In late May 2024, Chase Oliver was nominated as the presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party (LP).  It was a surprising outcome to say the least.  He almost lost to NOTA (None of the Above) on the last ballot after all of the other candidates had been eliminated.

If there is such a thing as a left libertarian, it is Chase Oliver.  He was apparently bad on COVID, and he is openly gay.  Personally, I don’t think being gay automatically makes you a leftist, but he wears it on his sleeve and has somewhat gone along with the so-called woke agenda.

If you ask Chase Oliver about policy issues, he does come down as mostly libertarian.  He seems to be genuinely anti-war, but it is always hard to know what someone would actually do if they attained political power.  There are some on the left who claim to be anti-war, but once they are in political power, they end up supporting the military-industrial complex.  At the very least, they end up emphasizing cultural issues while deemphasizing war issues.

When Oliver got the nomination, I said I would at least give him a chance.  I would consider giving him a protest vote if he said all of the right things on the major issues and generally avoided or deemphasized any issues where I don’t agree.

Still, if I am going to throw away my vote in protest, then the person better be pretty solid.  It isn’t like voting for the lesser of two evils.  I disagree with Trump on many major issues, yet I would at least consider voting for him as the lesser of two evils and a protest against the deep state.  If I am going to vote third party for someone who has no chance of winning, then that person better be solid on the major issues.  Otherwise, I can just write in someone like Ron Paul or simply not vote at all for president.

Nowhere to Be Found

I haven’t heard or seen a single thing from Chase Oliver or even about Chase Oliver for several months.  He is nowhere to be seen.  Maybe I am just looking in all of the wrong places.

I get emails from the national LP.  I think they mentioned Oliver in a few emails not long after the convention.  Most of the emails I get now talk about specific issues or about running candidates for local office or fundraising.

I know the LP leadership isn’t really a fan of Chase Oliver.  Many of the people are from the Mises Caucus and would have supported Dave Smith for president, but he decided not to run.  Angela McCardle (the LP chair) has not gone out of her way to campaign for Chase Oliver except to say that she encourages all leftists to support him.  There is a certain irony that the leftist libertarians (if that’s not an oxymoron), who absolutely hate Trump, actually helped Trump by nominating someone like Oliver.  He won’t be stealing many Trump votes.

I haven’t seen or heard of Chase Oliver anywhere, and I don’t think that would have been the case if the nominee had been someone different.  To be fair, I’m not sure that the establishment media would have had any LP candidate on.

I remember seeing Harry Browne on Fox News in 2000 when he was running.  That was before I was really familiar with him.  For all of the faults with Fox News, they do tend to be more open about having some diverse views on the network.  I have no idea if Chase Oliver has tried to get on the network.

I know Gary Johnson made some appearances on television when he ran with the LP.  He was on MSNBC when they had their little “gotcha” moment with Aleppo.

Alternative Media?

Maybe I can give a pass for not appearing on the corporate media.  But what about alternative media?  Has he tried to get on Joe Rogan?  What about getting interviewed by someone like Jordan Peterson?  What about Candace Owens or Patrick Bet David?  What about libertarians like Tom Woods and Dave Smith?

Part of me understands why Chase Oliver wouldn’t want to go into these environments and be challenged, but what do you have to lose?  Be a libertarian and maybe some of the audience will like you enough to throw you a vote.

Why is this guy acting invisible?  I genuinely don’t know.  I don’t know if he is just being shut out from the conversation.  I don’t know if he is scared to do any hard interviews.  I don’t know if his campaign team is just completely inept.  Maybe it is a combination of these things.

If Oliver had said all of the right things and emphasized the right issues on the campaign trail, I seriously would have considered throwing my vote his way.  But how can I even consider supporting someone who won’t even show his face?

Robert Kennedy Jr., in spite of some of his faulty positions, appeared almost everywhere he could when he was actively running for president.  Sure, his name helped him get to some of these places.  But he didn’t seem to be afraid to be interviewed by people who were going to ask him some tough questions.  He wanted the exposure, and he wanted to reach as many people as he could.

Good for the LP?

The fact that Oliver is barely visible at all is perhaps good news for the LP.  I don’t want people getting the impression that he is representative of a libertarian philosophy.  And since there are so many people committed to voting for or against Donald Trump, maybe it wasn’t the best time to have a strong LP candidate.  I also don’t want people voting LP for the simple fact that they can’t stand either of the two major candidates.  I want people voting LP because they actually favor greater liberty.

Hopefully we can get a good candidate and nominee in 2028 that will help advance the cause of liberty.  And maybe that candidate can actually show their face to people and be heard.