Vivek vs. Russell

The evening's final event (that I'm covering)

Coming off his victory following the Libertarian Vice Presidential debate, Clint Russell faced off against 2024 Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who many feel will be the successor to Donald Trump in the Republican party.

Russell was running a bit late, so Ramaswamy took the stage to a near-complete standing ovation, and he quickly recounted his history of voting Libertarian (his first vote in 2004 was for the Libertarian candidate). He explained the danger of assuming people of a certain race all think (and vote) the same and noted he distrusts both parties. (He used Bush as an example of why he distrusts the right.) He railed against the 2008 bailout and the Iraq war, and explained how the two are tied together. And while he respects RFK Jr.’s views on medical autonomy, Ramaswamy noted that Kennedy isn’t exactly a libertarian. (For many of the reasons you guys mentioned earlier!)

Ramaswamy claimed the Republican party is at a crossroads — do they go back to the ghost of Dick Cheney, or do they move in a more authoritarian nanny state? Ramaswamy doesn’t like either of those options, and wants a third direction — one that acts in a more libertarian manner. Ramaswamy asked the crowd what they are actually looking for in the 2024 election — are they looking to get 3%, or are they looking to translate their ideas into action by working together with Donald Trump? (Boos abound from the crowd.)

Ramaswamy listed many libertarian ideas — end the fed, shut down the FBI! — but wondered how we can actually get those things done. Ramaswamy declares that he’s sick of just talking about it, he wants to do it. (One of these things is ensuring the people who are elected are the ones actually running things.)

As Russell joined him the stage for the debate, Ramaswamy mentioned pardoning January 6th prisoners and Snowden, to applause from the crowd.

The topic of today’s debate was dismantling the administrative state. Dave Smith (back to moderate this debate as well) started things off by asking Ramaswamy what specific things need to be done to drain the swamp.

Ramaswamy explained that many Republicans think that they can reform the swamp, but he believes the answer is to just dismantle these agencies and fire massive amounts of government employees. He also demanded that when government lies to the people (such as in the Twitter files), those lies be made public.

Russell responded that we should be asking ourselves fundamental questions about these agencies. Should we even have a national police force?

Ramaswamy explained that step one was to make massive cuts, then we can reassess to find if more cuts are needed or (though unlikely) the agencies need to be rebuilt.

Next up was a libertarian-centric debate between Hayek and Mises. I will spare you this.

Russell asked Ramaswamy how he could support Trump, when Trump is talking about building the FBI (which spied on him). Ramaswamy claimed that he doesn’t agree on everything that Trump says, and this is one of those things. However, Ramaswamy claimed the next president will be a Democrat or a Republican. (booos!) He believes that he (and other libertarians) can convince Trump about libertarian ideas. (CBDCs being his example.)

Smith conceded Ramaswamy is right about the next president, and asked Russell if he thinks Trump can be convinced. Russell stated his concern that Trump is for spending a bunch of money on proxy wars, and challenged Ramaswamy to prove him wrong.

Ramaswamy claimed he would have voted no for that aid, and that the US Government should not be banning TikTok. Smith asked Ramaswamy why he believes the TikTok ban was passed — Ramaswamy thinks that it’s not because of China, it’s because of social media companies in Silcon Valley, who want their competition banned. He noted that the US Government was ALREADY behind a massive censorship campaign during covid, so they obviously aren’t worried about CCP influence over Americans.

Smith then asked Russell what is the biggest hangup that libertarians have about voting Republican. Russell knocked this question out of the park by explaining how the GOP talks a good game but they do nothing but lose. Russell is tired of Republicans who talk like Ron Paul but govern like John McCain.

Ramaswamy noted that Trump actually turned around the GOP on supporting the war in Iraq, but explained that the direction of the party is still yet to be determined — and this is an opportunity to guide that movement.

Smith explained the libertarian reluctance to believe that, citing Trump’s recent comments about Ukraine aid and consideration of Marco Rubio for VP.

Vivek totally ducked this and reiterated this is an opportunity to shape the movement.

Getting back to policy questions, Smith asked about Chinese tariffs. Ramaswamy liked China’s capitalism to a Trojan horse — simply a way to get into the system and destroy the system (in this case capitalism) from within. He claimed we can’t just pretend China is playing fair when they’re actually cheating, and that it doesn’t make sense that we rely on China for our defense industrial base.

Russell countered by saying our industrial base evaporated once we fully went off the gold standard because suddenly we didn’t need to make things anymore, we just had to export cash. (A point Smith made at the end of his Tucker interview.) Russell stated we need to end the fed to get back our industrial base. (Predictable “End the fed” chants ensue.)

Ramaswamy agreed the dollar should be pegged to SOMETHING, but that wouldn’t be enough to beat China. He suggests the country expand trade to Japan and other countries where we artificially restrict our trade to appease China.

Smith turned the topic to the DEA and asked Ramaswamy “Why not just end the war on drugs?” Ramaswamy reiterated his support for medical choice, and debated Smith about the banning of fentanyl. Smith explained that overdoses (“poisonings”) are found exclusively on the black market — nobody’s going into hospitals and ODing on fentanyl. Ramaswamy countered that because children are also being affected, he takes a more hardline approach.

That wrapped it up, and wraps up today’s coverage of the Libertarian National Convention! Tomorrow is the presidential candidate debate, as well as former president Trump’s address to the Libertarian delegation! “See” you then!

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The full event is below!