(00:00): I think many of my listeners knowthat more often than not I vote libertarian for president. I don't always,but yeah, most presidential races in my lifetime I have voted libertarian. Leadingthat way this year but undecided, and part of what's going to help medecide is the conversation we're going to have

(00:20): now. Joining me is Chase Oliver. He is the Libertarian Parties candidate for president of the United States. Hejoins us from Atlanta, Georgia today. Chase is good to talk to youfor the first time. Thanks for doing this, Hey, thanks for havingme. I look forward to speaking to your listeners and hopefully spreading the messageof liberty all across the state. Yeah.

(00:40): I hope so as well. I'mvery liberty oriented guy. You may appreciate more than the average person doesthat. My son's middle name is rand, so that's kind of where I amwhere I am coming from. Before we get into the nuts and boltsof this year and your campaign, just for folks who aren't as versed inthis as you or I might be,

(01:03): can you please explain what it meansto be a libertarian and why you are one. Yeah, so, broadlyspeaking, the libertarian philosophy and the libertarian principles are and limiting the government,you know, as much as possible. So when we say nonaggression, wemean that if you're not harming anybody, that if you're living your life inpeace. The most local governance is your

(01:23): own self governance, and as longas you're governing yourself in a way that's peaceful and peacefully interacting with other people, there should be no need for any other government to impede upon your life, your body, your property, your business possible, you know, inevery aspect. You know, if you're not harming anybody, it shouldn't matterto you. Yeah. Actually, that

(01:45): non aggression principle, again for folkswho don't read this stuff as much as I have, or Chase has,a non aggression principle is a key part of libertarianism. Basically, you don'thave a right to hurt anybody if they haven't hurt you from essentially, so, I'd like to ask you just to elaborate a little bit more. Then, So what does what does the Libertarian

(02:07): Party stand for? And we mayget into some of the nuts and bolts here, because the Libertarian Party hasits own many controversies going on right now. But big picture, what does theparty stand for? Yeah, so we stand for limited government, individualrights, the maximum amount of freedom possible, and really at least the bare minimums, sticking to the constitutional level overnents,

(02:30): if not limiting that even further soon everything from gun rights to gay rights, to drug wars, toimmigration to your business to entrepreneurship. We really believe in keeping the government handsoff as much as possible and allowing for the free market of ideas and thefree market of commerce to flow. Speaking, we are not seeking to empower government, but we want to empower each

(02:51): and every individual to make the bestof what they can in their lives and their communities. So I think thatin some of these policy areas, listeners will find that there's significant overlap betweensay Republicans and libertarians, and other policy areas there will be overlap between Democratsand libertarians, And then in other policy areas there won't be any overlap atall, Which is why it's very,

(03:14): very difficult to put libertarians on thiskind of left right spectrum. You know, in my mind, if you drawa line from left to right, you know, Bernie Sanders on oneside, and I don't know some maga guy on the other side. Libertariansaren't on the line, they're like above the line somewhere. Do you seeit that way? By axis, there's also the X axis. You know, it's not just about left versus right.

(03:35): It's also about who's applying government authorityversus who's trusting the individual liberty of each and every person. So,you know, you can be on the left or on the right. Youcan be a conservative or a you know, progressively minded person. But so longas you're not seeking to use the power and force of government of governmenton other people to impose your way of life, you're a libertarian. Youknow. I've met many libertarians who are

(03:57): more conservative than me, and certainlymany more libertarians who are more outside of the box or outside of the normsthan I am. And I think that's you use the power of government toforce our way of life and trusting that hey, if the way I liveor my values are the best values, they'll just they will spread themselves organically. They don't need the government to be doing that for them. We don'tneed a nanny state to impose our way of life on other people. We'retalking with Chase Oliver he's the Libertarian Parties

(04:20): candidate for president. His website isvote Chaseoliver dot com. I want you a lightning round with me here realquick. I'm going to name some policy areas, and I want you togive me a super quick summary of the most distilled possible version of your policyposition. Okay, A drug legalization,

(04:45): decriminalize all drugs. Abortion. Iam pro choice and think we should defend that choice for individuals. Do youthink there's a federal role there or not? I do. I believe that bodyautonomy is a federally protected right and should be and should be protected federally. Immigration. I believe in the twenty

(05:08): first century, Ellis Island, letpeaceful people come here and work. That's a good one. Taxation, it'stheft. That's my favorite one so far. Taxation. Would it be okay?Would it be going too far? Because okay, I'll tell you whatI normally say, and then I want you to tell me if you thinkI'm being too squishy. What I normally

(05:31): say is taxation, and excess ofwhat's required to fund the constitutionally authorized functions of government is theft. Do youthink that's too squishy or just do you basically agree with that, but we'regiving a shorter answer. Well, I think that, honestly, we couldfund our government if it was small enough

(05:53): without the use of force taxation,we could do. But that's not the world we live in right now.So what we can and do a seek to at least get to the levelyou're talking about, right, Okay, all right, that's good stuff,So so many other things I want to jump into. Let's let's do avery practical thing. For some reason that I don't entirely understand, the LibertarianParty of Colorado has decided that they want

(06:20): Robert F. Kennedy Junior to beon the ballot here representing the Libertarian Party for a president. And for therecord, pre COVID I always thought of RFK Junior as a grifter trying toget fifteen minutes of fame and make money

(06:43): by essentially committing mass child abuse bytelling parents not to vaccinate their children. Now I'm not saying government should mandatevaccines, that's not my point, but I really despise RFK what he didthere on pre COVID vaccinations for kids, and it sickens me to think thathe would be the Libertarian party candidate for president. He's not libertarian. Sofirst I wonder if you have any thoughts

(07:08): about RFK. But second, moreimportantly, is am I going to be able to vote for you? Well, we'll get We'll go from that last question then move our way backwards.So I can't speak to motivations of you know what LP Colorado is doing.But what I do know is that the National Libertarian Party we met at ournational convention. I won the nomination there

(07:28): and so do nating paperwork has beensubmitted to the Secretary of State, which is signed and sealed, as wellas my declaration of an intent to run. So, by all intents and purposesto of this November, you'll be able to vote for me. Speakingto RFK, I believe you're correct he's not a libertarian. There's many positionshe has that are not libertarian at all. In fact, if you look ata lot of his website, you

(07:50): know, you could close your eyesand you say this is probably a Democrat. I'll seize many of them, andso I'm happy to be repers libertarians and giving libertarians someone to vote forthis November in Colorado and all across the country. And yeah, That's justthe process that we have and I'm going to keep sticking to it. Isyour expectation then that my ballot in November

(08:13): will have his name and your nameor just your name on the for a libertarian. I will be a libertariancandidate on your ballot. Robert Kennedy might be on your ballot in Colorado asan independent, but I will burn in choice on your ballot. Okay,So somehow the national Party has the authority to override what the wacky people inthe local state party want to do.

(08:37): Well, I don't know. I'mnot into the minu shift process. I just do know that the way theway we your state is that the National Party submits the paperwork and I submitmy intempt to run. Both of those things have occurred. We've declared thatand confirm that with the Secretary of State. So we should be good to go. Okay. You know, at some point soon I will check withthe Secretary of State's office and ask them,

(08:58): am I going to see your nameon the ballot? And if somehow they say no, I'll let yourteam know. I imagine they'll say yes, because I'm sure you know better thanI do. I want to talk about the Libertarian Party for a minute. So the Republican Party has had this pretty significant division that a lot ofpeople call maga, a sort of very populous thing that is quite different fromtraditional conservatism, Reagan conservatism and all that.

(09:22): And I'm not expert, but itfeels to me like the Libertarian Party has had a similar kind of divide, with this group called the Mesas Caucus kind of infiltrating the Libertarian Party andtaking positions that I personally don't see as libertarian views. And I can't eventell you what they are because it's been

(09:43): a while since I look at thisstuff. But whenever I see this Mesus causes people speaking up, I'm like, Okay, if that's the Libertarian Party, I don't want. I don't wantany of that. And I think that you're not the Mesa's caucus guywho came out of the process. Is that right? And can you tellus any else about this division within the party? Well, of course,like most political parties, there's internal party

(10:05): divisions along caucuses. I'm someone who'sbeen trying to be a conciliator, somebody who tries to bring the common idealsand the common principles to the tea and you know with that, I havea a you know, members of the Mesas Caucus on my staff. ButI am certainly was not there endorsed candidate going into the convention. But Ido hope to represent the party as a whole with a positive aspirational message,one that does turn voters on, one

(10:28): that brings them say, I wantto vote for this, because I don't think it's good enough for us toimmediately be a protest vote. If that's the case, we're going to loseground because we have to inspire voters to vote for something, and you dothat with positive and powerful that I think my campaign has really demonstrated as we'vetraveled across the country. Were the first libertarian campaign to ever travel to allfifty states and speak to voters all across

(10:52): the country, hearing their stories andrepresenting them back to them with a message of liberty. So yes, there'si internal party division, and I would say I disagree with some of themessaging that comes out of some wings of the party obviously, but on thebig issues, on the big principles, there's broad agreement on the ideas ofnon aggression in government. I think it's a way of how we represent thosevalues best. And I do believe that

(11:15): the delegates picked me for that veryreason. They think I'm the best communicator of those values. We're talking withChase Oliver. He is the Libertarian Parties candidate for president. Vote Chaseoliver dotcom is the website. So one of the other things that must frustrate you, no, and when you hear it, but I'm going to ask you again, because it's always comes up,

(11:39): is the Libertarian Party candidate is notlikely to win the presidency of the United States. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's not very likely. And the question then always comes up,this whole spoiler question, right, who does Chase Oliver take more votes from? And I'm actually looking at a news

(12:01): story from another radio outlet where theytalk about the party chair, Libertarian Party chair Angela mccardal, talking about havingyou there with the specific effort to try to help Donald Trump, like theythink you're going to take more votes from Democrats, even though historically you'd thinkLibertarians take more votes from Republicans. Again,

(12:22): I'm sure you don't dig this conversation, but everyone's having it, and I want to know your take.Yeah, so I always start the premise with you can't spoil something that's completelyrotten, which is the two party system as it currently exists. But youknow, for me, it's about saying we're not here to spoil anything.We're actually here to build the Libertarian Party up. We're here to build somethingup beyond today, and your vote helps

(12:45): to do that. You know,you're right, it's difficult for any third party or independent to breakthrough, andwhen the election, it's not impossible. That's something we're going to be workingfor every single But barring us winning that outright victory, there's a lot ofother victories you can win by investing in voting libertarian this November. You canwin ballid access in your state, so it's easier to get Libertarians on theballot in your state, so you can

(13:05): have more choices in your ballot.You can help us win major party status in states all over the country thatallows us to have increased participation in the primary ballot or increase media access whenour candidates do run. You can help us by electing local libertarians across thecountry and local races, you know, help push them across the finish line, they're in your communities and your neighborhoods and your cities and towns right nowrunning. We want to make sure we're

(13:26): shining the attention on them. Andof course, when you vote for us, you're building up a party foundation thatgrows beyond just me. So let's say you do vote. You knowthat there's myself, the Democrat, the Republican, and Rfken your ballot pratsof the Republicans are broken parties that are broken, and we all know it. RFK is a one and done candidate. You vote for him and poof,he's gone. You vote for the Libertarian candidate. You're building the Libertarianparty up, not just in the country,

(13:50): to be a true challenger in thenext generation, the welcoming temp and that next generation of Gen Z voters. I think there's great potential for real victory, even if it's not theoutright victory November. So again I ask you these questions with the full understandingthat you know libertarian candidates always hate these spoiler questions. But if are you, are you ambivalent between whether Joe Biden

(14:18): wins or whether Donald Trump wins,assuming that one of those two guys is going to win. Do you carewho it is? Do you see any important difference between them? Yeah?Well, and as you mentioned before, our largest pool of voters, bythe way libertarians, is actually independent voters. So but when it comes to youknow, well, you pull from one or the other. Who doI care about? When I always asked this at the convention if a Trumpor Joe Biden, what would I do?

(14:41): I said, the gun would gooff. And I mean that with all sincerity. No matter which ofthese men gets elected, we're going to have further division, further polarization,less things getting done for the American people. The debts and deficits will continue togrow, will continue to see the United States war machine operating around theworld, and we're not going to see any change for the major status quoof economic protectionism, immigration protectionism, and a lot of the things that JoeBiden has continued along right past Donald Trump's.

(15:07): You know, it's it's two birds, it's two wings of the same bird. And I am ambivalent.I think either way we're in. We're in for bad times over the nextfour years, no matter who wins. Between those two men. When youwere younger, I mean, you're young now, But when you were youngerand just kind of thinking about politics, did you ever vote for a Democrator a Republican for president? And if

(15:30): so, which were both? Yeah? Yeah, So I got into politics as an anti war activist during theBush years, and because George Bush was prosecuting those wars, I kind offell in line with the Democrats, even though I was very pro gun andsome other things. But uh, you know, nominated Barack Obama, expectinghim to be the peace candidate, the guy who's going to end these warsoverseas, and he did none of that

(15:54): and ended up winning a Nobel Priestprize anyways for some reason, and that really pushed me out of Democratic partindependent, and it was finding the Libertarian Party that truly changed me and broughtabout my political awakening from the years of twenty ten to twenty fourteen, whileit became a hardcore libertarian. Yeah, indeed, Jr. And I appreciateanybody who stands up for that level of

(16:17): principle. And I think it maybe difficult for many listeners to my show, more difficult probably for my listeners thanfor me to hear somebody say they're ambivalent about whether Trump or Biden winsbecause I think most people think that one of those guys is, you know, much worse than the other and different.

(16:37): You know, one group will thinkone of those guys is much worse. The other group will think the otherone of those guys is much worse. And I'm I'm probably not exactly whereyou are, Like, I probably think one is a little bit worsethan the other. I'm not completely ambivalent, but I'm pretty close. And Iguess my frustration is I don't think either one of them gives a rat'sass about individual liberty, which is what

(16:59): I care about. I'll give youthe last seventeen seconds. Yeah, my job is to wake up those apatheticvoter. There's those voters who feelly don't have a choice. Give them achoice. Then help build opposition to these two failed parties. And that's whatwe'll be doing through November. And if you feel it, give out what'sgoing on with Trump versus Biden, and I encourage you to check out theLibertarian Party. Uh. Chase Oliver's website is vote Chaseoliver dot com. Howabout your Twitter handle Chase so people can

(17:23): follow you there at Chase for Libertyon All the major platforms at Chase for Liberty, Chase for Liberty at excellentand excellent, Twitter, and other social media handle as well. Thanks somuch for your time. I appreciate it. If you're coming to Colorado at anypoint, let us know and hopefully we get you in studio and sayhi in person. Yeah, thank you so much, God blessed. Okay, you too,

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7-9-24 *INTERVIEW* Libertarian Party Candidate for President Chase Oliver - The Ross Kaminsky Show - iHeartRadio