The Thomas Massie Problem
The libertarians say AIPAC took Massie out. The truth is harder, and it's why they always lose.
Prologue
"I would have come out sooner, but I had to call my opponent and concede, and it took a while to find Ed Gallrein in Tel Aviv."
That was Thomas Massie's concession line on the night of May 19, 2026.
He had just lost the Kentucky Fourth Congressional District Republican primary to Ed Gallrein. The most expensive U.S. House primary in history. $32 million spent. Nine million of it from AIPAC against him. Seven million from Trump-aligned donors. He lost by ten points. It was decisive.
I'd been writing this piece as a diagnosis. Then mid-draft, reality made its verdict. I don't have to speculate about what will happen anymore. The alliance that took him out has a name worth knowing.
The MAGA Alliance.
Let me take you back to that night...
A man on the most consequential public night of his career, given the choice between a clean concession and one last jab at the coalition that had defeated him... chose the jab. He implied his opponent, a Kentucky-born Navy SEAL, owed his loyalty somewhere other than Kentucky.
Gallrein didn't beat him. AIPAC did... Israel did... The money did. That was Massie's framing, not mine.
Does that sound right to you? Is that the whole story?
I'm not even saying there isn't truth to it. There is, actually. AIPAC did spend nine million dollars trying to take him out. Israel-aligned donors did pour resources into this race. The money was real. But is that the whole story? Is Massie leaving anything out?
Why is it that whenever a libertarian loses... it's always someone else's fault? No self-reflection... just finger-pointing. Everyone else is corrupt. Everyone else is bought. Everyone else is the swamp. Only the pure-of-heart libertarian stands clean. Is that really what we're supposed to believe?
We're going to take another hard look at the libertarians here. Through Thomas Massie this time... the latest loss to add to the ever-growing collection. I call them losertarians for a reason. Their reaction in the days since is proving everything I said about them in The Losertarian Problem.
The losertarians will tell you AIPAC took Massie out. The truth is harder... the voters of Kentucky took him out. The libertarians just can't say it like that, because saying that out loud would force them to face what they have become.
Act 1
So, why did I like Thomas Massie for ten or fifteen years?
Well, for starters, he's an engineer… MIT, mechanical and electrical engineering. That's elite tier. He founded SensAble Technologies, a haptic tech company. He built it, ran it, then walked away. He went back to Kentucky, built his own homestead and raised his family off the grid. With solar farms he designed himself and a house he built with his own hands. I believe the late great Scott Adams would agree with me when I say that this man has one hell of a skill stack! Massie knows how the physical world works because he has wired it together himself.
That intellect showed up in congress too.
March 27, 2020. The country was paralyzed by the COVID hysteria. Congress was about to pass $2.2 trillion in monetary expansion by voice vote. If you don’t know what that is, it effectively means no recorded names, no accountability whatsoever for the largest single act of currency debasement in American history. I believe this is what they refer to as ‘fiscal responsibility’ in Washington D.C.
Massie was the one guy in Washington who didn’t think this was right, and so, he stood up and said “NO!” with the support of millions of Americans. He made a big show of it. He flew back to Washington by himself and demanded a quorum call. He forced his colleagues to show up and be counted in person, in the middle of a pandemic. He understood what they were doing, Thomas has read his Mises and Rothbard. He knew the inflation that follows when a government prints two trillion dollars out of nothing. He was the only one in either party with the courage to make Congress own it.
Trump's response:
"Looks like a third rate Grandstander."
then:
"Throw Massie out of Republican Party!"
Five years later, the inflation has eaten more of the working class than any policy in living memory. Massie was completely vindicated. The Austrian economists who taught him were right. The third rate Grandstander could see what was coming better than anyone in congress.
There were other moments like this too. The Fauci hearings… the Wray cross-examinations on Jan 6 federal informants. The lone-Republican-no votes on Patriot Act renewals, year after year. Years of moments where Massie was the only adult in the room. You can look them up. Each one is real. It’s all on YouTube.

Thomas Massie is a good man. No... he's better than that. He's a great man. I have nothing but respect for Massie, as a man.
One of my favorite members of Congress... He loves the Constitution, he loves liberty. He's honest and he's tough.
Tragically, his wife Rhonda died in June 2024. Sudden cardiac event. I prayed for him and his family, more than once. I'll do it again tonight, and I hope you’ll join me. The Massie family love story is one of the most beautiful in American politics... high school sweethearts. Four kids. If you don't know the story, look it up, it’s worth your time. The man I am about to critique is a man I have prayed for in his grief.
Writing this article is not easy for me... slaying one of my own heroes is not something I want to do... but sometimes, in this life, we are called to a test by something higher. This is one of those moments for me.
I am not throwing rocks. I am naming what I see, with as much precision and grace as I can muster.
And yet...
Act 2
There were so many moments where Massie made me want to stand up and cheer…
Pete Buttigieg… remember him? The sitting Transportation Secretary at a House hearing in July 2022, with a smirk on his face… talking confidently about America's transition to electric vehicles. Biden had just announced a goal of 50% of new cars being electric by 2030. The administration was selling it as inevitable.
Massie, in his quiet Kentucky accent, had questions. As an engineer, he started doing the math out loud, showing his work.
If every American household charged an electric car, Massie said, it would take roughly four times the electricity those households currently use on air conditioning. Did the grid exist to handle that? Buttigieg blinked. Then admitted it.
"If we add yesterday's grid with tomorrow's cars, it's not going to work."
That's the actual quote. The Transportation Secretary, on the record, conceding that the entire EV mandate depended on a grid that didn't exist yet.
Massie kept going. He told Buttigieg the rates of adoption Biden had announced were "developed using political science, not engineering."
That was the killshot. From an MIT engineer to a Harvard-trained politician. The libertarians collectively stood up and cheered.
He did it with Fauci, too... multiple times. It was very revealing, and very satisfying. The covid origins questions... the gain-of-function stuff. The NIH funding... most of Congress wouldn't touch any of it. Massie did, with glee. He made one of the most powerful unelected men in America answer for things that had gotten Americans killed… and he didn't stutter. He was calm, calculating and deadly serious. He just asked the questions, and Fauci squirmed, and you could feel the whole country leaning forward in those moments. It was great tv!
It really looked like Massie was the predator and Fauci was his prey… Massie was eating him for lunch… but is that what was happening, in reality?
He did it on FISA too.
April 2024. Massie was in a secure intel briefing with Speaker Johnson, getting the intel briefing on warrantless surveillance. He came out and told the truth. There was not one example of warrantless spying that had stopped a terrorist attack. Not one. The whole thing was a scam.
Charlie saw it the same way. He posted this to his audience:
Well, @RepThomasMassie was in the same SCIF as Speaker Johnson, and he's fed up with the lying. Massie says there was NOT ONE EXAMPLE spying on Americans without a warrant was able to prevent terrorism. It's all a scam. Shame on Republicans who fall for it.
Massie was right. Charlie said so out loud.
Remember Massie’s stand against the CARES Act? The pocket Constitution. The entire Congress dragged back to Washington in the middle of a pandemic. You cheered. I cheered too… two trillion dollars going out the door, and one man standing in front of it all.
So, what happened?
Well, he didn't get the recorded vote. Leadership called the voice vote anyway. The bill passed. Two trillion dollars went out the door.
The inflation came on schedule…
That principled stand cost him every working relationship he had built in Congress…
The cost was real. The price of prioritizing issues over power.
What did he get for the price he paid?
That's the question you need to start thinking about as we move forward. I know you like the show, I like the show too… but is there anything material in it?
I want you to sit with this because I had to sit with it myself… and it took me years.
Let's go back to Buttigieg…
The EV policy did not change. The Biden administration mandated EVs harder than ever. Buttigieg left office in a cloud of mostly favorable press coverage. Massie made him squirm for ninety seconds. The policy did not move an inch. Who won? Not the argument… the reality.
Let's go back to Fauci. Massie made him sweat, and we all cheered. It was cathartic… I believe he genuinely made Fauci quite uncomfortable in those moments. That's not nothing! But then Fauci retired… with a federal pension and a hagiographic press tour. No charges. No consequences… even a full blown pre-emptive pardon from the Autopen President, in fact!
The gain-of-function questions are still open. Massie made him squirm... Fauci went to dinner and never thought about Massie again. That's the reality of power vs theater. Which one is the theater kid here?
Let's go back to the CARES Act. Massie's principled performance did not stop a single dollar.
The libertarian movement got the principled stand… they got their clips… then they got swamped with inflation, like the rest of us.
Was it worth it? What did they get out of it? Anything? Massie gets a reputation as the conscience of a Congress he was burning every relationship inside of… a monetizable brand. Libertarian podcasters made a killing running ads to these audiences. Dave Smith probably paid off his house doing this. Cool! I'm not even judging… I've been in the advertising business myself. There's good money in it.
But let's be honest about what we’re talking about here. Libertarianism is a business… not a serious political force.
Not a single piece of legislation was reversed, not a single dollar was stopped from being spent, not a single bureaucrat held accountable. Not one single policy change.
The voters in Kentucky sensed this…
They had been watching. They had felt the lift on the Buttigieg clip just like the rest of us. They had cheered for Massie at the Fauci hearings and admired the CARES Act stand. They were in the audience, just like you and me.
In 2020, Thomas Massie won his Republican primary with 68,591 votes.
In 2022, he won with 50,301.
In 2024, he won with 39,929.
Bleeding voters every cycle... quietly. Without commentary. Without coverage. The clips kept going viral and the constituency kept shrinking.
Then on May 19, 2026… everything accelerated.
Turnout in Kentucky's Fourth District roughly doubled. It was the most expensive House primary in American history… that's quite something… citizens who had stopped showing up came back specifically to vote him out. He pulled 47,539 votes against an opponent who took 57,822… roughly ten points.
Decisive defeat. It wasn't a surprise.
The show is ending… not because the audience left. Because the audience showed up, and they were tired of the show.
I named this pattern on May 3, in a piece called The Losertarian Problem…
16 days later, the verdict came in.
I am not claiming foresight... the diagnosis was simple. Anyone willing to watch the pattern saw it coming. The voters of Kentucky's Fourth District saw it loudest of all.
The only people who did not see it were the libertarian commentariat that had built its audience on top of the pattern.
So, ask yourself… who benefits when a smart, principled libertarian spends fifteen years in Congress winning arguments while losing every battle?
Look at who defends him.
That's where the answer is.
Act 3
The answer isn't tactical... it is structural. Let's start by taking a look at who defends him…

Jeremy Kauffman, a libertarian operator I actually respect, shared that article on the eve of the Kentucky election. He said:
I want Massie to win tomorrow. I would vote for him without reservation.
But asking why the NYT is willing to run a glowing article like this is absolutely a fair question.
If Massie was a threat to the left, would this be run?
The answer is no. If Massie was a threat to the left, they wouldn’t write puff pieces about him in the New York Times on the eve on his election. They would write about him the way they write about Trump and MAGA… do I need to say more?
Let’s move on…
Ben Rhodes. Remember him? I’ll remind you. He was Obama's Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications… that’s a mouthful.
But more important than obnoxiously wordy DC titles is what Rhodes actually IS, functionally today. He runs Crooked Media, which is the company behind Pod Save America. One of the loudest anti-Trump voices on the left.
To say it plain… he’s a progressive who hates everything MAGA fights for.
THAT guy went out of his way to defend Massie after his primary loss:
Pretending like there was an organic tens of millions of dollars dumped on Massie is why no one under 55 believe fuck all about politics (and they are right).
Indistinguishable from what I see from all of the losertarians I follow right now. Probably just a coincidence…
What about everyone’s favorite crusty old communist… Senator Bernard Sanders. What does he think about Massie? Surely, the old limousine Bolshevik wouldn’t defend a hardcore right-wing capitalist monster like Massie, would he?
AIPAC spent $9 million to take out Rep. Thomas Massie. Trump megadonors spent another $7 million... NO, billionaire super PACs should not buy our elections.
Oh… another Libertarian tweet… wait no… that’s Bernie Sanders… sorry, it’s so easy to confuse them these days. But Bernie’s a bit of a wild card… he can be reasonable on rare occasions and defect from the regime. Maybe this is one of those times.
Maybe the more establishment democrats are really against Thomas Massie. Surely a guy like Ro Khanna from California would be opposed to such a right-wing republican… right?
If you take a stand against war, AIPAC, & the Epstein class, you have no place in the Trump coalition.
Oh… it’s literally just another Dave Smith tweet. Weird! So many coincidences!
What about the actual leftist intellectuals? Not the politicians. Not the podcasters. The professional leftist thinkers who write long essays for magazines older than my grandmother.
Jeet Heer. National affairs correspondent at The Nation. One of the oldest, most influential leftist magazines in America. The kind of guy who builds a career attacking republicans for a living. Surely THIS guy isn’t going to defend a hardcore right-wing guy like Massie… is he?
Massie lost with his honor intact. Trump won't be around forever, and if there is a future for the Republican Party, Massie is in a better position to shape it than his colleagues who have disgraced themselves in replacing principles with a personality cult.
Okay… seriously? Are all these guys just taking notes from Dave Smith now?
Surely we can find some leftists who aren’t praising Massie right now… what about that horrible Turkish guy… the largest communist streamer in America. Hasan Piker. Surely HE won’t defend a hardcore right-wing republican will he?
massie's defeat proves that the republican party is a pro epstein pro israel cult led by their cult leader, epstein affiliate, servant of israel, donald trump.
Oh, him too… okay fine… should I keep trying?
How about Mehdi Hasan… that leftist Muslim guy who used to be on MSNBC and now runs his own leftist media network where they yell about how evil republicans are all day long… okay…
I’ll drop the stupid act now…
Yes… OF COURSE Mehdi Hasan sounded just like Dave Smith too:
A reminder that Trump is primarily mad at Thomas Massie not because of politics or ideology but because Massie embarrassed him over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein and his ongoing cover-up of the Epstein files.
Have you seen enough yet? Do i need to keep going?
Because I can. The Atlantic. Politico. CBS News. Ken Klippenstein doing opposition research on Massie’s opponent. Cenk Uygur. Ana Kasparian. Kyle Kulinski. The Bulwark NeverTrumper crowd. Krystal Ball. The 214 House Democrats who signed his Epstein discharge petition.
I could keep going for another two pages, but I think I’ve made my point.
Whatever you want to say about these people, they all moved to protect Massie at the same time, in their own venues, in their own words, without ever needing to compare notes or coordinate.
That's how the regime class actually works. It doesn't need some grand conspiracy, it runs on shared instincts firing in independent actors. Every piece of the regime recognized the same asset at the same moment.
The asset is Thomas Massie.
Maybe Thomas Massie really is the most principled conservative in Congress. I’ll concede that, happily… that's not the question though. The question is what do his principles actually accomplish in the real world… and why do Hasan Piker and the New York Times want him in congress?
Kentucky's Fourth District voters saw the same thing you just saw and they voted accordingly. If I was a Kentuckian, I would’ve voted the same way and I have been a Massie defender since the beginning.
Massie lost by ten points while the MAGA Alliance got stronger.
Hasan Piker and Dave Smith can cry about it together.
Act 4
Time to get serious. Predators vs prey… Realpolitik.
The people defending Thomas Massie right now are the same people who celebrated when Charlie Kirk was killed.
Not all of them, of course, but the coalition that ran cover for Massie in the months before his primary is The same coalition whose foot soldiers cosplayed his murder for Halloween. The same coalition that put AOC on the House floor to condemn him after he was dead. The same coalition that floods my Facebook comments every single day telling me and my readers that we are disgusting people for mourning such a ‘hateful person’. This is real. I can bring the receipts, and so can you… so can Charlie.
He wrote this on April 7, 2025. Five months before he was assassinated:
Assassination culture is spreading on the left. Forty-eight percent of liberals say it would be at least somewhat justified to murder Elon Musk. Fifty-five percent said the same about Donald Trump. In California, activists are naming ballot measures after Luigi Mangione.
The left is being whipped into a violent frenzy. Any setback, whether losing an election or losing a court case, justifies a maximally violent response. This is the natural outgrowth of left-wing protest culture tolerating violence and mayhem for years on end.
The cowardice of local prosecutors and school officials have turned the left into a ticking time bomb.
Five months later... the bomb went off right in his face.
Show me the equivalent on the other side.
Show me their Charlie Kirk. The one they still cry over and pray for every day. The one they still can't believe is gone.
Furthermore… show me the left-wing president who was literally shot, while watching his own supporters get murdered in front of him. Millimeters away from having his cranium explode in front of the world like JFK.
Show me the Democratic senators shot up at a baseball practice by a Trump supporter.
Show me the left-wing Supreme Court justice who nearly got kidnapped and killed by a MAGA fanatic.
You can't. Because he doesn't exist.
So, why does the coalition who celebrated Charlie Kirk's murder like Thomas Massie? You need to wrestle with this, if you're a serious person on the right.
Here's the easy answer: they share an outcome. They all want the same Republican kept in his seat, because he undermines Trump and MAGA… we covered that in the last section.
The real, deeper answer is the one that hurts for me to say…
For fifty years, the regime apparatus used libertarians as foot soldiers. Principled losers who could be paid with little treats and pats on the head. Libertarians really believed they were going to Washington to fight the establishment, but the truth is that the establishment was using them. They were the perfect pets. Visible. Vocal. Principled… domesticated… neutered.
Massie is the current heir to that fifty-year pet tradition. He's the regime's favorite Republican because he plays the role they've been training the libertarian movement to play for half a century. To bark, but not to bite.
Then Trump showed up… he wanted to show them how to bite.
Trump did something no US President has ever done. He spoke to libertarians at their own convention… not over Zoom on camera. He showed up, in the room, knowing he was facing a hostile crowd.
He made specific promises… and then he kept them. He freed Ross Ulbricht, their most valued political prisoner. He pardoned the J6 prisoners. He started dismantling the Department of Education... he cut the federal workforce at a scale not seen in living memory. He shut down the southern border.
These are the things serious libertarians have been demanding forever. The Cato Institute could not deliver them, nor did The Mises Institute. The Libertarian Party could not deliver them in fifty years… the opposite in fact. They only lost ground.
Trump started delivering them all, immediately.
He offered the libertarian movement a choice.
They could update... they could acknowledge that the alliance worked. They could join the man who was actually delivering. Some did. Angela McArdle, for example. She’s the example I think serious Libertarians should follow.
She went on Tom Woods's podcast to celebrate the Ulbricht pardon.
Tom Woods, if you don’t know, is one of the most influential libertarian voices in America. PhD historian. Has hosted a daily show for nearly as long as podcasts have been a thing. He’s the kind of guy other libertarians take their cues from, a leader of men.
He celebrated the Ulbricht pardon too. On January 22, 2025, he wrote this on his own account, in his own voice:
Ross is free! Thank you, Donald Trump, for doing what no Bush, McCain, Romney, Obama, or Biden would ever have done.
Thank you, Donald Trump.
That was just sixteen months ago. A blink of an eye…
Today, Tom Woods is leading the charge against Trump. He's calling MAGA voters boomers who embarrassed the United States. He's calling Juanita Broaddrick, Bill Clinton's most credible accuser, a brainwashed idiot.
What happened in those sixteen months?…
Nobody called a meeting. The narrative just turned. Same direction. Same vocabulary. Same target. That's what convergence looks like when a system protects itself.
Because if libertarians realize the MAGA Alliance has worked, the regime loses its reliable pets… nobody likes to lose their pets. And so, the system doesn't let it happen.
You keep your pets leashed and fenced in, don’t you?
The fifty-year principled-loser caucus that vote-splits, demoralizes, and keeps the conservative coalition fractured isn’t allowed to be free.
The libertarian commentariat follows the regime's lead. The libertarian reacts, it never leads. You walk your pet, not the other way around.
The libertarian commentariat's business model is principled losing. Yes, I said business model. It's a business. They make their living explaining why the latest loss was actually a moral victory. Printing money off the backs of their followers who trust them to lead.
So they didn't update… they’re cashing in.
And how are they cashing in? Well they’re selling a story instead... The one you have been watching unfold in real time since Massie was defeated.
The story is that AIPAC took him out… I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. You’ve probably seen it all over your own feed at this point. This is how Massie and his losertarian army are coping with the loss.
It was the Jews. It was Israel. Miriam Adelson… you’ve heard it all, I’m sure.
But is that really the whole story?
AIPAC has been opposing Thomas Massie for years. This isn't a new rivalry. The United Democracy Project, AIPAC's affiliated PAC, spent over three hundred thousand dollars against Massie in 2024. They lost. They spent over nine million dollars in 2026. They won.
Why?
The variable that changed was Massie's behavior… he got more aggressive. He started picking battles. He put AIPAC in his crosshairs, along with the rest of the MAGA Alliance, implying they are all puppets of Israel… he is one of the leaders of the ‘Epstein Class” framing that the Regime Alliance is now running with. The ICE funding obstruction… The War Powers Resolutions with Ro Khanna. The repeated public alignment with the progressive faction of Congress.
The libertarian commentariat will not tell you this. Because telling you this would require them to take responsibility for the fact that Massie picked this battle himself, and he lost fair and square. Also, they're currently forming their own alliances with the progressives to take down Trump. More on that in a bit.
I think the biggest crime I committed against the swamp was showing the American people that somebody on the right could join somebody on the left and get something done... It was written by me and Ro Khanna.
He's not hiding the alliance. He's proud of it. He calls working with the left his "biggest crime against the swamp."
And here's the thing, the Trump Administration sees it too.
Stephen Miller, Trump White House aide, posted this on primary day, May 19, 2026:
Every time it truly matters Massie sides with the Democrats and the corrupt leftist media.
Within hours, Mehdi Hasan quote-tweeted it. Here's what he said:
And when he says 'matters' he means, from the Trump perspective, protecting pedophiles and starting new wars.
Read those two tweets back to back. The Trump White House aide naming Massie's alignment with the Democrats. The leftist journalist confirming the alignment and defending it. They disagree about whether the alignment is good. They agree the alignment is real.
Both sides see it. Both sides name it. The libertarian commentariat is the only group still pretending the alignment isn't happening. It’s because they truly believe they are the principled outsiders. They do not see the leash around their necks. They do not realize they are being led.
And so, they tell you it was AIPAC instead. AIPAC bought the seat. AIPAC controls Trump. AIPAC controls MAGA. AIPAC and the Adelsons are the puppet masters. You, dear reader, are just a puppet of Zionist Jews… did you know that? The losertarians believe that about you. They'll tell you it outright.
Some of them are publicly calling conservatives "brainwashed" right now for refusing to buy this framing. I'll start naming names in a bit…
But there's a small problem with the AIPAC story.
Massie's biggest donor was Jeff Yass...
A Jewish libertarian billionaire Zionist. Eleven million dollars. So… if Jewish money defeated Massie, Jewish money was also funding him…
The libertarian explanation for why the libertarian movement lost is always that someone else is uniquely powerful and uniquely sinister. Never that the libertarian movement made a mistake... never that they foolishly picked battles they could not win… never that the libertarian movement should update its framework.
Dave Smith and Clint Russell did nothing wrong!
Okay… we're going to talk more about Clint, Dave and Tom Woods. The three generals of the losertarian army, but first… I want to make a final point before we close out this section.
While I was writing this article, Ross Ulbricht's wife posted a photograph.
She is pregnant... and she is big! It's coming soon.
Ross Ulbricht is going to be a father!
Because Trump kept his word.
Without Trump, Ross dies in a federal prison. The previous two administrations had every opportunity to pardon him. Neither did… you can bet the Kamala regime wouldn't have. Ross was a libertarian cause célèbre for over ten years, and they were powerless to help him. They complained, they wrote lots of angry letters, they talked about it on all the podcasts. Important work, don't get me wrong… they kept the flame alive. That's heroic. But without Trump, it's all for nothing.
Trump showed up at the Libertarian National Convention in 2024. He made the promise. He kept it. Ross got his life back.
Now he is going to be a father… sit with that for a moment…
How beautiful is it? A new generation of Ulbrichts is coming into this world, because one man, Donald John Trump showed mercy and loyalty.
And the libertarian commentariat. The Tom Woodses. The Dave Smiths. The Clint Russell’s. The men who celebrated when Ross was freed, are now spending their days smearing the man who delivered that outcome as ‘the Epstein Class’. A defender of pedophiles.
They are coordinating with Ro Khanna, whether they realize it or not. They are framing Trump as Israel’s pet… they are joining the Bernie Sanders and Mehdi Hasan coalition to destroy his presidency. That's not hyperbole. That's their mission statement. This is the ‘power’ they plan to wield.
I cannot stop wondering what Ross thinks of these supporters right now.
What does the man getting his life back think of his loudest defenders trying to destroy the man who gave it to him? What does his wife think? What does the family that walked with him through ten years of federal prison think? They know whose signature is on the pardon.
You do not get to celebrate Ross Ulbricht's freedom and try to destroy the President who delivered it. You know what that's called? Betrayal.
You can do one. You cannot do both.
If you are trying to do both, you are not principled. You are not even confused. You are something worse… you are someone willing to take the gift and stab the giver in the back.
The libertarian commentariat is now openly making its next move.
An account called "Libertarians for Massie" posted this on the night of his defeat:
"Vote democrat in the midterms. Destroy MAGA."
Vote Democrat. Destroy MAGA. From people calling themselves Libertarians.
That account has since renamed itself "Libertarians against Trump."
Tell me how these people aren’t part of the Regime Alliance, again?
Dave Smith, on Brad Polumbo’s show just the other day said this
JD Vance has lost my support forever. Now, I'm just one guy, but I am fairly influential with some of the most influential people in this country. And so, okay, you guys made your choice. You've made an enemy out of the libertarians, and now enjoy. Enjoy how this goes... So yeah, great job, Republicans. Great strategy. Go take out the one guy who's beloved by young people and independents and libertarians.
That is the confession… a declaration of war even. Message received, Dave.
That is libertarians openly enlisting in the progressive coalition to defeat the man who pardoned Ross Ulbricht.
They are telling you, on the record, whose team they are on.
Now look at where I stand.
I am openly allied with Trump. With MAGA. With the apparatus that beat Massie. I have said so on record. I am not hiding it. It's not a perfect alliance. There's people that make me sick within this alliance. You can disagree with my strategic bet. You cannot accuse me of pretending it isn't there. I've planted my flag, firmly in this camp. I'm realistic about where I am in the hierarchy.
Now look at where the losertarians are planting theirs…
Dave Smith and Clint Russell still act like they're the principled outsiders. They're not. At all.
They're the Progressive Alliance's pets, firmly on a leash, and they don't see it. They appear to genuinely believe they're wielding power right now. The Regime Alliance thinks they’re adorable, like when your little chihuahua starts barking at a Pitbull… it’s as if he really believes he can take him! So cute!
“Trump is the Epstein Class!”… Good Boy! Here’s a treat.
Here's another chihuahua barking:
I'll be exposing the swamp for 7 more months before you get to unwrap your present from the globalist billionaires.
Why did he wait 14 years to start doing this? Why only after he lost his election? Could it be… just another show?
The libertarian movement, as currently constituted, is structurally incapable of taking a win. Trump delivered the largest libertarian victory in two decades. The movement thanked him at the time. Thomas Massie even hosted Ross at the State of the Union.
The alliance was working. Charlie was there, somewhere in the background working to sustain that alliance.
He was also diagnosing the libertarian failure mode in real time. Years before it happened to Massie, he watched the same pattern play out with another “principled libertarian”. Justin Amash. Charlie posted this on May 18, 2019:
Justin Amash used to be one of my favorite members of Congress
He used to fight for liberty and the constitution
Now he is fixated on adoration from the left & media
He ignores Trump's WINS on every front
Amash, you have let us ALL DOWN
We will now primary you
You will lose
Charlie was right. Amash got primaried. Left the party. Faded from relevance... seven years ago.
Then the MAGA Alliance asked Massie simply not to actively organize against the Commander-in-Chief during a foreign policy crisis. They didn't even ask for his support... He didn't have to defend Trump... just don't LEAD the opposition. Don't start conspiring with Ro Khanna against him... don't start implying everyone is covering up for pedophiles.
Massie did it anyway. Okay fine… he picked this fight… so what happens next?
Then the MAGA Alliance took him out. That's what actually happened here. Isn’t it obvious? That’s the real story.
It wasn't just AIPAC… it was the entire MAGA Alliance. It was the Kentucky voters that are loyal to Trump, not Thomas Massie, not libertarians, not Israel, not even Ed Gallrein… Trump.
That's the lesson. This is how the MAGA Alliance operates. They have a leader, they follow him. You can call it a cult, you can cope with your principles. Reality doesn’t care. Welcome to politics.
The libertarian movement is captured by the progressive regime… Trump showed them the exit, freed their prisoner, offered them a seat at the table. They chose the regimes leash, believing they were choosing freedom.
But they did not choose alone. They were led.
By their own… Three of them.
Tom Woods. Dave Smith. Clint Russell.
Let me show you who they are.
Act 5
Alright… I have a confession. At the end of Act 4, I started taking out the knives. Could you feel that? I was getting ready for a prosecution of Dave, Clint and Tom.
I sat down to do just that. I had the receipts ready. I was going to do the prosecutor's case. Knockout blow.
I could not write it. It felt wrong.
I tried five or six versions. I threw them all out. Something kept stopping me, and I could not figure out what it was for a long time.
I have gone through a range of emotions writing this whole piece. Most of it was powered by anger and frustration. Every time I see a new Dave Smith, Clint Russell, or Tom Woods post in my feed blaming all of their losses on Israel and AIPAC… I feel that rage start to bubble up again.
A few days ago I named all three of them in a post on Facebook. By name. I was angry when I did it. The post landed hard. The comments heated up…
I am not proud of that anger… it’s a prey instinct. It happens when I write about things I really care about. My emotions run wild when I am at my desk, and that is part of why these pieces work. The emotion is the engine.
You can feel my emotions in these words sometimes, can’t you?
But now that I have most of it off my chest, something has shifted in me.
There’s this voice inside my head… and it’s not mine.
It’s Charlie’s.
It has been there every single day since September, no exceptions. Every version of this I threw out, the voice was there. Every time I opened the document, the voice was there. Telling me it was wrong… it was no good.
“Don’t attack these guys”
And then a memory came to me… as if Charlie himself planted it there for me in that moment.
There was this letter… it was written on October 1, 2012 by an 18 year old Charlie Kirk. A recent high school graduate. He was writing to a man whose books and YouTube videos had shaped his thinking.
Mr. Woods,
Your speeches on YouTube have inspired me to take action on a national stage. I am 18 years old and a recent high school graduate. So often in high school we are told what to think instead of how to think. For years I felt subject to the system, like a sheep getting ready for slaughter. Then my friend told me about your videos. I watched every single one, and I read two of your books. Upon reading your work and watching you speak I realized that freedom is the solution, not the problem, and our public school education system has done nothing more but perpetuate the problem and make it worse.
Inspired by your words, I started an organization Turning Point USA. Which has skyrocketed to the national stage. The basis of our group is to educate our peers about the generational theft that is taking place in this country...
I want to thank you for playing a important role in my life. I will continue to read your articles, and watch your videos for inspiration. One day I hope to meet you and thank you in person.
In liberty,
Charlie Kirk
The man he wrote to was Tom Woods. One of the three generals of the losertarian army that I named in the last Act. One of my own heroes, who I was getting ready to slay... in my own mind.
Tom shaped Charlie. Tom shaped me too. Same videos. Same books. The same voice in my car on a long drive. Charlie and I started setting fire to the 3 by 5 card of allowable opinion around the same time.
Tom Woods is a great man. I have no business coming after him. He gave me a vocabulary I did not have before I found him. He gave a generation of us, including the kid who wrote that email, a way out of the trap.
Tom Woods doesn't just talk about politics and history. The man is lifting up people all over America and the world with his podcast. He’s guiding parents towards real homeschooling solutions, and he's pushing young people to have ambitious entrepreneurial spirits and giving them the tools to make it happen. This is all on top of giving them access to political viewpoints that our progressive institutions would rather they not hear.
The man is a fucking hero!
He even introduced me to the writer who shaped my whole style, a copywriter named Ben Settle. That one introduction became the seed of my entire new career, and Tom doesn’t even know who I am… yet.
How am I going to get the knives out to attack the man who gave me that? Have I no honor?…
Tom already knows what it’s like when people bring out the knives for him.
In November of 2020 amidst the COVID hysteria YouTube took down a speech Tom gave called "The COVID Cult." It had 1.5 million views at the time. YouTube called it medical misinformation and erased it from existence.
Tom was warning people about the damage the lockdowns could do... the mandates, the school closures, the damage being done to kids, to families and the country, by an institutional class that demanded compliance and called everyone who pushed back dangerous.
Tom was right about all of it. Everyone knows that now… but at the time he was punished for it. Silenced for telling the truth.
He took that experience and used it to write the defining book about the COVID era: Diary of a Psychosis: How Public Health Disgraced Itself During COVID Mania.
Tom wrote it in real time. He was documenting the lies as they were being told, with receipt after receipt. It carries real weight. It almost reads like a prosecution, because that’s really what it is.
That is what Tom Woods being right looks like. Tom has paid the price for it… now he’s totally vindicated. This is my case for why Tom Woods deserves massive respect from everyone within the MAGA Alliance, even though he might be fucking up right now.
If you’re going to criticize this great man, you better show some respect to his name, and bring your receipts. So that’s what I’m going to do… in a moment.
First, let me just say something about the other 2 generals of the losertarian army.
Clint Russell and Dave Smith.
Good guys. I’ve had my interactions with both over the length of their careers, and they’ve never been anything but gracious to me when we’ve interacted.
I'll start with Clint.
I remember the first time I ever encountered him. It was a debate he was having with a young Neocon guy named Kevin Castley, back in early 2021. Clint handled him so well I went out of my way to follow him afterwards and sent him a DM. He followed me back on twitter… we became mutuals for a while. At some point he unfollowed me. No big deal. It happens.
But the man has a real gift. Clint does a great job getting into the weeds on stuff like ESG, the Fed, the monetary system. He has financial insight that is way above me on that sort of thing. I’ve read all the great economists… but a lot of that stuff is abstract… Clint has read all that stuff PLUS he applies it to real world finance. I can’t do that, I don’t have that skill… so I listen to people like Clint to get insight on those kinds of subjects.
Clint also seems like a total bro, and by that, I mean a good friend. It’s one of the most admirable things about the relationship between Dave and Clint. They are fiercely loyal to each other. Loyalty is a quality I place very highly in a person… and it’s central to my criticism of libertarians, actually… we’ll get to that.
But lastly… Dave Smith… genuinely, one of my heroes. I've spent an unseemly amount of time consuming Dave Smith podcasts over the years. I'm about as OG as a Dave Smith fan can be.
I come from the Opie and Anthony world, the same comedy ecosystem that gave us the Joe Rogan Experience. I was there for Legion of Skanks before I knew who Dave was, on the JoeRogan.net forums before there was ever a Joe Rogan podcast, back when Brian Redban was running livestreams from comedy-club green rooms on Justin.tv. I've lived and breathed in the world Dave's podcast career spawned out of since the very beginning.
Back in 2017, I spoke to Dave's best friend and comedian Luis J Gomez on the phone for an hour or so one night. We talked all about strategies to promote Dave's first comedy special “Libertas”, which they were independently producing on this budding podcast network called Gas Digital.
The reason I got his attention was because I made a fan page on Facebook for Dave at the time, and got some serious engagement on the promotional clips for that comedy special. It got their attention… Dave gave me a shout out by name on the podcast, then Luis called me.
It’s not much, and I doubt Dave or Luis even remember it. But it meant a lot to me. They were both genuinely cool to me, and I never forgot it.
I gave Dave an entire section in The Losertarian Problem, if you want to know more about all of the good he’s done… and unfortunately… some bad he’s currently doing.
I'll pull one thing forward from that article, before we move on... Dave is a big part of why Ross Ulbricht is free today.
He energized the cultural mass that put the Mises Caucus in charge of the Libertarian Party. That put Angela McArdle in the chair seat. She is the one who got the deal done with Trump. She does not become chair without Dave. Ross doesn’t become free without Angela.
That is the truth. Ross owes a debt to Dave, Angela, and Tom Woods for that matter… almost as much as he owes a debt to Trump himself… emphasis on the almost. That’s my view.
Okay… now we get to the hard part… the knives… remember the knives?
What do we do about these damn knives?!
Act 6
Okay… the knives… I have to attack these great, decent men who have done nothing but add value to my own life.
Did you notice I didn’t even mention Massie in Act 5?
There’s still that voice inside my head telling me not to do this… but it must be done. The knives must come out… so be it. Here we go…
Charlie Kirk is dead. Politically Assassinated. In front of a crowd, on camera, in high-definition, witnessed by countless millions of people on the internet. Some of them celebrated… they could barely contain their glee when they saw his neck explode. They put on some music they did a little dance. That’s a real thing, and it’s not ‘just a few’.
Who do you think those people voted for in the last election? The MAGA Alliance, or the Regime Alliance? How do you think they’re going to vote in the midterms?
You know the answer.
And those are the people Tom Woods, Dave Smith, and Clint Russell are now spending their days helping. Not always consciously or deliberately… but effectively. This is why I have to bring out the knives… because the progressives are bringing out the guns.
I’m not bringing these knives to a gun fight… no…
The knives are for the men inside our own house who keep handing our enemies ammunition. Thomas Massie and his losertarian generals. The ones calling the Trump administration the ‘Epstein Class’.
Every single one of these people is an asset of the Regime Alliance.
The knives are to teach you the game that you’re missing. Not the libertarian vs statist game. Not liberals vs conservatives even… No. That’s not the real game... I’m talking about the base layer operating system of the animal kingdom…
Predators vs Prey.
You, the libertarians, of all people, should be able to see the truth of this. Politics is violence. The State is the Monopoly on Violence. That’s the defining characteristic that makes it unique. Rothbard synthesized this perfectly in “Anatomy of the State”.
Nobody gets this better than you… well actually… that’s not true… not at all. The Progressives do. They just don’t understand it on the intellectual level that you libertarians do. They haven’t read Rothbard…
They understand it on a much more base, animalistic level.
To you, it’s a series of interesting arguments and ideas. It’s a hobby. A passionate and interesting hobby, I’ll grant you. But a hobby.
To the Progressive, it’s an addiction. A hunger… a craving.
Predators and Prey.
You have the capacity for both. We all do. Even Trump, the ostensible Apex Predator can be made into someone’s prey… and Lord knows they keep trying.
Charlie… sadly… became the prey of a confused, sad young man.
I’m not going to relitigate the rise of left-wing violence towards members of the MAGA Alliance. At this point, if you claim not to see it, or say it’s ‘both sides’, I don’t consider you a serious person and no one else should either. I cannot imagine anyone like that getting this far in this article. That means you, dear reader, are a serious person.
And so, I’m not going to mince words for you. You can handle the hard truths.
You are in a civil war.
There, I said it… do you believe it? Most conservatives don’t. They push back on me… tell me it hasn’t gotten that bad yet. Maybe they’re right… but do you know who does believe it?
The Progressives. They literally view you as enemy combatants. That's why they shot Charlie. And celebrated… that's just what you do when you take out an enemy general in a war, isn’t it? That’s why they’re disappointed Trump turned his head at the last second in Butler…
By the way... notice how they aren't shooting at the libertarians?
That's because those aren't enemy combatants. Those are the Regimes pets. You don't shoot your pets.
You shoot Charlie, you shoot Trump. The predators who collect real wins…
Watch how progressives operate. They take territory and don't apologize for it. They name enemies and make real, calculated moves against them. They celebrate strategic wins openly, including assassinations of political opponents. They institutionalize victories so they can't be reversed. They build the architecture that lets them keep doing it. They are playing for keeps, while most conservatives and libertarians still act like politics is a debate club.
The lesson of Charlie Kirk's assassination is that politics is not a debate club.
The debate ended with a gunshot.
Now we’re in a new thing… we’re all still trying to figure out what that thing is exactly, and what the rules are.
The progressive doesn’t think they're at war because someone told them they're at war. They think they're at war because they ARE at war and they can feel it. It is existential. It’s who they are. Their political views come after the instinct... not before.
They don’t really have ‘views’ like you do. Contradictions don’t bother them, they don’t sit up late at night trying to work it out. They just want power and status. They want to matter. And they will align with whatever views give them that feeling in the moment. Ironically, many of them will probably come into the MAGA Alliance if it actually becomes the new Regime. That’s just how they operate.
Their entire political view is a rationalization for their desire to rule over others. To show you that they are your superior in the moral hierarchy, and you need their guidance.
And so, my dear libertarians, you have the intellectual framework. You don't have the killer instinct. That’s why Donald Trump was able to eat Rand Paul on the debate stage without breaking a sweat. Predator and Prey. That’s why he was able to take out Massie. Predator and Prey.
Do you see?
BUT ISRAEL!… AIPAC!!!! I’m going to say this as politely as I can.
Shut the fuck up.
You sound like Hasan Piker, Mehdi Hasan and the New York Fucking Times... verbatim… Are you proud of that? Are the treats that good? Lots of hits on those videos. How’s the ad revenue?
Okay… there’s the anger… I’m mad again… now about those knives…
Dave Smith… you first.
Look, man. I've consumed thousands of hours of your content. I've shared it with my friends. I've shared it with my own mother. You don't have a bigger fan than me.
I don't share your stuff anymore. I'm too embarrassed.
I'll tell you why.
Years back I cut a clip of you talking Bitcoin on PBD's show, put it on Twitter, and Billionaire Michael Saylor reposted it. Remember that? That was me again. Just here in the background, doing what I do, supporting my people.
And what you said in that clip was great. You sounded like a man about to get serious about Bitcoin with your audience. It was around $30,000 then. It's $73,000 as I write this.
This to me is like the most important thing... what we need today in the United States of America more than anything is the separation of money and the state.
...try maintaining the war in Afghanistan if every month people had to pay for it. That thing would've been over by Christmas of 2001...
So the Federal Reserve and the money printing is the lifeblood of the Leviathan. That's what we need to attack, and that's why Bitcoin has so much potential.
Then Bitcoin almost entirely disappeared from your narrative for years, and Israel took over. More and more. Every podcast, every panel, every argument, until Israel was the whole beat. This is when I began noticing you’re losing the plot.
But then one day a notification comes up on my phone. A new Dave Smith podcast episode. Guest: Saifedean Ammous. The author of The Bitcoin Standard! Finally! You're going to get off the Israel beat for a bit and go deep on Bitcoin.
I texted my buddy Brandon, who has read his book, all excited. This is going to be great... It's about time!
I loaded it up. I listened, anxiously but patiently.
It was all about Israel… because, of course it was… The whole fucking thing was about Israel. Bitcoin barely came up, except to tell us you weren't going to talk about it, and that maybe you’d have Saifedean back one day to have that conversation…
Think about that, man. You had the author of The Bitcoin Standard right in front of you, and you used the opportunity to talk about Israel. You never had him back on to talk about Bitcoin.
You know what this made me realize, Dave?
It isn't Trump who's owned by Israel, dude. It's you.
You walked away from the most fascinating libertarian technology that’s ever been created to obsess over a foreign country. Bitcoin is literally Anarcho-Capitalism synthesized into computer code, Dave. Rules for Private Property Rights without Rulers.
You don't want to spend any time exploring that with your audience?
Is Israel really so much more interesting than Bitcoin to them? If so, that's an indictment of the libertarians…
I don’t actually believe that. I think there are a lot of good libertarians in your audience who are starting to sense the path you are on is going to lead them to failure. You know how I know? They write to me, constantly. Some even join my paid supporters group. They tell me they still love you, but your obsession with Israel is getting to be a bit much for them.
Yes, Dave… your audience is growing, and it's growing fast… but it's also changing.
The serious people are leaving, one at a time, because they can feel something is off with you. The crowd replacing them is a different beast than the one that built you up.
You'll keep getting your millions of views. Monetize them. Get yourself another house… maybe a fancy car. Sell the Israel obsession, make your money... take care of your family with it. I encourage that, even!
While you do that, I'll take the operators off your hands and do serious political analysis with them. You've shown them you're not interested in that sort of thing anymore.
This really has nothing to do with Bitcoin, Dave. It’s okay if you’re not interested in Bitcoin… that’s not the point. The point is this: The obsession that made you drop Bitcoin as a topic is the same obsession that won't let you tell the truth about Massie.
Days before the primary, two men looked at the same race and saw opposite futures. One was Michael Knowles from the Daily Wire. He said Massie would lose, and said exactly what it would mean: that Trump's grip on the party was ironclad.
The other was you, Dave. You said Massie would win. You were so sure of it you actually mocked Knowles with a grin on your face, said you couldn't wait to watch Knowles eat his words.
Here’s what Knowles said:
If Massie goes down, this will be evidence that Trump has an ironclad grip on the Republican party.
Here's what you confidently said in response to Knowles's prediction:
So if it proves that Trump has an iron grip when Massie falls out, what about when Thomas Massie wins and survives $20 million being pumped into his district? What would that suggest? I wonder what Michael Knowles' reaction to that will be.
As we now know, Massie lost decisively. Knowles was right. The reaction that you couldn’t wait to see on Knowles’ face was now on yours…
How did you react?…
Well, obviously, I didn't get that right. I said I think Thomas Massie will still win. And look, I'll be the first to admit, perhaps I was predicting with my heart a little bit more than with my head.
An honest concession. I respect it. However, it didn’t end here. Now, the cope begins…
Your whole case rests on 2020. That’s when Trump turned on Massie, called him a third-rate grandstander, tried to run him out of the party. And Massie won his primary anyway, with 82% of the vote. That was a display of power.
So you ask a fair question: if Trump's hostility couldn't sink Massie back then, what was different this time?
Was it [Trump] endorsing Massie's opponent... or was it more money than's ever been poured into a race ever? I think it's the latter.
And there you have it. It’s the AIPAC money. The Adelson money. Israel... again. That’s the only thing that can explain why libertarians keep losing, I guess.
That dastardly Israel has once again foiled your brilliant political analysis! Do you see the cope? You were completely correct the whole time… but Israel!
I didn't claim that AIPAC always wins, they just usually do.
How convenient. An unfalsifiable claim, that you can weasel your way out of no matter the outcome.
But here's the real tell:
If Massie loses tonight, he should run for President. If Massie wins tonight, he should run for President.
114k likes on that one last I checked. Win or lose, same answer. That's not a serious political analyst, that's a hype man working a crowd. It's a show. You’re a comedian. This is what you do, and you’re really good at it… the numbers speak for themselves, so does your bank account.
But you’re not a serious political commentator. Not anymore, if you ever really were.
Dave, like you, I consider the late great Patrice O’Neal to be one of the best comedians of all time. I can't help but think back to the way he broke down a guy like Alex Jones on Opie and Anthony. Here’s what he said:
If you tell me 2 + 2 is 4, and I know it is, then you shove marbles up your ass, I go 'Damn, Anthony shoves marbles in his ass?'
But that doesn't invalidate 2 + 2 = 4.
The crazy stuff Alex Jones does doesn’t make the truth he says false… but nobody wants to hear the math over the marbles. The marbles are all anybody remembers.
Well, Dave, you also have marbles up your ass, in the Patrice O’Neal sense. The marbles are Israel. Your obsession discredits every other opinion you have, no matter how truthful and well thought out.
That's my assessment of Dave Smith, as one of his original fans who's listened to more of his content than just about anyone on the planet.
He could be a real force for good on our side, but he likes the treats too much.
And he doesn't eat alone. His most loyal friend is right there beside him, nose in the same bowl. Clint Russell.
Not one of the doomer-pilled libertarians that called me naive... has apologized. Not. One... Worthless mfers
He was right. I was with him, dunking on the losertarians who fought against Angela McArdle every step of the way.
She won, Ross was freed.
If Ross Ulbricht gets to go home tomorrow it'll be the best feeling I've ever had in politics... President Trump. Thank you for doing the right thing and keeping your promise.
The best feeling he’s ever had in politics…
Sixteen months later, Massie loses a primary, and the same man who thanked Trump for the best feeling he’d ever had was now ready to enthusiastically stab that same man in the back and burn it all down.
Congrats to Israel on winning your record breaking 435th house seat... We're gonna burn down the entire GOP now.
And this is just who he is now. Same week, take your pick.
Selling your souls for a few shekels. I hope you all die penniless you fkn frauds.
So, there you have it. Clint didn’t want Dave to keep the marbles all to himself. Clint goes down whatever path Dave leads him. Loyal to the end, like I said.
He became the exact doomer he called a worthless mfer sixteen months ago. That's all Clint is now. Dave's echo, barking back into the void he came from.
That's what the generals of this movement have become.
But it wasn't always this way.
Okay… one knife left…
This one hurts…
Tom Woods.
My daughter was distraught over Massie today. I told her: your age group went for him nearly 80-20. I also told her: Boomers are the most selfish and ignorant voting bloc in the history of the U.S.
Tom, do you know who you just said that about? Because I do. I talk to them every day.
They write to me. Long letters, the kind people don't write anymore. They tell me about their grandkids, their churches, and the country they're scared they're leaving behind. They pray for me. They are still mourning Charlie long after the rest of the world moved on to the next thing.
They’re not ignorant, Tom. Massie had to go. For the same reasons Amash did. It wasn’t just AIPAC telling them this… it was me, and others like me.
They listen to people like me, because they can tell I’m being honest with them. I’m loyal to my readers, not an ideology. I don’t tell them they are brainwashed idiots…
You are a brainwashed idiot who thinks a foreign country should have veto power over our representatives.
Tom… man… what are you doing?
It's not just that your heart is in the wrong place... You've got the facts backwards too.
The kids you're praising? They vote at half the rate of the boomers you're trashing. And when they do show up, they just made a socialist the mayor of New York. If young people ran the country, you wouldn't get liberty. You'd get President AOC… if you’re lucky.
If you're not... well. The kids don't just vote for socialists. Some of them celebrate murder… they killed that boy who wrote to you back in 2012… and you sound like them, sometimes. That’s the truth. That’s the painful thing I’ve been working up to this entire article.
I see them in you now… and I know it’s not the truth. I know it’s not who you are. You are performing. But why? Why are you performing like this?
You fought for Ross for ten years, Tom. You put his mother on your show. You cried "thank you, Donald Trump" when it finally happened. You defended that pardon against the haters and losertarians who said it couldn’t be done through Trump. And now you're performing for the people trying to destroy the man who freed him.
Why? Why would you do that? Because he’s not a perfect libertarian? Because of how he handles Middle Eastern foreign policy disputes? You’re throwing him to the wolves for that?
The guy they keep trying to murder?
I don't even care why anymore. It's not who you are. So stop.
All is forgiven.
There’s a place for you here when you’re ready, Tom. It’s an imperfect alliance, some of your enemies are in it, mine too. But it’s the one that’s winning. The one that freed Ross.
There’s no third option. The Libertarian Party isn’t rising from the ashes, and Massie doesn’t have the charisma to do what Trump did. That fantasy is over. So don’t waste yourself trying to tear down the one man who actually delivered.
For over ten years, the Regime Alliance let Ross rot in a cell. The libertarians made him their cause and couldn’t free him. Trump did it in a day.
Do you remember what he did?
Until Trump signed his name, Ross had two life sentences and no parole. He was destined to die in a federal prison. Now look…

"Going from two life sentences plus 40 years without parole to this feels like a total miracle. There were times we didn't know if having a family would ever be in the cards for us."
"Thank you,
Donald Trump."
stay close. the next one goes out by email first.
p.s. if this work matters to you, the most valuable thing you can do is send it to one person who'd get it.
Comments
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- WwalkerlllpCharter8FeaturedJune 1, 2026 at 10:25 PM
Pontificating on why many liberals glom on to their worldview... I think a large part of this is that many people just want to BELONG! Academia and MSM continually reinforce the message that conservatives are EVIL. We can all agree that many people are intellectually lazy and just want to belong to what they think is mainstream thought. Little time is spent on truly analyzing what is happening. (not that living your life and keeping your nose to the grindstone and not immersing yourself in politics is necessarily a bad thing). You have to WORK to move outside of the mainstream. Many folks just don't have the emotional/intellectual energy (or the time) to push back. I used to be one of those myself. Go with the flow. Don't reduce the dating pool (lol). But the truth is, you are giving away your values by going with the flow. It sucks that that is where we are now, but I hear my college daughter come home with ideas that are so preposterous and easily debunked with just a smidgen of research and I wonder where I went wrong. She just wants to fit in. I get that. I can only hope age will bring her wisdom.
3CClayAuthorJune 2, 2026 at 1:20 PMYes. You said it, man. People just want to belong. That's true of everyone, and it's much easier to just kind of go with the flow. The path of least resistance.
Most people wear political views like fashion... they don't choose the views... they choose a tribe, and the views come with the tribe.
The outfit says "I'm safe... I'm good... don't attack me." it does not say "this is true". The priority is BELONGING, not truth.
Somebody upstream sets the season's fashion. Most people just wear what's issued...
Don't beat yourself up too much about your daughter. She'll come around, as long as you keep setting a good example for her. The pull is strong at her age.
When I look back at who I was at that age, it's like looking at a totally different person. Wisdom does come with age, and it helps if you have a good father to guide you.
- TTrishFounder37June 3, 2026 at 1:44 PM
I relate to this so much; my husband is distressed that our 28 year old son has become quite radicalized, keeps a Progress flag on his entry wall, and wishes Trump would be assassinated -- plans to buy a cake if it happens rolleyes.
I'm not that surprised that this happened because he is gay and happily married to another man -- third anniversary in a week. His cohort clearly exerts strong influence on him. He and his spouse are not interested in LGBT activism and want no part of Pride parades, which he thinks have become disgusting displays, and he agrees with us that "queering" of everything has degraded his cohort, especially the exposure of children to lewd content. The pair of them basically just want to be left alone to be happy together, and I can't disagree with that. He's more outspoken about his views with me than with his dad, whose disapproval I think he fears a great deal.
They're both good people, pay their own way and work hard, don't abuse substances, are very kind and generous to others. We don't have to talk about politics when they visit, which is at least every couple of weeks. I'm just happy to have them close to me and happy that they are healthy and successful in terms of their own goals.
- CCheriFounder35May 30, 2026 at 5:21 AM
There is much here to digest. It will take some time and several readings for me.
I have described myself as a Constitutional Conservative for the last few decades. Would never have said I was a Libertarian, I always equated them with the Progressive swamp. This has all been a learning experience with a heavy curve.
What you have written here is akin to a history lesson of the future.
You are absolutely correct that the Progressive Left is acting on animal instinct. They move as one, like an Amoeba, without thought or conscience.
Fight, Feed, Fuck or Flee. These are all they have in their pursuit of power.
The statement that 'we are in a civil war' is, for me, the defining sentence of this piece. We have been in a civil war since we brought all of Europe's Socialist/Communist elites to our institutions of higher learning after WWII. It has been a slow ramp up, but it has been the plan from the beginning. Read Saul Alinsky if you don't think this is true. We are more than 100 years late in combating this disease and if we lose our children's children pay the price, forever.
Keep writing, stay safe.
Staying close,
Cheri1CClayAuthorMay 30, 2026 at 11:20 AMCheri , this is a wonderful, thoughtful comment. Thank you!
You saw exactly what I most needed people to see , that the civil war isn't coming, it's here, and they move as one, on instinct. That's the lesson I believe Charlie taught us. This is not debate club anymore. You're reading the long arc of it deeper than most ever will.
stay close
Clay
- VVirginiaFounder20May 31, 2026 at 8:04 PM
Thank you for stating what I was trying to put into words. I am going to be rereading and processing
this for a while! - CCheriFounder35June 1, 2026 at 12:44 AM
Virginia, I am always humbled when I come into these comment sections, there are so many thoughtful and intelligent comments. I learn something from everyone. Thank you for reading and responding to mine.
- MMichaelFounder3May 28, 2026 at 8:06 PM
Great piece so far. I don’t consider myself a Libertarian, Republican, or Democrat to be honest. I’ve always been conservative because of my relationship with Jesus Christ, and my belief that the Bible is the only infallible book to be written. I say all that to say that I don’t like the political atmosphere in our country. It’s not about choosing sides, because I have done that. If you are truly conservative (I don’t mean you in particular, just anyone in general) then we are aligned. I don’t necessarily agree with everything every conservative says or does, but I still support them, as long as they don’t support progressive policies. I always liked Thomas Massie, but when he started aligning his ideals with the left, I could no longer support him. I am a principled person, but I also know that sometimes we have to vote for the lesser of two evils. The only criticism I have to your piece is the use of f-bombs. I personally don’t think it adds anything to the piece, but that’s a small thing. Keep up the good work! I hope we can remain in the majority in the mid terms. I don’t want to imagine what damage the left will do if they gain control again. Thanks for reading!
1CClayAuthorMay 28, 2026 at 8:19 PMThank you, Michael. I'm really honored to have a serious man of faith like yourself reading my work. Your political instincts are on point, in my opinion. It took me a long time to catch up to where you are at.
That's what a lot of my writing is about, really, when I think about it. Admitting I was wrong about some stuff and recalibrating.
I hear you on the F-bombs. I will consider it.
Thank you.
- TTrishFounder37June 1, 2026 at 6:09 PM
Paul, in your first three paragraphs you arrived at the meaning of "you can't be argued out of a position you haven't been argued into." To wit, if you are talking to someone who hasn't arrived at a position via the tools of critical inquiry, there is nothing there to argue with. "Your dad was full of shite," "That's not an opinion, it's a feeling," and "You're a brainwashed zealot," are not going to change any minds. The position taken sans critical inquiry describes the vast majority of people, period.
FTR, I have had a LOT of exposure to how the left arrives at and defends their conclusions for the 40+ years I've been thinking politically, by virtue of working (half front line, half laptop class) and making friends in healthcare and academia. Even in Alberta, almost everyone there is either a solid progressive or pretending to be. Some people have found my libertarian views (or maybe just me) tolerable, but no one adopts them.
Both you and Clay ask why such intolerance for dissent/innate desire to rule over others? My answer would be summed up as: Many are called, but few are chosen. Just like online, only a few "post" their beliefs (lead); many of these people do want power over others. The mass appears to follow, not because they want to wield power, but because they are desperate to belong/not be excluded and sound virtuous, just like online, plus they find independent critical inquiry tiresome. I don't think it has to be any more nefarious than simple groupthink.
0- PPaul HempelFounder45June 2, 2026 at 1:45 PM
I really can't disagree with anything you said here. It does leave one question unanswered, though... unless my perception is simply flawed. It seems to me that even the rank and file tend toward reflexive - sometimes violent - attack against those who express dissenting views. (Have you ever witnessed a more respectful - dare I say "winsome"? - debater than Charlie Kirk? And he got killed for it.)
I understand the groupthink aspect. I don't understand anger/hatred toward those who dare to think independently. That seems like something more. Threat of violence, or even mere ostracization, *is* an exertion of control. What I'm saying is that, while the rank and file are *under* control, they also participate in exerting the group's control.
We are Borg. You will be assimilated.
- WwalkerlllpCharter8June 1, 2026 at 4:48 PM
Clay,
I pray that you don't succumb to the "monetize" craze. You have danced around this when you brought the knives out. Money can make us all do things counter to our character. For now, I gladly subscribe to what you are cooking. I understand sometimes there are bills to pay and that the green grass of popularity or fame can pay those bills. Stay true to yourself and your beliefs. That is how you sleep at night. Maybe a bit hungry for steak and lobster, but it is the sleep of the righteous.0CClayAuthorJune 1, 2026 at 5:09 PMWalker, thank you for this.
This is something I have thought about a lot. This is why I have built the project with my total independence in mind from the start.
I have no intention of ever taking on advertisers or anything like that. I'd rather quit, shut this whole thing down, and go back to software engineering instead, if it came down to it.
Either this project survives on reader subscriptions and donations, or it just wasn't meant to happen. That's the way I'm looking at it.
So far, it's off to a great start, thanks to people like you, Walker. Your membership means a lot to me.
~ Clay
- DDarrenFounder100June 1, 2026 at 3:07 PM(edited)
Damn! Knives out. With class. I gotta tell you, Clay, the civil war reference is spot on. I can’t tell you how many times I try to tell people that and they tell me I’m an alarmist. The progressive civil war started, in my opinion, with Obama. A smooth operator who smiled while sticking a knife between your ribs patting you on the back. I’ve never followed any of the men you mentioned, but I know the type. Very well. Act 6 really brought it home. Wrapped it up in a nice bow. Woods, Russell and Smith have sold out. The losers that they are can’t play nice in the sandbox, so now they have to blow it up. They, like Massie, refuse to compromise. Refusal to compromise in politics is a death sentence. They keep voting on PRINCIPLE…and keep losing. Strong principle is a nice quality for a man to have. Yes, you too ladies! But in politics, as I’ve seen many times, can be a losing proposition if you don’t bend, at all. A friend of mine always votes for “alternative” candidates in national elections. I have tried to reason with him. He’s playing into the hands of progressives, being the useful lap dog. His argument is extremely principled. “If everyone voted based on their principles, we’d actually have a legitimate third party.” He’d rather win in principle and lose the election rather than compromise and work on policy change incrementally. It’s sad to watch that they don’t see what lap dogs for the far left they truly are. Fantastic ending act! Deleted original comment to post this!
0CClayAuthorJune 1, 2026 at 5:15 PMDarren, this is exactly the kind of comment that makes me glad I built this room.
You're not an alarmist, you're just early. The people who tell you it hasn't gotten that bad yet are the same people the piece is about. They can't see the war because they're not the ones being shot at. They're still enjoying netflix, and going about their daily life like normal.
For me, and many others, the day we say Charlie get publicly assassinated, everything changed. Everything became clear to me in that moment, and I've been wrestling with it ever since.
That is really what so much of my writing comes down to... the changed that happened in me when I witnessed Charlie's murder.
You've been seeing it clearly and getting called crazy for it. You're not crazy, and you're not alone in here.
- CColinFounder32June 1, 2026 at 6:46 AM
What Michael Founder 3 said...worth a re-read.
He has my coin today.
The grace is going well, if the f-bombs are dropped. I say this not as a Christian loser, but as an effectiveness issue. You want decent people to recognise your decency and be loyal to it.
Emotional incontinence is what you are pointing out as the enemy, so don't join them. It's part of your power to differentiate from this, to have anger but without losing yourself, your decency, your point, your message, your audience. Show the difference.
You also agree the main point is as Michael says, "I am a principled person, but I also know that sometimes we have to vote for the lesser of two evils."
Beautifully and simply put, Michael. It's what I call the "Heaven and Earth" problem. Thomas Sowell recognised the attraction of thinking and parading ourselves in the Unconstrained way. But we don't live in an Unconstrained world. Economics and politics is about scarcity. And so we get one vote only, in a two-party system. Which path leads towards more liberty for all, including for those more vulnerable whom we care about, in practice? That's the point to get across to losertarians.
0CClayAuthorJune 1, 2026 at 11:44 AMColin, this is a sharp comment, and you're putting your finger on something real. I don't entirely disagree with you.
But the thing is, the piece is written and recorded now... and this is my voice. It isn't perfect, and I've made my peace with that. I'm a little rough around the edges... I come from the world of offensive comedy, and I can be an emotional writer at times. I was emotional through a lot of this one, and I think you can feel it in the words. That emotion is part of why the work lands the way it does, even when it costs me a little polish.
And here's the thing, I actually wrestle with exactly what you're naming inside the piece itself, the anger, the prey instinct, the question of whether I'm losing myself in it. So you're not wrong that it's a tension. It's one I live with on purpose, with my eyes open.
You're not wrong... but it's just who I am. So it stays.
Maybe as time goes on, I'll have the cleaner discipline you're describing, the anger without the incontinence. I will evolve... but for now, the f-bombs stay because they are true to myself and how I felt when I was writing this.
And thank you for spending your coin, I love watching people actually use it. Michael earned that one.
- TTrishFounder37May 31, 2026 at 12:33 AM
The one part that took me out of the narrative was proclaiming that rank and file progressives don't have actual views, just instincts and vibes born of a will to power. "Their entire political view is a rationalization for their desire to rule over others. To show you that they are your superior in the moral hierarchy, and you need their guidance."
To me this reads like lacking theory of mind and oversimplifying the opponent's position. I don't believe that this is true any more than I believe that the right is driven by Israel and AIPAC to cast its votes, so it's even ironic that you go on to shred the latter supposition.
I always tell my students (during the part of my intro lecture where I explain that it is not my business to influence them politically in any way) that my observation has been that people come as adults to the views that they hold based on their own experience, and that the beliefs they hold perform some sort of service for them. Some of their views, like religion, are often hereditary in that they get them from their parents and families.
Last, my spouse and I remind each other than you can't be argued out of a position that you haven't been argued into. If you're unwilling to recognize that a large swath of your prey came by their views via perfectly legitimate means like those described in my previous paragraph, I have difficulty understanding how you would reach them effectively, and Civil War or no, I also can't imagine you just writing them off.
0CClayAuthorMay 31, 2026 at 12:54 AMTrish,
Thank you for this. This is something I want to take seriously and explore further with you...
I'm not writing to progressives. I'm not speaking their language at all. You've caught onto that. If a sincere progressive reads my work, it's probably not going to be persuasive. My work, at least so far, is speaking to well-read conservatives and libertarians.
If I were writing to young liberals, which I assume many of your students are, I would take on a totally different approach. That's something I need to think more about for sure.
Furthermore, the real point you made is about accuracy... That's the one that requires the most careful thought.
So let me start with where I think you're dead right: they're sincere. There's no doubt about that in my mind. I know many of them personally. I don't think progressives are cartoon villains sitting around plotting how to rule. They believe what they believe, and most of them came to it honestly, through their own lives, their experiences, the people around them. Same as anyone.
I concede every single point on that front. However... sincerity was never my point. A man can be completely sincere and yet still be moved by something he can't see. Think about the Libertarians in my article. Dave and Clint. There's no doubt in my mind that they are sincere... I think they're motivated by forces they don't quite see... the metaphorical leash around their necks.
Here's the question I can't get past, and I'd genuinely love your read on it. If these views are arrived at honestly, through each person's own experience... why do they land in the same place so reliably? Why does all that independent, hard-won, sincere experience , across millions of different people, different lives, different cities , keep producing the exact same conclusion: that they're the enlightened ones, and we need their guidance? Honest, independent experience should scatter.
Why do they tend to sound like AOC instead of Thomas Sowell?
- ZZakFounder48May 31, 2026 at 8:06 PM
@Trish, I surely didn’t inherit my family’s politics or world view. By all intents I should have become a socialist or communist. I’m 74, I thought that the “Hippies” were idiots. I could have easily become a member of the Weather Underground or have run away to San Francisco. Curiously I didn’t. My parents were entrepreneurs, as were both sets of my grandparents, that’s what I inherited.
I was in Mr. Demetri’s class in the 4th and 5th grade. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, he gave a lecture on why Egalitarianism went against human nature and using force to make everyone equal wouldn’t work because every individual has different talents, capacities, ambition, and motivations. He didn’t mention Castro, Marx, or any name. I could see my own family in the example.
When I was about 10 or 11 years old, I brought home a small poster:
You Have Two Cows
SOCIALISM
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
COMMUNISM
You have two cows.
The government takes both and gives you some milk.
FASCISM
You have two cows.
The government takes both and sells you the milk.
NAZISM
You have two cows.
The government takes both and shoots you.
CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
I mounted it on the wall next to my desk in my bedroom. My mom was very upset, informing me that she was a Socialist and that her father had run for Congress the same year that Eugene V. Debs had run for President. Socialism is the creed of Envy for the prey. - PPaul HempelFounder45June 1, 2026 at 4:14 PM
I have to disagree with you on this. In fact, you seem to support Clay's assertion when you say, "you can't be argued out of a position that you haven't been argued into." Maybe, I'm just not understanding what you mean by that.
We're talking about people who refuse to engage in "argument". Personal insults, perhaps; but not argument. How often do you hear/read progressives rationally explaining how/why they have arrived at their views? Tell a demonstrator that Trump is not a king, and the response is that he *acts* like a king. Ask for examples, and you get a word salad runaround.
Perhaps, you would say that those are not the rank and file. Fine. Are the rank and file the ones who remain loyal to the Democratic Party as a matter of family tradition, even though the values of the Democratic Party of old have long since found a better home within the Republican Party? Where is the rationality in that?
Do you take issue with the characterization that they desire to rule over others? Then, why the intolerance for dissent? Why the insistence of implementing every policy at the national level, rather than letting states and localities determine their own "fits"? Why the assertion of unnatural rights - i.e., "rights" that require others to give up something? How can these not be manifestations of a desire to rule over others?
- BBobFounder12May 30, 2026 at 1:05 PM
As always you have educated me. The civil war reference is unfortunately spot on. The first problem we have is most conservative people or anyone not happy with the progressive agenda don't believe it. I didn't either until you saying it and Cheri quoting the history of it. I'm late posting because I had to research her comments and think about your creation. I'm old. Never have listened to the people you speak about.I have watched what is happening but do nothing but share things I like. I'm useless to a big degree. I have decided to share your stuff seriously. To the conservative media. Radio , TV, and anyplace else I think of that has a HUGE audience.I have a small amount of human psychology knowledge. I had an interesting job in the military. I learned a lot about people. I have used that my entire life. Sometimes good sometimes not. Your piece is EXCELLENT. Yes I sometimes pick it apart poorly. I'll stop doing it poorly. If I have anything important to say I'll do like you. Back it up with facts. Lol. I think the most important thing is this. You reach millions of people. Why? Because we need to build the army. We need to find the generals. Without that we all lose. Now I know my purpose. We together have to build the army. The generals like Charlie will appear. Just a matter of percentages. You need to provide a short piece for the masses. Trust me on that. Armies are mostly regulars. Regulars don't read long stuff. Thank you Clay for opening my eyes.
0CClayAuthorJune 1, 2026 at 5:19 PMBob, this means a lot, and you're far from useless. You just found your purpose.
Yes, share it. Everywhere. Conservative media, radio, all of it. I'd love the help building the army.
And you're right about the short pieces. Regulars don't read 11,000 words... I'm already on it. You nailed it. I might start jumping into the whole youtube thing too.
Thank you for being here, Bob. You are the best!
~ Clay
- AAliceMSFounder31May 31, 2026 at 3:12 AM
Amen, Bob, on the "short stuff". Several generations have been trained to intake "Thought-bites". Start there, then move to helping us learn to think!
, - BBobFounder12May 31, 2026 at 12:50 PM
Thank you Alice. I feel it's important to get as many as possible educated as I am becoming. Clay does also or he would not be willing to work so hard to do so. I am the same in trying to write short. I struggle so so very much to do that. I'm a true perfectionist so the details matter to me. But the masses don't care about all the details. They need something they can grab and run with. I love your "thought bites" analog. Everyone is different and yet everyone is the same. We need numbers. For several reasons but I'm mostly concerned with new leaders appearing that are predators not prey like it's been for decades. Very possibly a century. I can manipulate statistics to say what I want or need them to say. Percentages are rock solid. So we need a million members to find a couple top notch Clay and Charlie Kirks. Very possibly more but I'm thinking we might get a few captains in that amount also. And of course mostly regulars like myself who need direction from those captains and generals like Clay is and Charlie was. I don't want to lose my long excellent articles and education pieces but I also want millions of us so we can win.
- GGeoffCharter7May 30, 2026 at 3:03 AM
Clay, the knives did come out!
And...I love it.
Podcasters can't drain the swamp, through podcasting alone. You cant just be a spectator. Otherwise your just a contentful slave. They have to play the game and be good at it. They played the game in 2024. Enough to get Ross out. Image if they spent the same amount of energy getting through to politicians or Trump than debating low IQ people on Piers Morgan. But losertarian habit die hard. They are becoming the wimpy libertarian version of Rush Limbaugh. Meanwhile Trump and his team are the only ones making things happen, whether they are good for the country or not.
P.S. Maybe not this article but somewhere down the line it would be nice to compare the strategy of of these guys Murray Rothbard's strategy and how we can implement that in our daily lives.
0CClayAuthorMay 30, 2026 at 9:12 PMWell said, Geoff!
And that Rothbard idea is a great one for down the road. The irony is Rothbard was a far better strategist than most of the people who quote him.
Thanks for the feedback. Means a lot, brother.
- ZZakFounder48May 30, 2026 at 1:22 AM
I love the way the entire article flows. Act 6 is a masterpiece; Acts 1 & 6 can stand on their own. The only thing missing is analyzing why the Libertarians have a problem with Israel and not with the Islamic countries?! I've read extensively about Eastern Europe from the 1930s to the present day. I'm saddened and shocked that this is going down. I've supported Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War. The Iranian Diaspora wants the Islamic State to fall, as do I.
0CClayAuthorMay 30, 2026 at 1:33 AMThank you, Zak , "masterpiece" means a lot.
The part that you said was missing is really a whole other article altogether, honestly. You're right that I didn't dig deep into the Israel question itself, and that was on purpose.
This piece isn't about whether the libertarians are right or wrong about Israel, it's about how they can't take responsibility for their own losses, and always have to blame someone else. That someone else happens to be Israel right now, but they always have someone to blame.
Appreciate you reading so closely.
- JJonathanFounder1HunterMay 29, 2026 at 8:38 PM
Clay. You're a born storyteller. Such a good job of making facts relevant and understandable. Helping us to care about the actors and the methods by drawing the curtains back - just enough to give the casual observer an idea that there is much more going on here than we thought before. You're giving words to feelings a lot of us have had. A lot of us losertarians who have been shattered by the assassination of Charlie. Those of us who have watched Trump with distaste, but also admiration. Damn. I wish we could win like that... And you come along. Steeped in the words of some of the most important Americans of our time. Thomas Sowell, Scott Adams, Charlie Kirk. People who won, all in different ways but won in their arenas. Bigly.
You've said before you feel called by God to do this. I think you're right. You have a gift. And you're using it well. Can't wait to read the whole work together. Can't wait to see the reaction of the Alliance and the losertarians. They won't be able to help but expose themselves, which is what we want. Not so that we can gloat but so that we can help them see something they won't be able to see themselves without distance. Hopefully get them to slow their roll long enough for some self reflection. We all need that grace, you're giving it.
Your writing is too on the nose here. This isn't a time for whining and crying. This is a time for war. War is ugly, war is hell. And I'd rather we brought the hell than the other side.
0CClayAuthorMay 30, 2026 at 1:36 AMJonathan, thanks man. This means a lot. You nailed exactly what I was going for.
I can't wait to hear what you think of Act 6.
- MMaryFounder10May 29, 2026 at 12:43 AM
Great! Love the way it flows, your writing style is easy to read and keeps me interested in continuing. The information is presented like we're having a conversation. Just an easy chat, and it has already informed me of a lot I hadn't discovered yet. And makes me want more. I've long been a Libertarian in beliefs, but never registered as one as I've always known that would get me nowhere. No political power, no numbers great enough to win or enact 'our' policies. I've stayed Republican. BUT... I've also always said the Rep's need a really good P.R. Firm! They can't figure out how to own their message and get it out there - great history, policies that made myriad improvements in America. On and on... Stumble bums... It isn't that hard to think in terms of owning, showing pride in, and SELLING a good message. Too many lawyers in Congress and not enough business people? They need MARKETING! What's the saying - "the perfect is the enemy of the good"... We can't get close to perfect if we can't even enact more than a little 'good'. Massie is too idealistic and rigid. Not all bad, but it doesn't work. We have to be more strategic, more aggressive, more LOUD, but target the messages better. Like the DJT admin should have re-named ICE to NICE long before sending agents into the streets. Protestors with signs saying 'we hate NICE'. Doesn't work. Who missed that?! It's since come out, but really, Rep's must do WAY better. Your insight will help lead us there...
0CClayAuthorMay 30, 2026 at 1:39 AMMary , thank you, this means a lot.
You figured out instinctively what Massie never could, you stayed where you could actually win instead of being pure and powerless. That's the operator's instinct, and it's exactly right.
Grateful you read so closely. Stay close.
- TTamiFounder72May 28, 2026 at 5:13 PM
New to the club, started following you after seeing your Thomas Sowell (I'm a huge fan) Quotes page on Facebook. I really enjoying your writing as it speaks volumes to me. Thank you, looking forward to Act 6.
0CClayAuthorMay 28, 2026 at 6:04 PMThank you Tami! I'm honored to have you here, reading.
I'm working on Act 6 right now, as we speak. I look forward to hearing what you think of it, soon.
- TteriFounder19May 28, 2026 at 3:38 PM
Thank you for the grace, FIRST. Can’t wait for the rest. GREAT job.
0CClayAuthorMay 28, 2026 at 4:09 PMThank you, Teri. I am writing Act 6 as we speak. I look forward to getting your feedback on it.
- ZZakFounder48May 28, 2026 at 1:14 AM
1. Trump doesn't know when to turn off is Ego.
2. The Libertarian Party is making the same disastrous mistake that the Republican Party made after 1932. They became the permanent loser party. FDR simply followed Hoover and more so. The Progressives then owned both political parties. Nothing ever changed; America just drifted into the collectivist moras. Robert Taft was cheated out of the nomination at least once, if not twice. Goldwater got the nomination and was roasted alive in the Progressive media. Ronald Reagan won and was nearly assassinated. But The State continued to grow, moving America to where we are now.0CClayAuthorMay 28, 2026 at 11:38 AMThat's some good history there Zak, thank you.
Yes, the LP has become a professional loser party. That's the whole model. Principled losing.
- GGeoffCharter7May 27, 2026 at 10:49 PM
1. I love that you are putting this in a narrative form that takes me on a ride about the loseratians faulty hubris. The symptoms you pointed out are spot on. Although there are so many reasons the libertarian fail, it is responsible to go after the big dogs.
2. How tell this story. I am captivated by it because it my stroy, too! Although I am GenZ and was introduced to liberatianism through high school. Still, i listen to these guys all day everyday. I love these guys and thank you for not using the knives too soon. But I am looking forward to the take down.
3. Yes! Ben Settle. Thought I recognized the writing style. Very Gary Halbertian.
0CClayAuthorMay 27, 2026 at 11:08 PMGeoff,
Great feedback man, thank you.
1. & 2 Yes... I have to go after them, because I listen to them regularly, see their posts regularly and I just can't stand what they're doing. This whole piece is basically my story of how I'm trying to reconcile with that... with what they're saying vs. what I'm seeing.
3. Yup. There's just something about Ben Settles style that caught me right away. I've heard of Gary, but honestly never really looked into him much. I love to read Ben and listen to him whenever he does a podcast. So much great insight for developing your voice and speaking TO people rather than AT them. I try really hard to apply those lessons.
I really appreciate your feedback man, and I'm glad you're here.
And yeah, the knives are coming, but the grace had to come first. Glad you felt that.
- CClaireFounder9May 27, 2026 at 8:36 PM
Bullet points first: Good flow. Compelling arguments. Facts presented with receipts. Each Act clearly leads to the next. Information easy to digest and verify. Now for the subjective: I read a lot. Few non-fiction writers grip my attention the way you do. There’s raw truth in the words and a humility behind them that is palpable. I don’t feel like I’m reading articles. I feel like you’re having a conversation with me. Sometimes I comment out loud when you ask a question. Every Act of this piece has me nodding in agreement. Especially the part about libertarians being pets of the regime. Chihuahuas indeed! Absolute perfection there. You give reprimand where deserved and grace always. That’s an uncommon quality. Charlie would approve.
Staying close,
~Claire0CClayAuthorMay 27, 2026 at 9:10 PMClaire, I can't tell you how much this comment meant to me when I read it.
I've been really hard on myself writing this. Re-writing entire sections constantly, convincing myself it's never good enough. Constantly tearing myself and my work apart...
Your comment is the first real feedback I've gotten from someone who read it, other than myself... and you say it landed. You said it in a way that moved me. Thank you.
And yes... chihuahuas. I knew that one was going to hit as I put it down. Glad it landed for you.
Stay close,
~ Clay
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