On May 19th the NJLP State Board met and approved the following statement by a vote of 7 to 2.
We, the cosigners of this statement, represent Concerned Libertarian Party Members from across several State Affiliates. For many years now we’ve noticed an alarming growth in the casual dissemination of harmful materials and comments on official Party channels and platforms. These statements include, but are not limited to racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia and Islamophobia. While not limited to any one Affiliate (sadly even our own States have struggled to remain sane at times), the most public examples are coming from the social media accounts of the Libertarian Parties of Colorado and New Hampshire.
LPNH: The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire really began the trend of trying to tie our ideology to their own bigotry. At the start of the decade their social media went off the rails, with their casual use of slurs and inflammatory rhetoric. For example, they refer to people by homophobic slurs, such as referring to Chase Oliver as an “f****t”, and lesbians as “bull-d***e”. They also repeatedly promote abhorrent racial views, like arguing that Black Americans ought to be grateful for chattel slavery, alluding the the “Model Minority” theory, when referring to Thomas Sowell, arguing that higher rates of violence are due to racial demographics, and seemingly arguing in favor of Apartheid South African policies on X.
LPCO: While the Libertarian Party of Colorado has not been as aggressively hateful in their messaging, a recent debacle involving State Chair Hannah Goodman on social media has been so harmful that people are now saying that LPCO exists as a bulwark for Coloradan Republican candidates. On April 15th, she used anti-gay slurs on social media, which were later defended by LPCO Party Executive Director James Wiley. When rightly confronted for her horrible behavior by our National Party Chair, Steven Nekhailia, she went on to direct those slurs at him as well. Rather than own her mistake she and the LPCO leadership have gone to X to defend their awful behaviors.
As the above shows there is a harmful pattern of hateful rhetoric coming from these two affiliates and we believe that it is damaging to Libertarianism throughout the country. Posts like these make Libertarians out to be ignorant, hateful and collectivistic, all classifications that ultimately destroy any hope of our Party from elevating itself above a mere novelty. If we want to be taken seriously and win the hearts and minds of all those politically homeless Americans seeking real change then we need to get our own house in order.
We are well aware that these comments represent a fraction of a fraction of the membership of these affiliates. The overwhelming majority are likely good, honest and well-intended Libertarians who are unaware of the damaging messaging coming from their leadership. Further, by no means do we pretend that we do not owe much to both of these affiliates. LPCO has been working diligently to fight the corruption in the Centennial State and LPNH has done wonders with the Free State Project, but regardless of their efficacy in certain fields it does not excuse their massive failings in others.
As such, and in conjunction with all Libertarians who are sick of this kind of hateful and childish rhetoric we are formally denouncing their message, behavior and leadership. We call on the good liberty-loving people of those States to come together and examine what their parties are doing and we ask other affiliates to join us in this declaration. We are not calling for Censure, Disaffiliation or any other disciplinary actions at this time, as we are hopeful that raising these concerns will be sufficient in beginning the healing process. We also hope this message reaches the many people who have been misled into thinking that Libertarians are hateful beings, and to reassure them that Libertarianism is, and always will be a message of peace, freedom and individualism FOR ALL.
In Liberty and Freedom for All,
We, the Cosigning State Affiliates.