As I write this, it looks as though Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will sweep a bunch of states.  This essentially locks up the nomination for Clinton, barring an FBI indictment.  Even then, it may not stop her.

On the other hand, Trump has earned the venom of the establishment, so his fate is yet to be determined.  If he ends up with a majority of delegates heading into the convention, it is going to be tough for the Republican establishment to stop him.  If they do try to deny him the nomination, we will get to see the reactions of tens of millions of angry people.  Even some people who don’t fully support him will be mad.

If Trump does have a majority heading into the convention, then I think the Republican establishment will give up, at least on denying him the nomination.  They will put all of their hope behind Hillary.  Some will outright endorse her, and others will work behind the scenes in continuing to try to sabotage the Trump campaign.

The big question is what will happen if Trump falls just short of a majority of delegates.  I think the establishment will definitely try to deny him the nomination.  I don’t know if it will be Cruz and Kasich teaming up, or if some other outside person will come into play.

For libertarians, they are obviously all bad, but some are perhaps worse than others.  Trump is the only one who holds out any hope for some real change.  Of course, change can be bad too.

The best a libertarian can hope for is that Trump is elected and he actually starts withdrawing troops from around the world.  It would be the best deficit reduction plan there is.  It would obviously be a big step towards more peace in the world as well.

I recently listened to an interview of Lew Rockwell by Alex Jones.  They were talking about Trump, and Alex Jones said that Trump has become familiar with the issues over the years and that he is essentially a libertarian.  This I don’t believe.

Maybe Trump is just saying some things in order to be popular and to get votes.  But it would be very difficult for any libertarian, or even a libertarian-leaning person, to look at a crowd or into a camera and talk about tariffs on China and raising taxes on the rich.

I think Trump is a lot like Pat Buchanan in his philosophy.  He is level-headed, but not all that good on free trade and some other economic issues.  Still, I will take Trump’s honesty over the sneakiness of Ted Cruz and the corruption of Hillary Clinton.

I wonder though, would a contested GOP convention be good for the cause of liberty?

There are arguments to be made either way.  I just laid out some good possibilities of a Trump presidency, but of course there are no guarantees.

Maybe it would be a benefit to see the nomination stolen away from Trump.  It would probably hand the election over to Hillary, but at least there would remain a Republican-controlled Congress in all likelihood.

If Trump has the nomination snatched away, I think a lot more people are going to realize just how rigged the system is.  That is why so many people are supporting Trump to begin with.  I don’t think they love Trump.  Their support for Trump is a middle finger to the establishment and the whole rigged system.

If Trump loses the nomination at the hands of the Republican establishment, it will be a good opportunity for libertarians to attract some of the more level-headed Trump supporters.  Libertarians can point to the fact that we have been calling it a rigged game for a long time now.

There is hope.  It seems that more and more people are waking up to the fact that something is very wrong.  That is the first step for many towards becoming a libertarian.