Flirting with populism has sadly become a trend in libertarian circles. As the 2024 US presidential election was reaching its climax, an avalanche of podcasters and media personalities who previously claimed adherence to libertarianism endorsed Trump. The most famous among them may be comedian Dave Smith, who used to call Trump a war criminal deserving of a lifetime in prison.
Author: lan Golan
At the same time, Angela McArdle, chair of the Libertarian Party, was bordering on sabotaging the campaign of the party’s presidential nominee Chase Oliver in Trump’s favour. She only mockingly endorsed Oliver many days after he was chosen by party delegates, before proceeding to tweet pro-Trump content until election day, going as far as publishing her pictures from a dinner with the now president-elect.
The embrace of the populist strategy by paleo-libertarians, coming from the tradition of Ron Paul, is now in full force. They strongly believe in picking the conservative side in the culture war and want to merge with the anti-state segment of populism, driven mostly by the conspiratorial mindset sceptical of “the deep state”. Since Trump started announcing his cabinet nominations, members of the movement have been rather distraught by his picks, the first sign of an impending fiasco.
The unfolding disaster is, however, much more than just an unfortunate bump on the road. It is inherent to the populist strategy of erosion of all principles, doomed from the outset to achieve a pyrrhic victory. All gains made thanks to the undertaken strategy are going to be ephemeral, but the stench of the alt-right will be permanent.
Aligning with the populists has been tried and failed across different countries with rather disastrous results, but perhaps the clearest example comes from the case of Poland. The method in question was undertaken by the Confederation party in Poland, which is an alt-right mixture of some of the most objectionable political figures one could imagine, all brought together under the banner of “freedom populism”.
The parallels to the path undertaken by the paleo-libertarians in America are simply uncanny. The party started as a strategic alliance between the classical liberal Korwin party and the Nationalist Movement party, a lot like the libertarian-nationalist alliance proposed by Vivek Ramaswamy. In its relentless bid for the populist vote, the Confederation party has become a toxic stew of extreme ideologies and fringe beliefs.
Their electoral success brought into the Polish parliament world-renowned antisemite Grzegorz Braun, who won global headlines for destroying Hanukkah candles in the parliament halls with a fire extinguisher and harming a woman in the process. Since then, he secured himself a cosy spot in the European Parliament, so at least he is not Poles’ problem now. Braun is hardly an outlier. He’s a reflection of the party’s penchant for courting extremists. If one takes a deeper look at their lower-tier candidates, one will even find flat-earthers.
It would be just another terrible alt-right party if not for one detail: commitment to free-market capitalism, at least in rhetoric. The Confederation party proposes tax cuts and deregulation, inbetween the most unhinged social policies. Libertarians face a disastrous reality, where their message is associated with voices supporting conscription, ending free trade with Ukraine, state ownership of Poland’s largest petrol company, Orlen, and hate-filled rhetoric against immigrants—a grotesque balancing act of Confederation between hate and outright pogroms.
Freedom of speech is often on their banners, especially when the left wants to ban hate speech, but suddenly disappears when they want to end pride marches and prosecute speech which criticises the Catholic Church. The current MP from the Confederation and wife of its leading figure, Karina Bosak, worked before the election in the Ordo Iuris Institute, an ultra-Catholic organisation bent on remaking Poland into a theocratic fiefdom through the weaponisation of the legal system. It was Ordo Iuris who drafted the legislation for the infamous “LGBT-free zones,” and persecuted many musicians and artists, most famously the vocalist of the rare Polish musical export Behemoth. This is libertarian populism in action, and it is an utter disgrace.
Populism thrives on the raw, unfiltered instincts of the mob, far more potent and stirring than anything libertarians can muster. Free trade, Austrian economics, and promises of deregulation will never ignite the same passions as the urge to pay an unannounced visit to the immigrants in your neighbourhood with some pitchforks.
There is no hijacking populism for free markets. When nationalism is blended with libertarianism, it is nationalism which will prevail, while liberty will be reduced to a marketing prop. Libertarian intellectuals who give in to populism quickly become subject to audience capture, morphing rapidly into unrecognisable shadows of their former selves. They end up writing weird newsletters.
Make no mistake: populism is a pact with the devil, and the soul you have sold you cannot unsell.
Cover photo credit: Juan Manuel Aguilar, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0., Unsplash
Ian Golan is a writing fellow with Young Voices Europe. He serves as the national coordinator for Students for Liberty in Finland and is the executive publisher of SpeakFreely Magazine.
