ATLANTA, Ga. – Chase Oliver and Mike ter Maat, the Libertarian presidential ticket, vehemently condemn acts or threats of violence – no matter who’s saying it.
It can be gunmen taking pot shots at President Donald Trump or it can be the repulsive social media post from the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire posting on X: “Anyone who murders Kamala Harris would be an American hero.”
“I 100% condemn this statement from LPNH. It is abhorrent and should never have been posted,” says Oliver, Libertarian candidate for president.
The LPNH post’s timestamp was 2:47 a.m., as seen on screen captures. Apparently others expressed similar revulsion because LPNH deleted the post, following at 8:32 a.m. a not-sorry post that “even on a ‘free speech’ website that libertarians cannot speak freely.”
“As Libertarians, we condemn the use of force, whether committed by governments, individuals, or other political entities. We are dedicated to the principle of non-aggression and to peaceful solutions to conflict,” Oliver says. “This is also something we pledge as part of attaining party membership. LPNH’s statement should rightfully be condemned by all people.”
This mess of LPNH’s own making has nothing to do with the Libertarian value of free speech and everything to do with Libertarian values of personal responsibility, refusal to use violence or threats of violence, and the right of association. In this case, that includes disassociating from a group hellbent on mocking the very values that Libertarians consider inviolable.
“No one should mistake the X account of the LPNH for either a libertarian voice or a credible reflection of the members of the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire,” says ter Maat, Oliver’s running mate.
Ter Maat went on X to lambast the LPNH’s latest foray into mindless silliness masquerading as edginess, linking that hapless party’s ineffectiveness in the real world to the anger and immaturity reflected in its social media bleetings. He also offered a way out:
“To the runner of the account, one who claims to relish irony, I offer this one gift from an older man with nothing to gain to a younger man with nothing to lose: You have let yourself down. Your estimable intellect is wasting away against a finite clock that does not pause for your mental masturbation. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and join the fight for liberty if you can muster the courage. Make no mistake, today you operate under a misnomer, call it a shallow fake, because you are no libertarian.”