812: Winning Hearts, Minds, AND Elections - How Libertarians Can WIN in 2024

Brian Nichols  0:15  
For the Libertarian Party can't

the 2024 election is just around the corner and for the Libertarian Party, the question still remains pragmatism or principles. Yeah, let's talk about that. Instead of focusing on winning arguments, we're teaching the basic fundamentals of sales and marketing and how we can use them to win in the world of politics, teaching you how to meet people where they're at on the issues they care about. Welcome to The Brian Nichols Show. Well, hey there, Brian Nichols, here on The Brian Nichols Show. And thank you for joining us on of course, another fun to build episode I am as always your local host joining you live from our cardio miracle Studios here in lovely Eastern Indiana. The Brian Nichols Show is powered by amp America. And I'm very excited to be part of the amp America team. So if you want to go ahead, check out some awesome news articles, opinion articles. And of course yours truly over IP America, please head to amp america.com and give them some love. Also, speaking of giving some love, please go ahead and give yourself some love. And that is by supporting our studio sponsor, cardio miracle because cardio miracle is yes, the best heart health supplement in the world. I've been using cardio miracle now for just about seven plus months. And I gotta say, folks, I'm seeing the cardio miracle difference for myself. And that difference is so awesome, because it means I'm having a better pump at the gym, I'm getting better night's sleep also, my blood pressure has absolutely plummeted, which for me, and my family history of high blood pressure has been just an absolute, you know, thumbs up outcome of using cardio miracle. And I want to make sure that you hear about how great cardio miracle and plus it's awesome secret ingredient nitric oxide is. And not just helping helping me but helping the 10s of 1000s of other folks out there who are experiencing the cardio miracle difference for themselves. So if you want to join that group of folks will head to the show notes. If you're watching us on the video version of the show. link is right there also in the audio notes as well or does head to the website, Brian Nichols show.com forward slash heart that'll bring you right to cardio miracle where you can go ahead and get your order of cardio miracle and get 10% off your order. Use code TB and s and a discount applied. So make sure you go ahead, take care of the ticker. But also, make sure you experience the cardio miracle difference for yourself. Brian Nichols show.com, forward slash heart. Okay, folks, let's talk about this conversation that's been taking over the social medias. And by the way to other listeners here who aren't maybe into the world of libertarian party politics and inside baseball, this might be one of those episodes where you're like okie dokie, that it's one of the it's one of those libertarian conversations again, and it is because we have to have this conversation, principle versus pragmatism. And I know that I've talked about this many a time. But I think as we're going towards the election year in 2024, we need to have kind of like this, this moment as a party. And as a movement. Frankly, if we want to have a Libertarian Party exist, what is the role of said parties. So that's what we're going to talk about today. Because as we're looking at the 2024 election heating up, we're seeing these traditional lines start to emerge in the LP we have the one side it's the ideological purity, on the other side, that pragmatic electoral ism. But and this is something we've been talking about here on the show, I believe firmly that the ideas of educating, but also getting people elected to office. They're not conflicting strategies, if anything, they go hand in hand. So in order to win, we want to see a Libertarian Party that participates not only in elections that help secure actual policy victories, right, because that's the goal of elections. But also, we need a party that's a vehicle to help broadly disseminate the ideas of liberty to effectively shift public opinion not overnight, but over time. So when we look at the libertarian tent, it needs to expand, and it's going to have to include folks who are more radical libertarians, you're in caps, but also folks who are converts who are new to the movement and yes, not libertarian right away. I know because they're learning and we need to make sure that when we're we're bringing new people in we recognize that they're they're bringing, they're bringing value, right they're bringing A different approach to doing things. And they're starting to learn, right? They're learning about this brand new idea. So if we want to be able to win both in the education front, but also in the election front, we need to be both educational evangelists, but also policy pragmatist. And the key here is going to be embracing a big tent strategy rather than just questioning motives and let's go into elections and how they are, they're more or less educational opportunities here because for some libertarians put their their actual political campaign serve primary primarily as like educational platforms, rather than actual, like competitive races. I'm I'm sorry, I don't mean to pick on her. But I gotta point at Jo Jorgensen campaign and 2020. She is a college professor and her campaign speeches came off like that. Elections are giving us a chance to talk to regular people, and persuade regular voters by clearly communicating our solutions, not to every single possible issue in the book, but the current issues, the issues that matter, most to people. Our goal is to gain power to just educate people about freedom. We want to go ahead and actually like go in and help change the culture. And we do this by Yes, having the candidate run and make the electoral success to turn into policy success. But we also do that with debates rallies, media coverage, allowing us to share these ideas. And while electoral victory, that is our goal, that is the long term hope. The short term goal is to to give that decision in chanted voter right, that independent voter who feels they're politically homeless, we had to give them a different vision, that it challenges the status quo, even even small vote totals that are signaling growth, are they're giving us a chance, right? And that that right there is the thing we need to focus on, we need to start showing people that there's a chance that they can start to hear their voices heard beyond the traditional old two parties, the red team, the blue team that are just regurgitating the same talking points, decade after decade. And I've heard the critiques of this approach that that, you know, we're going to be ignored and dismissed that rather than taken seriously. But you can't enact policy reforms without having candidates in office. And that is why, you know, the educational role, it's important, but we need to have candidates actually run to win. And let's talk about the competition side of things. When when I hear some folks say, well, your elections rather, they should only be focused on educating? Well, I am sorry, that's not the role of an election, the election is meant to be a competition. And that means sometimes we have to temporarily mute criticisms on other issues that needlessly are alienating potential voters. So like, we can still focus on those other things. And we want to move people towards a libertarian direction when it comes to policy. But let's go back to what here. Let's go back to the founding of a Libertarian Party, what did David Nolan say? He said, When the day comes that the Libertarian Party candidate receives an electoral vote? Everything changes after that. There's no more arguing about whether we're a religion a legitimate factor in American politics, right. So in this camp, right, we have to look at who is our voter. Now, I contend that there are independent voters, I think a lot of disenfranchised conservative constitutionalist voters, they're looking for some credible alternative candidate, maybe not as much as they would have been back in past election cycles with the advent of Donald Trump. But they do want a different candidate who's going to talk about actual issues that people care about fiscal restraint, fiscal responsibility, privacy rights. Let's talk about ending corporate welfare. And just handing out boatloads of cash whenever there's a pandemic. We hear that there's growing support for scaling back our foreign interventionism, specifically in the worlds of Ukraine. And now we're starting to hear more folks even looking at countries like Israel and saying, Should we be investing as much time and energy there and messaging would have to adjust to to not focus specifically on crazy radical reforms. We want to talk about that. But it can't be the focus of the messaging, not because the ideas aren't right, or because they lacked merit, but because lasting change requires winning first, policy impact is going to matter most in terms of long term viability. Now, I've heard also that, you know, Brian, you just want a Republican light approach that okay, no, that's not the argument. And frankly, I hear I hear that, you know, oh, my gosh, libertarianism isn't libertarianism anymore. Brian says we shouldn't have open borders. Oh, I know. I know. I know. I

can't believe it here. But we aren't going to win. If we are just promoting dogma, right? I know that that that's, that's shocking to some of you, but you need to hear it. So we have to have a yin and a yang. It's not an either or choice, folks. It's not either or the party has to embrace both of these options. In order to have success long term, the Libertarian tent, it needs to make room for both educational folks. And pragmatists in the world of electoral policy. Right? The difference is the differences. What are we different about right from being a libertarian? What is it goals? Is it the goal issue? What what what is the goal, the goal should be to win elections, but also to change culture. It's both. That's why we have to use this, this, this attempt to change the conversation away from one or the other to using both as for what they are a strategy. And this big 10 strategy is going to give us the best means to advance liberty in a system where we have two parties who have rigged the entire electoral mechanism against us against any type of dissent, not just from libertarians, but from third parties across the board. So while I know, I know, I hear it, I know that these factions, the principle versus pragmatism, that's gonna exist, I get that I understand that. But we have to if we want to save this country, we have to focus our energy on the areas of agreement, rather than just questioning the motives of other people's strategy. Because Americans are increasingly increasingly disenchanted with these two old parties, the red team, the blue team, the Republicans, the Democrats, and they want something different. But if the Libertarian Party wants to be that alternative, we have to move beyond this, this, you know, what principles versus pragmatism approach? So that means it's on us. It's not on the voter, it's on us, do we actually seize this opportunity we have? Or are we going to just squander this moment, because it's stupid infighting. Like, I've heard the expression, our diversity can be strength, and it can be in this case, but only if we do it properly. That means our party needs our radicals, committed to principle, and, and converts focus on electoral success. The key is recognizing that it's not one or the other, these these are complementary in value, so we need to embrace it both sides of the coin here. And understand that if we want to win, we have to win both hearts and minds. But also elections. Now let's talk about principle without pragmatism, because for some libertarians, who are more focused on the education side of things. Yeah, ideology is important. For some of you, it's paramount. But if if that narrows the appeal of libertarianism, right, the big tent idea to a small group of people. Okay. Good, good job. You found people who think just like you, but is that the goal just to find people who are just like us? If we want to have success, long term, we have to nominate people who are true believers who actually never believe this stuff, but know how to message this stuff, to a large audience folks who guess what, aren't libertarian? And the argument goes, that, yes, we have a chance to face some electoral success. But are we going to do so at the sake of sacrificing our principles? That's not the case at all, folks, again, we have a responsibility here to try and win the elections. But also, we have to acknowledge the fact that we're not going to make people libertarians overnight. This takes time. And it might take years to have the education part actually has success. But the purist approach also is ignoring the fact that if if we're not, if we're not actually having a role in the national discourse, from an electoral standpoint, then we're not having a seat at the table. If we're upset because people aren't even having a conversation with us about how right we are, then doesn't matter if we are in fact, right. If, if we are going to reject pragmatism, and an outreach to a mainstream audience that might be open to libertarian ideas. When we're targeting that ideal voter persona. Are we gonna just let the fact that we have certain issues that are yes, libertarian issues from a principle standpoint completely destroy any chance of bringing new folks to the to our movement to help actually disrupt the status quo? Now, on the flip side, what about pragmatism without principle? Well, let's talk about what's happened in the past we've seen, there has been an argument again, on the other side, well, we need to win elections and win elections be damned if that means we nominate Dick Cheney or someone else. And that, yes, okay, that that is an approach but that approach without having some type of principles to tie it back in? where's it gonna go? I mean, without without adherence to some type of core principles. Pragmatism can slide right and we've seen it slide here in the Libertarian Party into this this watered down centrism that it fails to to change both policy, but also fails to change any hearts and minds. And that party must stand a distinctly libertarian alternative focus on drastically shrinking state power versus the alternatives. So if you are cheering folks like Nikki Haley, or Mitt Romney, or Rick Wilson, Chris Christie, like, I'm sorry, that that's an approach but it's not a winning approach. So what's the solution? Again, principles and pragmatism together, it's not a binary choice. If we want to grow this libertarian tent, we have to go after both the radicals and the con, the conference. And we have to build this this movement by using those two core groups, the pragmatism, the principles, folks together. Again, we have to recognize that there's a chance right here for us to actually win an election. So instead of finding areas of disagreement, whether that's principles or strategy, libertarians, to you, please, let's focus, at least for now, as we're moving forward to election season on the things that we actually find in common for a chance to make a difference this election cycle, otherwise? I don't know. Are you going to just slip back into infighting? If so that's really sad. Because the stakes of division in this election, which I've argued is the most important election of our lifetime, is too high. So if we want to be onward to victory, that means that we have to have some success, both in education, but also in elections. That's my thoughts for today, folks. Happy Saturday, by the way for joining us here in The Brian Nichols Show on a special Saturday episode. I really appreciate you joining us. And folks, if you did get some value here from today's episode, or if you're in the libertarian camp, and you're saying, Thank you, Brian, for saying, I think what 90% of us are thinking well, please go ahead and share today's episode and you do tag Yours truly, at B. Nichols, liberty, Facebook and on Twitter. I'm also been sharing some some reels, some shorts over on Facebook, as well as over on the YouTubes. Let's talk about that. Where can you find the video version of the show? Yes, YouTube's you can find our YouTube channel, where we have all of our YouTube shorts and all that fun stuff. You can also find us over on rumble, Ben Swan sovereign as well as over on Facebook. And on Twitter, we are uploading the entire video version of the show to all those respective platforms. So if you want to check out the video version of the show, make sure you go ahead and hit subscribe over on your favorite video platform hit

that little notification bell so of course you don't miss a single time we go live. And also go ahead and let us know your thoughts if you're a libertarian, Libertarian Party, or just the greater libertarian movement. Am I on the right path? Or are you going to stand firm and say its principles? Darn it, or it's pragmatism? Darn it, Brian, you silly silly goose. I want to hear it. Tell me if I'm wrong. If I'm wrong, I want to know. So go down below in the comments or respond here on social media or email me heck, email me, Brian, at Brian Nichols show.com. Now for the audio version of the show Apple podcasts, Spotify, YouTube music, I like podcasts at it, wherever it is you get your podcast, just go subscribe to The Brian Nichols Show. And by the way, if you're a new listener here to The Brian Nichols Show. Well thank you for joining us. We're very excited to have you as part of the family because yes, we did grow and we're reaching a lot of new folks here being a part of AMP America. So if you are new here to The Brian Nichols Show, again, thank you for joining us, please go to your podcast catcher and hit download all unplayed episodes reason being, that's gonna go ahead and bring you 800 Plus episodes of the program where we've had literally hundreds of guests from economists, politicians, know did libertarians, activists, authors, journalists, all that and more here on the show, and mainly what we're focusing on is the main problems we see here in our world, and how can we bring effective Liberty based solutions to help meet people where they're at on those issues they care about, and solve their problems, hopefully outside of the world of government, but where we can meet them on those issues to help us get into roles in elected office to help change the policy. That's what we're talking about today, changing both hearts and minds, but also changing policy. Thank you for joining us. And I hope that you will go back and find in those archives that a few episodes, at the very least please a few will leave you educated, enlightened and informed. And on one final ask please go ahead and support the folks who support us here at The Brian Nichols Show. And that is our sponsors. So cardio miracle, please go ahead and support them our phenomenal studio sponsor, but also the other amazing folks who support the show evils CBD liquid freedom energy T BNC technology advisors, The Brian Nichols Show shop over at proud libertarian, which by the way, today I'm rocking our good ideas don't require force snap back. If you use code TNS at checkout, you'll get 15% off your order over there at a proud libertarian. So with that being said, that's all we have for you today. Again, thank you for joining us on a special Saturday episode. With that being said Brian O'Neill signing off, you're on The Brian Nichols Show. We'll see you next week.

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