Has the Libertarian National Committee become little more than a Cancel Culture Bully?
I have been a proud Libertarian for more than twenty years, a Libertarian candidate for office, and the author of two dozen guest editorials presenting the libertarian view in the “Virginian Pilot.” But I am now ashamed of my State and National Party.
The Tidewater Libertarian Party is easily the most effective champion of Liberty in Virginia, having been effective in opposing transportation boondoggles, racial profiling, police excesses and our signature issue, eminent domain abuse. I can say with confidence that we have constitutional protections against eminent domain abuse here in Virginia only because of a decade of relentless activism by the TLP. But we didn’t do that alone. We were successful because we built relationships with other organizations and liberty minded members of other parties. But too many Libertarians would rather isolate the party and accomplish nothing than to work with members of other parties.
So, a splinter group in Hampton Roads who disagreed with our outreach policy conspired with members of the State Central Committee (many of the same ones who tried to dissolve the Libertarian Party of Virginia last fall) to strip the TLP of its affiliation and replace it with the Libertarian Party of Hampton Roads.
There was no due process, the pretense for denying the TLP its affiliation was a failure to submit a roster of our membership on time. Leaving aside that no other affiliate has ever been terminated for this reason without an opportunity to provide the list, the person responsible for submitting that list, the TLP Secretary for that time period, and the organizer and initial Chair of the Libertarian Party of Hampton Roads are one and the same.
Yes, you read that right, the same person who created the defect for with the TLP was expelled was the one who conspired with other members of the VA SCC to disaffiliate the TLP without notice or due process on that basis.
Worse, the Libertarian National Committee is now trying to bankrupt the Chairman of the TLP with legal costs in a trademark suit over the use of the word “Libertarian” in the name “Tidewater Libertarian Party” the name we have operated under for over twenty years.
Our Chair has reached out repeatedly to the National Chair to seek a due process resolution within the Libertarian Party, but those requests remained unanswered and instead, the LNC is using the courts to crush a long time Libertarian activist to extort its desired results.
Some Libertarians.
Tidewater Liberty 