June 13, 2024 01:04 PM UTC

Colorado Libertarians Cruising For MAGA Doormat Status

• 1 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

As Ernest Luning of the Colorado Springs Gazette’s political blog reports, and we confess we probably wouldn’t be discussing at all were it not for the contrary result, the Colorado Libertarian Party has made the decision to not endorse their own party’s nominee for President:

Colorado’s Libertarian Party doesn’t plan to submit paperwork putting the party’s presidential and vice presidential nominees on the state’s general election ballot after determining the national ticket doesn’t share the state party’s core values, a party spokesman said.

That could change if Libertarian presidential nominee Chase Oliver and his running mate, Mike ter Maat, change their positions on numerous issues, the spokesman told Colorado Politics.

As things stand, however, the state’s largest minor political party is leaving its options open — and could nominate someone else [Pols emphasis] or list “none of the above” as the Libertarian candidate for president on Colorado ballots.

Generally speaking, one doesn’t become a Libertarian unless you’re comfortable with your candidates never winning–for some, that’s a bonus since they’re never put in the position of subjecting their wacky ideology to a real-world test. But in this case the situation is a bit more complicated, with the chairwoman of the Colorado Libertarian Party Hannah Goodman having already announced her support for Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump:

[Goodman] she plans to vote for the presumed Republican candidate in the presidential election, Donald Trump, and said she isn’t concerned by his recent fraud conviction. Goodman also brokered a deal with GOP Party Chair Dave Williams, in which the Libertarian Party promised to pull its candidate from any race where the Republican pledged to pursue certain policy aims.

The Colorado Libertarian Party’s unique arrangement with the Colorado GOP under Dave Williams to coordinate their campaigns and avoid “spoilers” for Republican candidates willing to sign the Libertarians’ politically dubious “candidate pledge” exposed a level of collusion between the two here in Colorado very much at odds with the frosty reception that Trump received recently at the national Libertarian convention. With the chair of the local Libertarian party already on board with Trump, we’d be curious to know exactly how the party’s nominal nominees could win back the Colorado party, and frankly whether it would be worth the debasement to try.

At least in Colorado, the Libertarian Party is no longer the “too cool for school” club of self-selected political gadflies. They’ve become the Colorado GOP’s–and Trump’s–willing agents, so much that loyalty to their own party no longer matters.

It’s a good thing there’s not very many of them.