What RFK—And the Libertarian Party—Have Become
An increasingly reactionary candidate is courting an increasingly reactionary party.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. initially tried to run for president as a Democrat. When that went nowhere, he announced he would instead run as an independent. Now, the environmental lawyer-turned-anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist is flirting with a possible third change in partisan affiliation. It was reported this week that the nephew of the former president is in talks to seek the Libertarian Party nomination.
At first blush, it would appear that the Libertarian Party and RFK Jr. couldn’t have less in common. The traditional libertarian commitment is to radically smaller government, slashing most laws, taxes, and regulations. Libertarianism is built on a maximalist and expansive understanding of individual rights and believes in limiting the government’s role only to stopping force or fraud. One common, albeit imprecise, description is that libertarians are fiscally conservative and socially liberal, combining opposition to the modern welfare state with support for causes like LGBT rights and drug legalization. Libertarianism is steeped in free-market economics, including opposition to a wide range of environmental and labor regulations. Libertarians also tend to be emphatic in their opposition to gun control laws, and hardliners in defense of free speech.
Kennedy, by contrast, can be fairly described as a big-government progressive, with a particular focus on environmentalism. He also thinks nothing of using state power in draconian ways to advance his goals. He has previously advocated imprisoning climate change skeptics and banning assault weapons. He was a big supporter of single-payer healthcare and a fan of Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s tax-and-redistribute policies. He’s never shown any interest in promoting free markets or small government.
This is why David Boaz, longtime executive vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute, lamented in a recent speech to Students for Liberty, “Can you believe that there are people who think an environmental extremist, tax-hiking, gun-grabbing big spender who’s also an anti-vaccine crank would make a good Libertarian Party candidate?”
Partly, of course, the two are contemplating a union out of convenience. But there is also a genuine meeting of minds on many populist themes between Kennedy and what the Libertarian Party has become now.
Here’s some background. The Libertarian Party has been completely transformed since its heyday in 2016 when it nominated a presidential ticket of New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson and former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld. At the 2022 national convention, the party experienced a hostile takeover by far-right culture warriors under the banner of the “Mises Caucus” (named for the 20th century economist Ludwig von Mises) incensed that the party had nominated socially liberal moderates like Johnson and Weld.
I was an active member of the party for nearly 10 years, until I resigned in 2021 along with many others unwilling to stick around for a takeover by the illiberal far right. The caucus has supplanted the ideologically libertarian orientation of the party with a program of openly bigoted authoritarianism. Overt antisemitism, anti-LGBT animus, and explicit racism are now common from the party’s leaders, candidates, and official social media accounts.
The result is that dues-paying membership has collapsed nearly in half, from a peak of over 21,000 in January 2021 to around 12,000 in January 2024. Vote totals have also declined, hitting record lows in some statewide races. Fewer candidates are appearing on ballots as well. The party fielded its smallest number of midterm U.S. House candidates (just 87) in almost 30 years. Some state parties have disaffiliated from the national party or even dissolved themselves in disgust and others have been torn apart in acrimonious schisms.
Now Kennedy will have to do a switcheroo in the reactionary direction, a process he’s already started. Even with that, his path to the nomination won’t be easy. The Libertarian Party nomination process is a miserable slog, requiring constant travel to poorly attended state conventions to face hostile audiences of party regulars. Debates with the other candidates of dubious quality are unavoidable. Candidates must work to secure placement of their supporters as national convention delegates. Harshly negative attacks from opponents are a given, and Kennedy offers a target-rich environment for libertarian purists. The national convention is likely to go to multiple ballots.
Meeting of the Reactionary Minds
It’ll be a bruising process but still less onerous than obtaining ballot access on his own. And what Kennedy has going for him in the Libertarian Party is the ardent, albeit implicit, support of Angela McArdle, the LNC chair, who clearly sees him as a kindred spirit—her wariness of Kennedy’s vice president pick, the entrepreneur and former Democrat Nicole Shanahan, notwithstanding. “We’re aligned on a lot of issues,” she told The New York Times, including, as she noted, a shared perception about the threat of the “deep state” and the need for populist messaging.
She is right about that. Like her, Kennedy slams “woke capital.” The Libertarian Party used to advocate radical open borders. But under the Mises Caucus it has become much more hostile to immigrants. It has gone beyond mere non-interventionism to outright support and endorsement of Putin’s war on Ukraine, sharing a stage with avowed pro-invasion propagandists.
On all of this, Kennedy is with them. In a discussion on X (formerly Twitter), hosted by Elon Musk last summer, Kennedy said he planned to travel to the Mexican border to “try to formulate policies that will seal the border permanently.” He has urged the Biden administration to consider the war in Ukraine from the perspective of Russians, repeating debunked excuses and rationalizations for Putin’s actions.
And then there is Kennedy and the Libertarian Party’s mutual taste for anti-vax conspiracy theories and related medical quackery that often veers into outright bigotry.
Kennedy has long argued that drugs like Prozac, supposedly pushed by Big Pharma to pad its pockets, are responsible for the epidemic of mass shootings in the country. He proclaimed that Anne Frank had more freedom under the Nazis than unvaccinated Americans, and then apologized when even his own wife distanced herself from the remark. Later, he was heard musing that the Covid-19 virus seemed to spare “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese” in a leaked recording of a private dinner. He hadn’t meant it that way, he insisted.
Likewise, on Tim Pool’s podcast, McArdle promoted “German New Medicine,” a full-blown neo-Nazi idea about Jewish doctors giving people cancer and other diseases to conduct white genocide. When asked about an avowed Holocaust denier who had been featured as a speaker at Libertarian Party events, she averred that he was an admirable “truth-seeker” because he was willing to fearlessly ask “whether or not Jews run Hollywood.”
Who Will RFK Jr. Hurt?
Many have assumed that given the Kennedy name and left-of-center background, he poses a threat to Joe Biden. He’s certainly much more interested in attacking Biden than his other presumptive opponent, reliably pulling his punches when asked about Trump.
But there are reasons to doubt RFK Jr. in 2024 would be good for Trump. Kennedy has now firmly ensconced himself in the populist right, pandering to culture warriors and the MAGA-inclined with his anti-woke, anti-vax, pro-gun, and border enforcement messaging. Hence, it’s not clear how many potential Kennedy voters would have Biden as their second choice. Moreover, running as a Libertarian candidate would make him even more harmful to Trump given that that label reliably tends to pull more votes from Republican candidates than from Democrats.
Trump’s own campaign and the RNC apparently see things this way. Their previously positive attitude towards RFK Jr.’s Democratic primary campaign evaporated as soon as he announced he would run in the general election. Their negative statements slamming RFK Jr. as just a “Democrat” and “typical elitist liberal” indicate that they fear that he is more likely to play a spoiler against Trump.
Kennedy and the Libertarian Party deserve each other. And if their pairing hurts Trump’s chances, that could even be good news for those who regard the former president as a grave threat to liberal democracy.
Andy Craig is a director of election policy at the Rainey Center and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute.
A version of this article was originally published by The UnPopulist, our editorial partner.
Follow Persuasion on X, LinkedIn, and YouTube to keep up with our latest articles, podcasts, and events, as well as updates from excellent writers across our network.
And, to receive pieces like this in your inbox and support our work, subscribe below:
"Overt antisemitism, anti-LGBT animus, and explicit racism are now common from the party’s leaders, candidates, and official social media accounts."
Unfortunately in 2024 one can never take these claims at face value without evidence. People say "anti-LGBT animus" when they mean qualms about expedited child castration, and "explicit racism" in describing the suggestion that maybe Vikings weren't actually black.
"He has urged the Biden administration to consider the war in Ukraine from the perspective of Russians, repeating debunked excuses and rationalizations for Putin’s actions."
You may not agree with what he says in the linked article, but it certainly isn't "debunked." I don't know what precisely you are referring to, but most of what he says is absolutely true.
When serious writers cover the political history of our era, RFK Jr. and today's Libertarian Party will be addressed with brief footnotes.