An Interview with Michael Heise
Hello there again readers and welcome back to Coffee Break Liberty, a blog where we tackle books, news and many other things under the sun where liberty is a guiding principle. If this is your first time here we would like to extend a special warm welcome to you and hope you enjoy yourself while you’re here.
This week we have a very special guest with us, Mr. Michael Heise. Michael is the Caucus Chair and founder of the Libertarian Party Mises Caucus (LPMC). This caucus is named after the great Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises and espouses to promote the Austrian economic school of thought within the Libertarian Party. We are going to talk with Michael about how this caucus began, where it is now and where it is headed, so with out further ado, Michael Heise.
Leo Sowers: First I would like to congratulate you on your recent interview with Tom Woods on “The Tom Woods Show” last month, which will be linked to at the end of this blog post. I would also like to thank you for spending some time to answer a few questions. So let’s get things rolling, I left the description about the caucus sparse on purpose as I wanted to get it form you, what is the LPMC all about?
Michael Heise: The caucus is an attempt to re-invigorate the Ron Paul Revolution and audiences of related entities such as the Mises Institute, the 10th Amendment Center, etc, merge it with the crypto-currency revolution, and to bring these types of people into the Libertarian Party in an attempt have the party be a platform for a clear, inspiring and principled libertarian message as well as viable solutions moving forward. Solutions include a focus on decentralization, abolishment, utilizing financial alternatives to opt out of the Federal Reserve system from precious metals to crypto-currencies like Bitcoin and Nexus.
To me, the most important thing to capture is a enthusiastic and productive energy. The Ron Paul campaigns were a testament to what can happen when we all get on the same page and work together, only it doesn’t have to end with a campaign, the party can be the vehicle to educate and spread the message as well as solutions. Political victory ought to be won by swaying people over to our ideas, otherwise we are compromising principle and we become no different from the politicians. The difference for us now is that we have a viable alternative to decentralize these government systems outside of politics that we can offer as a solution in bitcoin and blockchain technology as a whole. It’s important to me that the party becomes a platform and vehicle for these things. Freedom is empowering to the individual, and we need to get people feeling that way, that they can and should be in control of their own pursuit of happiness.
LS: What made you feel that starting this caucus was the right thing to do? Was there a certain event that pushed you that extra little bit to where you felt this was the required course of action?
MH: There is a bit of a misconception out there among some people that this was started purely as a reaction to Nick Sarwark’s character assassination attempts against others in the movement, but the truth is this is an idea that I was spit balling for months beforehand. I was making posts about the idea in #MisesCaucus. I came into the movement through the Ron Paul campaigns and those experiences really changed my life in a lot of ways. There are a lot of young libertarians out there that never knew or experienced a time when there were literally millions and millions of people all actively and energetically working together across the entire country for a shared goal. They never felt that energy or that unity. I’ve been here in the community through that and ever since. It’s hard not to notice the negative trends that have happened since that last campaign. The movement become more about personalities and people, but people are flawed and fallible so many of them came and went, and people started rigidly forming these lines in the sand and before long debates started turning into fights, people started becoming cynical and divided. It feels like people really stopped believing that we can do anything to change things for the better. I never faltered because I know that what we are fighting for is right, but this cynicism really took the energy out of people. Then the Trump thing came along and people were incited again and in a really negative way. I supported Gary Johnson and it was night and day different from the Ron Paul campaigns. It was just a mess, the campaign was terribly run, the body of activists were too busy defending themselves against the Sanders people, and the Trump people. The party was divided the second he, and especially Bill Weld, became the nominees. It was extremely hard to get motivated for that campaign because they weren’t motivating and it seemed like they didn’t understand the core philosophy of libertarianism and self ownership and property rights and real free market economics or were embarrassed by it. So, I became motivated by strategy, and that is something that has been very much so ignored and at our own peril for years now.
I think what is making people come our way is the rekindling of that energy. It’s time to stop fighting and come together again and get to work, because our enemy is tireless and unrelenting and will not stop until it is made to stop or it destroys the economy and brings everybody down with it. I’ve long felt that the type of world empire and economic crises we are dealing with is a sort of existential threat that was never treated that way. We’ve been beaten back to a point where you have to ask yourself: What are our options? What do we have left? So it’s time to shit or get off the pot, come together or we are going to hand the asset of the LP over to people who want to be just like the other 2 parties. If that happens the word “Libertarian” might go the way of the word “Liberal”. If we don’t reclaim the party and make it about core principles again, they will eventually get debate access, and the party will experience a growth curve regardless of who it is that gets to that stage. Whoever is behind the podium for “libertarianism’s entrance to the world stage” is going to be the filter through which we are seen on the mainstream. Do you want that to be “fiscally conservative and socially liberal” (yawn!) or do you want that to be “End the Fed! And heres how!”. Anybody not blinded by bias can reflect on the successes and failures of the past 3 elections and figure out if it works better to stand on principle and bring people your way, or conform to others like all the politicians and tell them what they want to hear for votes.
LS: Coffee Break Liberty is headquartered in Arizona and we have seen the dialogue change, at least appear to by some of the loudest people in the state party. One of the founders of the Libertarian Socialist Caucus of the Libertarian Party, a mouthful for sure, is here in AZ and is a very impactful activist. Does the LPMC plan to take this group head on and if so, how?
MH: The socialist caucus to me is like the loud-mouth in the school yard: They do all of that loud attention seeking behavior because they don’t have appealing or even consistent ideas and feel a need to gather attention somehow. We know both through historical precedent and the economic calculation problem that socialism is a failed economic system, whether statist or voluntary. Now, I’m not for using force in a theoretical free society to stop these groups from failing on their own, but it’s not something to promote. The idea of voluntary socialism is one of the many incalculable ways that freedom of association would manifest itself in a free society. Are we to create a caucus for every single way that freedom would associate itself? No, we stick to the core values that allow these different types of societies to spring up, like the freedom of association and property rights. These guys have been outright anti-free market, anti-property and even pro-violence in their rhetoric. I don’t think any of that has any place in the party anymore then I think racism or bigotry or really any form of toxic collectivism.
If there were a caucus that were to act as a bulwark against socialism in the Libertarian Party, I’d say it’s pretty fitting that the Mises Caucus is the one to fill that role. That comes with leading off with Austrian Economic Theory.
LS: I recall that when I first joined the Facebook group for the LPMC there was something like 200 members, now the numbers are well over 2000 in the Facebook group. How are you dealing with the growth? Are you surprised at all by it and what is it that you think draws most people to the LPMC?
MH: We’re closing in on 3000! It was a bit of a surprise. I knew there would be some reaction to it, but the timing was just perfectly coincided with the LP Chair putting his foot in his mouth and slandering some of the biggest contributes in the Libertarian sphere. We absorbed a whole lot of the fallout from that. The growth has been very very encouraging and very organic. We haven’t spent a dime in promotion and in a lot of ways we’ve stopped pushing for growth so we can iron out all the details to getting the ground beneath us which is happening very quickly. We have a high quality website in production, we have a moderator team that is freeing us up to do more administrative tasks and focus on delegates, candidates and content. There is also been a big focus on info-gathering and we have benefited by finding a large amount of willing delegates through that effort. We have state level teams forming in about 25 states and growing who will be recruiting candidates and delegates and networking together. We have already attracted some big donors like Pat Byrne, the CEO of Overstock.com. We haven’t pushed for fund raising yet so this is a great blessing. We’re kind of just doing what we can to get to the point where we can focus on those main 3 targets so then we can focus on our states more. I’m considering a run for the Eastern Vice Chair of the PA LP. We’re currently in negotiations to hopefully have several AAA speakers a the National Convention next year. It’s been a lot but as somebody who has been in this community and working on projects for the past 10 years, I feel it’s a long time coming and I’m just happy to be in a position where I am to lead an effort like this. I’m happy.
LS: In the interview with Tom Woods you said you wanted to harpoon him to political office, how is that going so far?
MH: I can’t betray confidences, but I do want to clarify that to “Harpoon Tom Woods” DOES NOT mean to pester him about running! It means join the party, get involved, grow it, elect good leadership and candidates and make the party a place where it would be hospitable for somebody like Tom Woods to run. What I will say is don’t rule anything out, and we might even see some very interesting and well known people join the party and bring their audiences in with them.
LS: Outside of Tom Woods, who else out there strikes your interest and do you feel we should be paying attention to?
MH: Scott Horton and Daniel McAdams are both fantastic when it comes to foreign policy. Foreign policy and the message of peace is so important to what we are about and bridges so many gaps. The party could use more focus there. We have an opportunity that is being blown right now to lead the charge against the genocide in Yemen. It’s one of, if not the largest humanitarian crises in the entire world thanks in large part to American foreign policy and nobody even really knows about it. That ignorance is dangerous and the Neo Conservatives and other war hawks are already preying on that ignorance to create their own false narratives to drum up support for Saudi Arabia or support to further alienate or God knows what to Iran.
Others to check out are Jim Cantrell and his son Colin Cantrell who are the founders of Vector Space Systems and Nexus respectively. Nexus is a wide blockchain platform that is quantum resistant, essentially future-proof and are innovating the blockchain in ways that nobody else has even thought of. They are developing a multi-dimensional blockchain, and the partnership with Vector is allowing them to, beginning next year, launching satellites into space that will both act as a secondary network for Nexus, but also to beam down free and decentralized internet services to the entire world, opening them up to blockchain, aka peer to peer banking services. Could you imagine the opportunities for peace, commerce, friendship and growth that could create? It’s absolutely astounding and it’s coming very soon.
Jordan Peterson is another amazing listen.
LS: A question from a reader was submitted and reads as such; “I think the glaringly obvious divide between libertarians is probably the biggest issue we face for long term viability, right? Like the soul of the party is being fought over right now, not to sound too dramatic. What’s their take on party unity and developing a unified message?”
MH: The division is certainly a big issue but I think cynicism is the driving force behind it. We wrote the platform in a way to accept everybody, but to focus on the issues that are within the government realm. We are making a strong effort to get away from the identity politics and the culture wars that have been happening because it hasn’t produced anything good, just more division. It’s also important to note what the role of a party is. Remember, we’re vying for government positions. Do culture or identity have any role in government? Can government solve these problems? No! That arena is in academia, pop culture, entertainment, campuses, etc etc. Government cant solve social problems, and as the empire crumbles and the fight for power from the 2 sides intensifies it will only invite a stronger response to use government for personal cultural ends.
I agree that the soul of the party is being fought over and that is why this next convention is so important. There are people who are organizing that are embarrassed by the core principles of Libertarianism. There are people on the Libertarian National Committee that would like to see the pledge to the NAP taken out, who are so focused on being accepted by the mainstream media, whose interests are opposed to ours, that they will make whatever concessions need to be made to do it. Fundamentally, there is nothing unique, different or inspiring about that, but it’s what the party is going to turn into if its not stopped and reversed at the national convention.
LS: Where is the LPMC headed and what does the future hold for you?
MH: It’s only going up from here, once we have the groundwork set we’ll be focusing on turning out our delegates, supporting candidates and producing content. I am considering a run for Eastern Vice Chair of my state party, I’ll continue to organize events like the Philly End the Fed Block Party, keep trying to get solid speakers that will draw a motivated crowd to the convention and to bring in big fish from the Cryptosphere. I honestly don’t know where this road leads and I didn’t when I started it either, but I know I’ll follow it to the end and I think this might very well be just the beginning.
We really want to thank Michael for spending time with us and we wanted to wrap this interview up with a few of our own thoughts. The LPMC is taking the action that is required to make changes within The Libertarian party. We have talked before about some of the issues in the party here at Coffee Break Liberty, it is caucuses like the LPMC that we should support and if you can get involved with. The fight for liberty sometimes feels like it is on all fronts, even if it is we cannot back down. We have talked about this being a game of inches, inches we must take and never give up.
The Tom Woods Show interview with Michael: here
The Libertarian Party Mises Caucus FB page: here
The LPMC can also be reached @lpmisescaucus on Twitter
or by email at lpmisescaucus@gmail.com
Thank you for reading and please don’t forget to like and share!
Keep that coffee warm for us.
LWS
