Robert Mercer, who once backed Ted Cruz, is now backing Donald Trump.
Since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling in 2010, the Mercers have put millions of dollars behind Republican and Libertarian candidates and causes.
Their contributions show dissatisfaction with incumbents and an aim to disrupt or check those in power. “She is feared by the Republican establishment,” one friend said.
Alexandra Preate, another friend, added that Ms Mercer objects to the lack of accountability for “elected representatives who promise one thing to the people and turn around and drink the Kool-Aid and become part of the corrupt government establishment the minute they step foot in DC. The donor class never screams foul over this continuous deceit. And the American people and our country suffer the consequences.”
Well just how Libertarian are they? Besides owning Breitbart they also fund the Goldwater Institute. And the former Goldwater Institute president is backing the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol campaign in Arizona.
Prop. 205 also picked up several endorsements from the other side of the political spectrum, including the La Paz County Republican Committee, the Arizona Liberty Caucus, Arizona Libertarian Party Chairman Michael Kielsky, Cato Institute Adjunct Scholar Dr. Jeffrey Singer, and former Arizona Senate Majority Leader Dr. Tom Patterson, a past president of the Arizona Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians who served as chairman of the Goldwater Institute from 2000-2015.
My preference is that cannabis be no more taxed or regulated than tomatoes.
Regulations require enforcers. And bureaucrats. You also get corruption as a side benefit.
Comments
2 responses to “The Big Money Libertarians Backing Trump”
On social issues Trump seems close to libertarian positions, even though he doesn’t articulate them as well as John Hospers or Albert Jay Nock, for example. It’s more like he just doesn’t give a good god damn about the usual conservapublican issues. On economics, he’s more likely to be pro business than most. Trump does seem to be working from instinct and intuition rather than theory and analysis. If that’s the issue ask yourself who has more libertarian instincts this year? Do capital L Libertarians really prefer the stoned non entity and the alki ex governor? How much Murray Rothbard could they quote?
Trump is closer to a Randian hero than any presidential candidate I can think of.
Think of The Donald giving Dagny the thrill of her life on a pile of burlap sacks (he did say it was “yuuuge”) before heading off to Galt’s Gulch to build a golf course, hotel and casino complex.
Dialog from an alternate universe version of Back to the Future where Michael J. Fox travels from 2017 to 1985:
“And in 2017 Donald Trump is the President”
“Who’s the vice president, Leona Helmsley?”