Trump’s appearance at the “libertarian” conference known as “Freedom Fest” was an absolute disgrace. You can witness this repulsive event – which resembled nothing so much as a “libertarian” version of a certain rally that took place in Nuremberg, Germany, in the 1920s and Thirties – in its disgusting entirety here. Mark Skousen, the organizer of this annual “festival,” having made a mess out of his mercifully brief association with the Foundation for Economic Freedom, has now apparently decided to discredit and wreck the broader libertarian movement with his shamelessly unprincipled antics. Trump belongs at a purportedly libertarian conference as much as Huey Long or George Wallace, i.e. not at all. To see Trump drag up on stage the father of a boy who was murdered and tout the fact that the murderer was an “illegal alien” was vomit-inducing, not to mention dangerous, as Bob Wenzel trenchantly points out.
What was particularly nauseating was the presence at this event of so many “libertarians” who made a big show of denouncing Ron Paul’s ancient “newsletters” – yes and this guy, too – and yet had no compunctions about appearing on the same stage with someone spouting racist venom in real time right in their faces. According to this news account, there was a single lone protester outside the hall objecting to Trump’s presence.
As my old friend and mentor Murray Rothbard used to say: “Are we to be sparednothing?!”
By the way, Skousen is now spreading the story that Trump asked to be invited to “Freedom Fest,” perhaps in order to evade his own despicable role in this public relations disaster for the libertarian movement, but fortunately Trump himself debunked this in his opening remarks to the conference. Listen for yourself. Which just goes to show that Skousen is not only an intellectual fraud, he’s a coward and a liar as well.
Paul Krugman was also a speaker at this conference. I'm not sure in what capacity either was presented. It does kinda matter.
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