“The fact is we should not be fighting each other,” Donald Trump told the Libertarian Party at their national convention in June.
He was heavily booed.
Trump kept talking: “If Joe Biden gets back in, there will be no more liberty for anyone in our country. Combine with us in a partnership, we’re asking that of the libertarians. We must work together.”
Trump was jeered throughout his speech, but he was also widely cheered at one point: when he promised to free the libertarian Ron Paul supporter Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road who had been imprisoned since 2013, serving two back-to-back life sentences plus 40 years.
Ulbricht was sentenced for hosting a website in which illegal activity took place, a sentence that the Republican Congressman Thomas Massie and others have called “cruel and unusual punishment,” a violation of the Eighth Amendment.
For years, “Free Ross” placards have littered libertarian events, where Lyn Ulbricht is typically seen advocating for the release of her son. It was one of the libertarian movement’s top causes for a decade, but one many thought would never see.
On Tuesday, Trump granted Ross Ulbricht a full pardon.
“I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross,” the president wrote in a statement.
It was also the greatest victory in the 53-year history of the Libertarian Party.
Libertarians have run successfully at different levels of government, and achieved important goals. The former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson received the most support ever for a Libertarian presidential candidate with 3.7 million votes in 2016. The former Republican Congressman Justin Amash joined the Libertarian Party in 2020, making him the first Libertarian member of Congress.
These are proud milestones for Libertarians, both party members and small “l” libertarians.
But on Tuesday, they actually helped restore someone’s liberty. A figure who had been made an example of by the state, who Trump claimed was a victim of a bullying government, much like himself. Trump wrote, “The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me.”
That Trump can be hyperbolic doesn’t also mean he doesn’t have a point.
This pardon is not only Libertarians’ biggest win. It’s a unique one.
During the 2024 election, Libertarian Chairwoman Angela McArdle decided to try something different with the party. Instead of putting all of their energy and efforts into yet another symbolic presidential campaign, why not form a coalition with a major candidate who might actually become president? Someone who was open to the idea and was willing to accept outreach from many different and diverse groups?
That’s when Trump was invited to speak at their convention. As controversial as it was for many, McArdle reportedly worked with Trump’s team and even occasionally with the former president himself. McArdle credits Trump’s foreign policy adviser Richard Grenell for putting her in contact with the president.
Among his concessions: Trump said he would put a Libertarian in his cabinet. He promised to abolish the Department of Education, a goal shared by most conservatives. And he promised to free Ross Ulbricht.
While the former Republican Congressman Ron Paul, Massie, Sen. Rand Paul, and others had lobbied for Ulbricht’s commutation for some time (Paul formally asked Trump for a pardon hours before it happened), Libertarian leadership taking that extra step in reaching out to Trump and laying out clearly what they would like to see in exchange for their support appeared to be a significant factor in the result.
There has been no greater advocate for Ulbricht than his mother in her love for her son. But a political movement to harness and activate that wish might have been what it took to get it done.
As comedian and libertarian personality Dave Smith explained on X, “If it wasn’t for Lyn and many other activists keeping this issue alive, many of us wouldn’t have known about Ross.”
He added, “If it wasn’t for libertarians rolling up their sleeves and involving themselves in politics, he’d still be rotting in jail.”
Smith is not wrong. Whether it’s enacting Obamacare or lowering taxes, political acts come through political actions taken by political actors.
By actively choosing to engage and negotiate with a likely victor of the election, the Libertarian Party was able to get a pardon for a controversial high profile prisoner, something that likely would have never happened through a more conventional president of either major party.
2024 was a political opportunity, and Libertarians seized it.
“Combine with us in a partnership, we’re asking that of the libertarians,” Trump said six months ago. “We must work together.”
They did.
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