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Flirting with MAGA Money: The Shady RFK-Trump Scheme That Nearly Destroyed the Libertarian Party – Part 1
Endorsements, Pardons, & Embezzlement. This series details how MAGA/MAHA & Libertarian Party leadership nearly grifted the 50 year old party out of existence.
In July of 2023, at Freedom Fest in Memphis, Tenn., then Libertarian Party Chair Angela McArdle secretly met with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. setting off a bizarre saga leading to the Libertarian Party essentially becoming a financial arm to support and market Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign.
What followed were sponsored speaking engagements, sabotage, endorsements, money funneled to hidden LLCs and Presidential pardons. This series exposes who sold out the Libertarian Party, how they sold it out, and what party leadership, Kennedy and Donald Trump each benefited from it.
Around the time of the meeting with McArdle, Kennedy spoke at the annual libertarian Porcfest in New Hampshire to court libertarians.
“He emphasized that he was committed to running as a Democrat but said that he considered himself very libertarian,” Ms. McArdle said in an interview, adding that they agreed on several positions, including the threat of the “deep state” and the need for populist messaging. “We’re aligned on a lot of issues.”
“My perspective is that we are going to stay in touch in case he does decide to run,” Ms. McArdle said. “And he can contact me at any time if that’s the case.” September 23, 2023-NYT Article
“It’s go time, but if he whips — as we call it — whips for votes, then he could do it. Kennedy is a real dark horse.” Libertarian Party Chair Angela McArdle to Politico March 2024
But Kennedy’s flirtation with the Libertarian Party didn’t get to second base. His far-left ideology was going to be an impossible sell for the delegates, but it wasn’t without a bit of effort, threats of lawsuits, and outright sabotage of the party’s ballot line.
Maybe some day the LP will figure out how to use public relations to get the message across. A lot of stuff can be put on billboards and in simple handouts. 50 years wasted!
The LP has always been poor at marketing and have yet to understand that the egghead arguments make people’s eyes glaze over. Media blackouts don’t help, either.
It is possible to frame libertarian positions in popular tones. Ron and Rand Paul and Thomas Massie prove it over and over again.
But they have to be actual libertarian positions, too. That’s a different problem.
Seebeck I do not think it is that difficult. It is a simple matter of trying to do so and even asking for help.
McArdle has got to have been the most destructive Chair that the party has ever had.
I believe you are correct. She may well have killed the party which might have been her intent all along.
The Libertarian Party is far from dead.
The Reform Party and the Natural Law Party still exist in a couple of states and those political parties self desructed in the early 2000’s.