Laurence Vance vs Mark Skousen on FreedomFest Non-Libertarian Speaker Invitees

Laurence Vance writes:

Fascist Fest

Justin Raimondo points out that Trump will be speaking at FreedomFest this week. Every year I look over the list of speakers and just shake my head. There are certainly some great libertarians and libertarian organizations that are there every year, and that is good that they are invited and attend, but it seems that every year more and more conservatives, Republicans, and other enemies of freedom are asked to speak at FreedomFest, the “greatest libertarian show on earth.” I was shocked to see that this year many warmongers and drug warriors will be speaking, including Senator Marco Rubio and Allen West the Tea Party statist. No wonder the Heritage Foundation is a major sponsor at FreedomFest.

Freedom Fest promoter Mark Skousen writes:

I agree that Trump is not a libertarian.  But we are a big tent conference with both libertarians and conservatives speaking at FreedomFest.  We also bill ourselves as "the world's largest gathering of free minds," and I'd like to think that libertarians are open minded enough to hear and debate Trump.  He will be questioned by the audience, so here's your chance to express your differences with him.  

My take is that people like Trump, who are not libertarians, have plenty of venues to spout their interventionist views. If FreedomFest is indeed a conference about Freedom, it is difficult to see why Trump was invited. If on the other hand, it is a conference debating of all types of ideas, perhaps it should be called DebateFest.

When Trump speaks it will not be a freedom festive hour.

-RW