The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Trump is an enemy of liberty
It’s March 2024.
The Republican Party stands on the brink of renominating Donald Trump — a figure whose actions are fundamentally at odds with not only the values of liberty but America itself.
We’ve only made it here because of his self-described “liberty-loving” enablers inside the GOP.
I have considered myself a libertarian for over a decade — since high school. I’ve long supported traditionally libertarian ideas such as limited government, fiscal responsibility, free speech and the rule of law.
For this reason, like many others, when I was entering adulthood in the early 2010s, I considered the Republican Party my political home.
The tea party movement, founded to push back against big government including the Obama bailouts and excessive
spending in the wake of the Great Recession, helped elect many pro-liberty advocates to Congress — people like senators Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and others.
For years, these individuals
represented what I would call the closest we’ve come to a mainstream strand of proliberty thinkers elected into public office.
Many Americans remember Trump’s presidential campaign announcement in 2015.
Almost immediately, Trump was routinely attacked by many members of this pro-liberty camp within the Republican Party. Rand Paul famously called him an “orange-faced windbag” and “delusional narcissist” who was not qualified to be president. Ted Cruz called him a “pathological liar” saying “every word that comes out of his mouth” is a lie. Mike Lee called Trump a “distraction” and demanded he leave the presidential race saying he “wouldn’t hire someone” with a record of abuse toward women like Trump’s.
But then Trump won the nomination and, later, the presidency.
Almost overnight, the tone of each of these individuals changed. Republican leaders went from calling out his dangerous behavior to enabling it both electorally and with rhetoric — clearly fearful of the MAGA movement’s