“Pro-Liberty” enablers in the GOP are sending America on a path toward authoritarianism

It’s March 2024.

The Republican Party stands on the brink of renominating Donald Trump—a figure whose actions are fundamentally at odds with not only the values of liberty but America itself.

We’ve only made it here because of his self-described “liberty-loving” enablers inside the GOP.

I have considered myself a libertarian for over a decade — since high school. I’ve long supported traditionally libertarian ideas such as limited government, fiscal responsibility, free speech, and the rule of law.

For this reason, like many others, when I was entering adulthood in the early 2010s, I considered the Republican Party my political home.

The Tea Party movement, founded to “push back against big government” including the Obama bailouts and excessive spending in the wake of the Great Recession, helped elect many “pro-liberty” advocates to Congress; people like Senator Rand Paul, Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Mike Lee, and others.

For years, these individuals represented what I would call the closest we’ve come to a mainstream strand of “pro-liberty” thinkers elected into public office.

Many Americans remember Trump’s presidential campaign announcement in 2015.

Almost immediately, Trump was routinely attacked by many members of this “pro-liberty” camp within the Republican Party. Senator Rand Paul famously called him an “orange faced windbag” and“delusional narcissist” who was not qualified to be President. Senator Ted Cruz called him a “pathological liar” saying “every word that comes out of his mouth” is a lie. Senator Mike Lee called Trump a “distraction” and demanded he leave the Presidential race saying he “wouldn’t hire someone” with a record of abuse towards women like Trump’s.

But then Trump won the nomination and, later, the presidency.

Almost overnight, the tone of each of these individuals changed. Republican leaders went from calling out his dangerous behavior to enabling it both electorally and with rhetoric – clearly fearful of the MAGA movement’s impact on their political futures.

We then watched the trainwreck that was Trump’s Presidency.

We watched his push for red flag laws, pass more gun control than any President in modern history, and promise to “take the guns first, go through due process second.”

We watched him get impeached – and then acquitted by many of these “liberty” advocates in the Senate – for trying to bribe a foreign country to help him win reelection.

We watched him set records for drone strikes abroad and revoke Obama-era transparency rules, hiding his actions from the public.

We watched him continually refuse to end America’s disastrous wars in the Middle East, eventually pushing the withdrawal off to his successor.

We watched him attack Republican Congressmen who sought to reform the NSA’s overreaching domestic surveillance program, while simultaneously complaining about the abuse of their program towards his reelection campaign.

We watched him add more to the debt and deficit than any other President in history.

During the pandemic, we watched him oversee the largest money printing campaign in American history. We watched him preside over the COVID shutdowns, which led to the largest wealth transfer from small businesses to multinational corporations in American history. His administration’s response led to the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression and ended in over 1 million Americans dead of COVID.

And then he lost reelection bid in 2020, after which he went on a tirade to overturn the results of the election. 

He called election officials trying to “find votes.” He devised an elaborate scheme to replace legitimate electors with fake electors. His team drafted plans to seize voting machines. He publicly called to “terminate the Constitution.” He pushed Vice President Pence to reject his Constitutional duty to certify electors.

This all culminated in January 6, when he incited a mob that invaded the Capitol while calling for the execution of his Vice President.

And this was only the beginning.

After failing (once again) to be convicted by the Republican Senate during his second impeachment, Trump launched his reelection campaign in 2024 where he continued his tirade against pro-liberty ideas:

• He condemned Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
• He promised to “be a dictator on day one” if he’s reelected.
• He personally characterized his reelection campaign as centered around “revenge” and “dictatorship.” 
• He promised to bring back his former National Security Advisor, General Flynn (a man who’s called for a military coup against the government).
• He promised to build sprawling camps to facilitate the largest mass deportation effort in American history.
• He dined with neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
• He proposed attacking Mexico and advocated shooting people who are crossing the border.

In virtually all ways, Donald Trump has objectively failed to meet the most basic expectations of a pro-liberty President both before, during, and after his administration.

Yet, over the last 6 months, rather than fight against his campaign, self-styled “pro-liberty” Republicans set their sights on destroying each and every challenger that stood a chance at ending Trumpism in the Republican Party.

Senator Rand Paul even launched the “Never Nikki” campaign to ensure Nikki Haley couldn’t serve as a meaningful challenger to Trump. While Nikki doesn’t align with every moniker of pro-liberty ideas, her record, and her rhetoric, is objectively more fiscally conservative, more pro-Constitution, and more a fan of limited government than Trump ever was.

“Liberty-loving” Senator Mike Lee and Ted Cruz did their best to tip the scale early with loud Trump endorsements, both urging the Republican Party to get behind him. 

And this is ignoring the army of “pro-liberty” pundits, politicians, and thought-leaders on the right that echoed these sentiments.

Their attempts to focus your attention on Trump’s challengers rather than his own record was a smokescreen designed to distract from Trump’s monumental failures.

And they succeeded.

America is now on the path to authoritarianism thanks to the cowardice of these self-described “liberty” advocates in the GOP and it poses an existential threat to the future of this country.

Vote wisely in November.

Joshua Reed Eakle is an entrepreneur, marketing executive, and libertarian organizer. He currently serves as Co-Founder of Project Liberal, a Super PAC dedicated to resurrecting the values of true liberalism in American politics. He is also the Global Director of Marketing for Students For Liberty, an organization dedicated to educate, develop, and empower the next generation of leaders for liberty worldwide.