oriented towards individual rights. We care about property
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rights. We care about free speech, which I believe, you know,
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flows naturally from property rights. We care about self defense and the natural God
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given right to bear arms, and we care about economic prosperity and economic freedom.
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And you know, there are things, there are things that we believe
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that certainly other parties believe, and you know, independence believe as well.
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But Libertarians really are our own creatures. You know, we are we are
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less incensed and inflamed over immigration, and I know that that's that's something that
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conservatives, you know, don't necessarily agree with us on. And certainly there
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are you know, issues with the border that are controversial and that could certainly
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be addressed better. But you know, we're interested in upward economic mobility,
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prosperity and just governing your own life. Yeah, and this Bidenomics thing,
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I'm sure you have a lot of thoughts on that as well, because it
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seems like they keep touting inflations going down. But we're just we the American
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person on the grounds not seeing it, are we? I'm not? Is
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it really though it was? You know, they were saying it was eight
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and a half nine percent last year. I mean they had to admit it,
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and now they're saying it's down to three and a half percent. But
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I haven't seen the prices drop at the grocery store. There's been a little
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less pain at the gas pump, but it's still high. The dollar purchasing
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power is just not what it was two years ago. And I mean it
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doesn't lie, right, the grocery bill doesn't lie. That's where we really
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feel the pain. No, it does and I know that the meme now
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is about the Kevin McAllister's grocery bill from twenty years ago, and what would
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be now. It's kind of insane, isn't it. Let me ask you
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this. John Fetterman just recently said he doesn't consider himself really Democrat anymore.
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And are we going to see any of these others disaligning from their party of
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registration of where they ran on? Are you going to see more of that?
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And I guess our invites coming out to those like Joe Manchin and Fetterman
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to say, hey, if you're not happy with your party, come over
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here. I think so. I think that voters want more choice and things
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are moving in the direction of independent candidates and minor parties, and that's why
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you're seeing a lot of other things pop up. Besides the Libertarian Party.
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You see this No Label's movement. You have the Bobby Kennedy campaign Cornell West.
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I don't know whether or not he'll end up being on ballot, but
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you have a lot of options and choices. And then you have people like
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Kirsten Cinema going independent. And you know, I think that people don't want
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to be beholdened onto the game and favors that they owe to major parties when
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they don't perfectly align with them, and that if candidates and elected politicians feel
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that they can make that move, I encourage them to do so. So
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I think it's a really great opportunity. I think it's good on that front.
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You know, it takes a lot to run in a GOP or Democratic
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part I mean, that's ridiculous how much money it is considering and they want
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to be inclusive, right, So how does the Libertarian Party stand out from
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that and say, hey, you're welcome even if you don't have the funds
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right now, how does the funding work for Libertarian candidates? Well, Libertarian
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candidates, a lot of them have to be self made, self starters.
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They get funding from their state party, the county. Occasionally the national party
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will will fund candidates. That's something actually that's been a little bit controversial about
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my tenures that I have pushed really hard for us to pump funding directly and
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just straight into candidates, even if they're at the local level. But you
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know, we also have a really tight community, and so we encourage our
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members and small l libertarians who agree with us but aren't necessarily card carrying members
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to donate to our candidates and support them. All right, when I hear
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the Libertarian, I have to say, the movie with Johnny Depp was kind
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of crazy and whatnot with the title The Libertarian. So did you watch that
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movie? And all, I don't know, I want to get in.
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Oh, I have not seen it, but Irina was kind of wild,
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and I'm like, I don't think every libertarian's like that, you know,
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but it's yeah, yep, the Libertarian. Yeah, you got to check
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that out. Angela, When did you become a chair of the party and
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when did you actually become part of the Libertarian Party? Because I feel like
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you have your own story, don't it's it's help. Sure. I became
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chair of the party in May of twenty twenty two. It was at a
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national convention that will forever be known as the Reno Reset, where we had
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one hundred percent, you know, very aggressive change in national leadership. Well,
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you know, how did you become a libertarian? Though? I have
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dads, so I became a libertarian really gradually. I think it was a
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very interesting in politics. Even as a child, and I grew up in
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a very traditional conservative home, except I was say that we grew up in
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a home in the South, but my father was a minister of a church
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called the Christian Missionary Alliance and had a very strong emphasis on international missions.
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So one of the ways that I became very politically aware and influenced is that
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every year we would have a huge international visitation missionaries from other countries, and
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people who you know, lived in those other countries would come back to the
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church and really testify about their experience and share with us what had gone on
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over there. In that my father's you know, advocacy really focused on international
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relations and doing outreach where it was illegal to be a Christian in communist countries,
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so the Soviet Union, Vietnam, China, North Korea. So you
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know, I've met people as a child who survived Polepot's killing fields, people
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who had bribe the gulag system, people who've been tortured in China because they
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were not members of the state sanctioned church. And you know, my family
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and the people around me developed very strong, healthy distrust of government because of
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that. You know, we viewed that the religious freedom that we have in
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the United States is is just like paramount to having a free country, and
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that you know, communism and aggressive government is you know, is one of
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the biggest threats in the world. You know, it must have been intense
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to have that exposure. But I'm sure you're you're grateful for it because it
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kind of made you the the politico or the person you are today, right
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absolutely, I mean it was I think that that was just like a really
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life changing experience for me to be, you know, eight and nine years
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old and hearing from people who you know, crawled out of Polepot's killing fields,
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were shot, ran across the border, and lived to tell about it.
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Like that's a this is a really heavy stuff. You know. We
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moved eventually from Texas where I grew up, to California and became a little
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bit more relaxed culturally. I remember being a teenager and thinking, well,
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you know, I don't I don't think that it's right for people who smoke
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weed to go to jail. It just seems kind of stupid one of them.
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It doesn't seem much different than cigarettes or alcohol, Like what's the distinction.
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And you know, I think gay people should probably be allowed to get
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married. You know, it doesn't have to do anything with the church,
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you know, I don't understand why we're making a big deal out of it.
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And someone I was talking to one time having a political conversation, said,
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well, you sound more like a libertarian than a conservative, and I
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thought, well, you know, I've heard of that and it sounds roughly
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about right, So maybe that's what I am. Did your parents share this,
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share different views and then they you took kind of both of them from
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from each side, or did you just become your own person aside from your
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mom and dad or what was their involvement. I mean, they've kind of
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followed along. Especially my dad has become you know, more libertarian over the
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years. He read some Tom Woods books and I think those were really eye
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opening from him. But he follows the political work that I do, and
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you know, he's he's very interested in seeing improvements in the country. He
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agrees that the war on drugs has failed. He's changed his position on foreign
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policy. You know, he thinks that what happened after the September eleventh attacks
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was just the wrong way to react, and that never ending war in the
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Middle East is just a failure, and you know, we shouldn't be doing
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it well. And I know that, you know, I feel like because
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Israel or ally, but I know you've got some thoughts on that as well.
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I'm sure about what's going on over there, if you want to touch
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on it swing of foreign policy. I just feel like the Biden mission has
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totally botched this whole Yep, this war, this war in Israel, it
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just feels like a botch thing. And I'm obviously for the Israel Israelis,
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and I think that we should stand with them more. But at the same
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time, it's for It's okay for the average person say, okay, we
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shouldn't be bombing, but for the president, I don't know. I think
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you should stand with Israel at more. You might disagree with that, but
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well, I don't believe we should be given foreign ad to any country.
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And I think that Israel would be more incentivized to work things out with their
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neighbors if they didn't have the aggressive backing of the United States, if we
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played a little bit more of a passive role. Many Middle Eastern countries have
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expressed their frustration with the United States being over there in their business. You
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know, it was viral on TikTok recently. Osama bin Lawden's letter back before
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the September eleventh bombings in two thousand and one. And one of the main
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reasons that he was so upset and declaring jihad on the United States is because
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of the military involvement of the United States and our back of Israel with military
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mind. And you know, what he did was obviously horrendous. Yeah,
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you can't go around mass murdering innocent people because you're upset at something the United
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States military did. And the same thing goes for Hamas. But at a
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certain point it would behoove us to stop poking the bear, kind of check
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ourselves and say, are our actions creating blowback in other countries and costing innocent
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lives? You know, And that's the approach that I take. You know,
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certainly, the Israeli people have a right to, you know, go
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after the people who committed those atrocious you know, murderers, rapes, killing
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innocent people like that's awful. But we in the United States shouldn't keep perpetuating
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the cycle of violence. We should look at the role that we play and
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check ourselves. Well, I do think, I mean, I've thought of
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the Ukrainian war. We should be supportingum, but it's felt like we were
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giving them eight after aid and they needed it for a long time. And
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now let's become a discussion point in Congress. I want to go back to
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your part of the Libertarian Party because I feel like you deal with things on
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a national level, but are you very local as well? Meaning are you
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involved with local issues and maybe even funding campaigns to stop what do they call
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it, those ballot measures? If you will you know in certain states,
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are you involved with that? I mean, I do a lot of that
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work from the national level. It's it's time consuming, it's more it's like
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a sixty hour a week job. Honestly, I'm in addition to being the
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chair of the national party, I function as the CEO, and you know
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I jump on this interview immediately out of a staff meeting. But when it
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comes time yeah, absolutely, But when it comes time to get people elected,
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I do phone banking for candidates. I will. I will door knock
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and do literature drops if there's a candidate that's close enough to me, you
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know, in my district. Because I think it's really good to lead by
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sample, and you always need a volunteer. It's good to be connected to
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absolutely, it is. And I want to ask you about that, because
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I feel like as the national chair, you've got to have a melting pot
18:11
of sorts right from both sides. So how do you keep that melting pot
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going and growing while people who are, you know, maybe on different sides
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do melt together within the Libertarian Party? Right? You see that? Sure?
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I mean you find common cause on common issues. Right. We do
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a lot of anti war advocacy, and we bring in people who are more
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culturally on the left that way, And you know, I think that's good
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because ultimately it's just like, do you believe in the non aggression principle?
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Do you want to keep violence out of politics? Right? You want to
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let people decide and make their own way in life as long as they're not
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hurting someone else. Do you oppose you know, the United States military violence
18:56
overseas? And if the answer is yes, then you have a whole in
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the Libertarian party. Are you all about economic freedom? Do you want economic
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prosperity? And you still have a little bit to learn as far as foreign
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policy goes, Well, we want to welcome you too, don't. We
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don't pureity test our rank and file membership, right, because I think that
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becoming a libertarian is sort of a journey and it could be a process.
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I know it was for me. So if people are interested, you know,
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we want to welcome them and just kind of help them, help them
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learn more about libertarianism. Here in New York, we just heard that Mayor
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Adams might be raising taxes. And that's always fun, right when you hear
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that. But that will make that will make you into a libertarian really fast.
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Yeah, it does make it turn libertarian very fast. Right, But
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let me ask you this, angela, how do states manage this border crisis,
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which you know, the average American didn't create, did we not?
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How do these states manage it, these cities manage it and not taxes or
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is this just a big play and a tax us all at this point?
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What do you think? Well, I think the first thing we should be
20:04
aware of is some foreign policy interventionist behavior that has impacted some of these migrant
20:11
crises. So you know, recently over the summer, for example, the
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United States is engaging in regime changing per root when we destabilize South and Central
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American governments and mess up their economies and their whole political world gets turned upside
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down. We do incentivize large masses of people to come to the United States
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border. Now you and I didn't do that, but we should be mindful
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and hold try to hold our political administrations accountable when they engage in that sort
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of behavior, and it needs to become more at the forefront of the average
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American's mind. Interesting, what do we do when they're here? Right Like,
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I think we need to have a serious conversation about that. I think
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that the people who want open borders the most right they should be the ones
21:00
dealing with the migrant crisis. And I don't think that it's reasonable or fair
21:07
to have a giant influx of people come over the border in a small town
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and just become homeless and sit on the border. That's just not a solution.
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It's what Texas did this week. A violation of rights, if you
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will, Or is this the right move for the local law enforcement to get
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mold and say, hey, we're not going to let you cross illegally?
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You know, I think that's a big step that governor habits taking this.
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I think I believe in states' rights, Like, we need to let the
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states decide. It's not a good sal's This is a very imperfect system,
21:38
right Like, it's it's not ideal, but at this point, the States
21:45
should should have a little bit more control over the state borders. You know,
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if people in Martha's Vineyard, if people in New York City or whoever
21:55
want to have you know, hundreds of homeless people from other countries come and
22:02
camp out. I guess that's their business, you know, but it's completely
22:06
absurd to just dump a whole bunch of people on the streets somewhere. It's
22:11
not fair to those people either. I don't know. I've seen some people
22:14
in New York and I've seen the videos. They get off the bus.
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They look bewildered and not sure what they are. You know, it's it's
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not fair to them. They come over here because probably they've been told to,
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you know, they're incentivised to come over here. They say, you
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know, the United States is going to accept you as refugees because of X,
22:30
Y and Z. They get bad information and they're just completely like lost.
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And then what do we what do we turn around and say, psych,
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We're going to put you on a plane and send you, you know,
22:42
three thousand miles back to where you The whole thing is just atrocious.
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I think we probably need to be working with the governments of other countries to
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figure out what the heck's going on? You know, can we get an
22:55
information campaign going there? Is there something that we can do that's like short
22:59
of just humping money into foreign governments to try to fix this situation? All?
23:04
Right? Well, stage rights, I mean, I think we all
23:07
believe that, and we believe in our own rights right as Americans. Isn't
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that then? I've been saying this a little bit this week, and maybe
23:15
people think I'm crazy, But isn't that then, because the open border,
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the Bowerder policy, invasion of our country is a constitutional conversation, right,
23:27
So how does that not dq Biden from the ballot? I mean, I
23:30
know that it might be extremely a toque both of them, but there's got
23:33
to be if you're going to play it this way, then maybe we should
23:37
look at the other side too. What do you think? Well, I
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mean, I think it is a serious question as to whether or not it's
23:41
a constitutional violation because I don't think that the founding Fathers included any provision for
23:48
dealing with a legal immigration in the Constitution or in the Bill of Rights.
23:52
It's not there, and I think it's ambiguous. I also know that they
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you know, they didn't anticipate dealing with something like this, So you know,
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maybe it's maybe it's a policy question. I don't know how constitutional of
24:07
an issue it is, but it's certainly a foreign policy question, and I
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don't think that we approach it that way. I think we only approach it
24:15
as a domestic policy issue because we're like, oh, it's almost people,
24:19
it's an invasion, like we need to be we need to be figuring out
24:25
a better solution and involve the countries where these people are coming from. So
24:30
I want to go back to the Colorado decision though, because I feel like
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you're Antenna went up on this. So is that a court appointed? Is
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that government appointed seats on the Supreme Court? Or is it an election that
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gets these people elected to the Supreme Court? How does that work in Colorado?
24:47
In Colorado, I believe there are Well, it's both right, because
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people get elected at the local level and then they get appointed and appointed,
25:00
you know, and you work your way up, you work your way up
25:06
the ladder. And so if people have to be more mindful, I mean,
25:08
conservatives and libertarians are so behind the gun on this. Progressives play the
25:12
long game. They say, you know what, we've got a ten,
25:15
twenty years, fifty year plan for taking over the state. And conservatives and
25:19
libertarians are on this sort of like, you know, two to four year
25:23
election cycle and that's just obviously not how politics really work. So are you
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Angela mccartill telling me right now on this podcast you're changing the mindset of the
25:33
Libertarian party saying, hey, we got to think ahead too. Yep.
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Absolutely, you have to adopt what's called a low time preference behavior where you
25:41
are you're not incentivized by the next dopamine hit, right, Like whatever you're
25:45
seeing on the internet is not You're not in the constant reactive mode. You're
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like, this is what I want to accomplish is my vision for the future.
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Let's take incremental steps to get there, and let's like stay firm and
25:57
are resolved to do it. I think I don't know if he was part
26:02
of it, but I think of Larry Sharp because here in New York,
26:04
Larry Sharp's a big third party guy in liberty. I mean, I think
26:08
he's pretty much a libertarian at this point, right have you? He was
26:11
our gubernatorial candidate. Okay, so that's right, he was, he was
26:15
your candidate. What's the reach like in New York alongside Larry Sharp? I
26:22
think Larry's done a phenomenal job. He's worked really hard. He's also done
26:27
some issue coalition work and partnered with other people who want ballid access reform.
26:33
I was actually just on his show last night on The Sharp Way. Yeah,
26:38
he's a great guy. Well, I met him. He's very fiery
26:41
about New York State and reforming politics. And in fact, Frank Morano,
26:47
who I'm sure you know, got me into the New York State Reform Party
26:48
years ago. And so it's sort of like a small circle of those who
26:53
want want reform. And on that note, speaking of primaries, are you
26:59
connected with open primaries, because that's another big discussion going on, is whether
27:03
we should keep these primaries open for everybody, not just Republicans and Democrats.
27:07
I think that parties need to have well, I believe that we need to
27:15
have party primaries, whether or not they're open or closed, as you know,
27:18
a conversation of nuance. But I do not believe that top two and
27:22
top three primaries are the way to go. It's way too easy to rig
27:26
it. They have that in California, it's called a jungle primary, and
27:30
it's just a contest between the top two Democrats. That's it. That's they
27:34
dominate the ballot. I also think it's fair that when you're going to maybe
27:38
register for a party, you know, they make that big deal register today,
27:41
enrolled today, but they don't include the Libertarian Party. They just say
27:45
independent. So how do we get libertarian the name libertarian on those registrations.
27:52
Well, you know, and if you register in many other states, it
27:56
is there. But New York, Larry Sharp worked really hard in twenty eighteen,
28:00
he met the threshold to gain ballid access for the Libertarian Party in the
28:04
state of New York, raised the threshold and the signature gathering requirement and made
28:08
it completely absurd. You've got to collect forty five thousand signatures in a six
28:12
week period. Now, it's unprecedented. Diane Sair is the only person who
28:17
did it when she was running for Senate again, and that change happened in
28:21
that election cycle. If I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I mean he did
28:23
it in twenty eighteen and then right after that, immediately the legislature changed it.
28:29
So that's what it takes. You know, if you're in another state,
28:33
you might you might be able to register as a libertarian right away.
28:37
Some states, by the way, don't have party registration at all, like
28:38
the state of Texas. But yeah, New York is just going to take
28:44
a concerted effort. So get in touch with the New York Libertarian Party,
28:48
especially come March, April and May. That's that's when their signature gathering is
28:53
going to start taking place. I'm going to say, are you guys starting
28:56
to the thing of twenty twenty. I mean, you're obviously thinking of it
28:59
and where we could be surprised about or or look forward to very much working
29:06
on it right now, and you know, the national party will choose their
29:10
presidential candidate at the end of May, and hopefully our presidential candidates are going
29:15
to step up and start helping us with ballid access in a couple of key
29:18
states, because you know, we have to get on the hamster wheel and
29:22
re seek it every couple of years, and that's fairly normal. New York
29:26
is just is the only one that's a really difficult hurdle here. You are
29:30
a national chairwoman of the Libertarian Party, and yet we don't get access to
29:37
the other chairs of the different parties. Why is that and is the accessibility
29:41
you guys have to literally talking to you right now, what makes you unique
29:45
within this political sphere work. I don't know that other you know that past
29:51
Libertarian party chairs have actually been as accessible as I have been. Certainly some
29:56
at a certain point, but I'm probably one of the more accessible ones because
30:00
I want the party to be accessible, right like I. I don't want
30:06
to be perceived as stuck up. I want us to develop a really good
30:11
relationship with grassroots. I think that that's where our strength is, and so
30:15
I just want to cultivate that. Ron McDaniel and whoever the DNC chair is
30:21
right now, you know, they don't feel the same way about grassroots.
30:26
The GOP kind of has contempt for their grassroots and their local elected officials,
30:30
and I just don't think that's the way to go, you know. I
30:33
think that's one of the reasons that they that they lose. I got to
30:37
ask you this, with this accessibility, I love accessibility because I just feel
30:41
like every party needs that. And with those grass efforts, I want to
30:48
get to the anti war thing real fast. When you say anti war,
30:51
I kind of go back to like the sixties anti war, the flag burning.
30:55
I mean, is it a sort of modernized love of country? Yet
30:59
why are we getting into war? Or is it? Is it a mix?
31:03
Like what's the anti war effort like for you guys compared to maybe how
31:06
it was in the sixties. Sure, well, I mean, I don't
31:08
think we're going to be burning any flags. But you know, we bring
31:11
people together from all different backgrounds. We bring together people who are die hard
31:17
anti war, progressive activists. We bring people together who are so far left
31:22
that they're practically communists. You've got libertarians, You've got many different types of
31:29
libertarians, politically independents, people who are conservative. We had Ron Paul at
31:33
our last rally. We're hoping that he joins us again. You have people
31:40
come from all different walks of life. And that's what makes the anti war
31:45
movement that we're trying to cultivate so special. It's a left right coalition.
31:51
We don't have to agree on economics, we don't have to agree on everything.
31:55
There's no economic theory in nuclear winter, right, Like you know,
32:00
I view nuclear war and the you know, global catastrophic disagreements as an existential
32:07
threat, and so do these other people and so we set aside our differences
32:13
and you know, and we come together. And you know, in another
32:16
way, it's a it's a fascinating paradox that something as terrifying as nuclear war
32:23
actually brings us so much closer together and we really see the humanity in each
32:30
other. Are we Are we all the doorstep of World War three? I
32:32
have to ask you this now we're talking about I mean, maybe I feel
32:37
like the the Ukraine Russia war is being walked back now and it's lost support
32:45
in the United States government, which is really good. But you know,
32:50
my concern is that the hubris of our political elites is gonna enable them to
32:59
continue NATO's and encroachment on the Russian border, stoking more animosity and suspicion and
33:04
fear over there, and understandably so, and that that pushes us closer and
33:08
closer to war, you know, And that what the United States is enabling
33:14
to happen in Palestine right now through the Israeli government is really angering a lot
33:21
of countries and people in other places in the world. And you know,
33:27
I think that we need to we need to engage in peaceful foreign policy and
33:30
good diplomacy. That's what keeps us away from war, and we're not doing
33:36
that right now. Unfortunately, we're not well. This has been really insightful
33:40
and I feel like right now with these wars, we're dealing with messaging versus
33:44
messaging. So how's the libertarians messaging differ from the mainstream and the establishment?
33:51
If you will, I mean, we're we want peace right. We want
33:54
the United States to be the peacemaker. If we've got to have any role
34:00
in international conflicts, we want it to be that we're bringing people together,
34:04
helping them come to the table. We want peaceful foreign policy, we want
34:07
free trade and tangling alliances with none. You know, the famous phrase is
34:14
when goods don't cross borders, troops will. So we want to be that
34:19
the peacemaker. And one last thing I saw sad that says we are in
34:23
New York because you deal with economics. Also, the second most stayed with
34:29
small businesses here in New York, and I figure, hey, why are
34:32
we celebrating small business Saturday? So have you aligned yourself with the small business
34:37
industry? If you will, like that those who run the small business and
34:39
say, hey, jump in with us, we got your back. What
34:43
do you Is there a connection yeah. Absolutely. We did a lot of
34:46
small business outreach during the lockdowns, trying to support small businesses in telling them,
34:51
you know, we don't agree with what's happened to you. We think
34:52
you should be able to stay open. Small businesses and entrepreneurs are very busy
34:58
people. They do not often get super involved in politics until it becomes mission
35:02
critical and they must do so. They're they're usually very busy operating, you
35:07
know, their day to day goings on. But to the extent that they're
35:13
willing to jump in and get politically active, we do outreach to them and
35:17
we love to have them. You know, we want lower taxes for them,
35:21
less regulatory barriers, and we just want them to be able to do,
35:27
you know, do business and support their families. We believe in the
35:29
entrepreneurial spirit. Angela McCart this has been a real honor to talk to you
35:34
today, and thank you for joining this whole podcast here in New York.
35:37
You know, this is this is great and I hope this conversation maybe change
35:42
people's mind very maybe bring people to the party, and I might joining myself
35:46
one day. We gotta we gotta fall up on that because I am independent,
35:50
as independent can be, but I feel like we can connect on certain
35:54
levels, you know, yeah, absolutely, And how do people join?
36:00
So I know and so absolutely. If you're interested in joining the Libertarian Party,
36:04
you can go to LP dot org. Scroll to the bottom and you'll
36:07
see a spot for join. If you're interested in attending our rally and finding
36:12
out more about what we're like meeting some of our anti war allies, you
36:15
can go to Defeat the Deepstate dot org. We are fundraising right now to
36:20
get that rally off the ground that's going to be on February seventeenth in Washington,
36:23
DC, and we usually organize buses and transportation from New York City.
36:30
All right, well, maybe that any disabled in the party as well,
36:34
people with disabilities? Do we have disabled people in the party? Certainly you
36:38
do? Go go good? Well then, because I connect with them,
36:42
I roll it on one leg in New York and I work on adaptability here
36:45
in New York, and I just feel like I get where you're coming from.
36:50
So I'd love to stay in touch and have you back on and see
36:52
where this connection can grow. Absolutely, thank you so much for having me.
36:58
Thank you. This has been Angela McCarty, the chairperson of the Libertarian
37:02
National Party, Thanks so much, thank you,