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Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, and Nick Gillespie tackle a suddenly-pervasive topic: critical race theory. Plus, tune in for the fine details of a debate brewing within the Libertarian Party (L.P.). All that and more on this Monday's Reason Roundtable.

Discussed in the show:

1:54: Some condolences are in order.

7:46: Breakdown and assessment of why critical race theory dominates headlines.

35:31: Weekly Listener Question: What are your thoughts on the ongoing civil war within the L.P. between pragmatists and the Mises Caucus, following the crackup at the New Hampshire L.P. and the resulting fallout? Do you think a Mises Caucusled L.P. would bring new voters into the party or just alienate everyone who isn't an edgelord?

50:21: Media recommendations for the week.

This week's links:

Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

Today's sponsors:

Audio production by Ian KeyserAssistant production by Regan TaylorMusic: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

The rest is here:
How the Critical Race Theory Debate Misses the Mark - Reason

Susan Gore of Cheyenne founded the Wyoming Liberty Group and Republic Free Choice. (Courtesy Wyoming Liberty Group)

June 26, 2021byNick Reynolds, WyoFile

Wealthy conservative donor Susan Gore was a key financier of a years-longeffort to spy on Wyoming Democrats and Republicans, an article published Friday by the New York Times revealed, shining a light on the lengths to which the Gore-Tex heiress and Wyoming Liberty Group founder has gone to influence the states politics.

Thereportalleges Gore helped finance the infiltration of numerous political organizations in the state by a pair of spies tied to the right-wing group Project Veritas. Their targets were varied, according to the investigation, ranging from liberal advocacy group Better Wyoming and advocates of medical marijuana. Democrats and moderate Republicans within the Wyoming Legislature were also singled out, as well as the executive leadership of the Wyoming Democratic Party.

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The activity even reached the office of Republican Gov. Mark Gordon, the New York Times reports.

The Gordon Administration is conservative and transparent, Gordons office said in response to the news. The Governors actions have demonstrated his commitment to fiscal conservatism, life, the Second Amendment, patriotism and always putting Wyoming first. The allegations, if corroborated, of the deceptive behavior of a few politically motivated individuals contained in the New York Times story reflect a sad situation and have no place in Wyoming.

The spies, a man and woman with alleged ties to Blackwater founder Erik Prince, along with Project Veritas, were largely unsuccessful in their efforts, according to several of the victims interviewed by WyoFile. However, observers say the botched incursion into the highest circles of Wyoming politics symbolize Gores escalating role as a puppeteer in Wyomings politics, and her role in the populist rights newfound traction in Cheyenne.

I think this was the logical progression, former Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, said. People like Susan arrive with all this outside money that suddenly shows up, funded by people whose ties to the state are usually its tax climate. I dont know if theyre concerned at all about the agricultural community or coal miners, or the schools or any of the things that were traditionally issues that people in Wyoming tried to work on.

Wyoming Liberty Group did not respond to a request for comment.

Shock and confusion

News of the espionage operation stunned many in Wyoming politics, not only for the nature of the operation, but for its chief targets: The Wyoming Democratic Party, the high-powered liberal donor Liz Storer and the progressive advocacy group Better Wyoming and its director, Nate Martin. (Note: The Storer Foundation is a major donor to WyoFile.)

I dont really understand why you would try and infiltrate the Democrats, said Sen. Cale Case (R-Lander), a longtime acquaintance of Gore and a former board member for her advocacy organization, the Wyoming Liberty Group. Theyre not driving the bus in this state, you know.

Others believe it was not the liberal groups activities that drew the interlopers attention, but a false perception of their influence by conservative groups that have grown to believe Wyomings Republican Party is rife with liberal politicians backed by special interest groups.

In 2018, one of the infiltrators, Sophia LaRocca, traveled to Cheyenne to meet with LGBTQ activist Sara Burlingame, then a Democratic candidate for the Wyoming House of Representatives. Burlingame told WyoFile LaRocca pitched her on the concept for an advocacy organization intended to flip Wyoming blue, an idea Burlingame told her was unrealistic.

Burlingame detected red flags about the woman, she said. LaRocca told Burlingame she wanted to spy on Republicans, Burlingame said. LaRocca had few ties to the state and hadnt resided here long. She also lacked a working understanding of Wyomings politics, Burlingame said.

The things that they themselves were guilty of, they projected onto us, and assumed that we would also be guilty of, Burlingame said. But every person they talked to agreed that not only was [spying] unethical, but it was also not strategic.

Living in the least-populated state in the union, you just couldnt afford to do that, Burlingame continued. You burn through all your bridges too rapidly. But I think they had an assumption that behind a closed door, wed drop the mask.

Members of the Wyoming Democratic Party encountered similar red flags, noticing an overeager quality from LaRocca and inconsistent details about her life, communications director Nina Hebert said. While the party offered LaRocca training, Hebert said she and the partys digital director limited her access to party infrastructure, leaving the party largely unexposed to her infiltration attempts.

LaRocca and her partner, Beau Maier, made inroads elsewhere, befriending Better Wyomings Martin and his wife, Wyoming Rep. Karlee Provenza (D-Laramie) through activist trainings. LaRocca even attempted to join Provenzas campaign, the lawmaker said in an interview, only to be rejected.

Through their relationship to Martin and Provenza, Meier and LaRocca became connected to individuals who were part of a multi-partisan coalition to lobby for the legalization of medical cannabis. Gore has been a vocal opponent. Several lawmakers said they believe the effort was intended to gather intelligence on Republican lawmakers who supported legalization.

I now look back on these conversations through a lens of rage, Provenza wrote in a letter to her legislative colleagues sent Friday morning. Rage because I now know that they came into my home under false pretenses to target me and my family. Rage because they attempted to bait me and my husband into saying or doing something shameful so they could use it to hurt us. Rage because they used the same tactics against some of our most honorable colleagues here in the Legislature.

The motivation behind the sting, some believe, stemmed from Gore.

I met with some people from the Liberty Group before running the [cannabis] bill. And what was really fascinating was that almost every person that I talked to who was previously affiliated or with the group all personally took a stance for the decriminalization of medical marijuana, consistent with what I would view as a libertarian position, said Rep. Jared Olsen (R-Cheyenne), the chairman of the Joint Judiciary Committee and the main sponsor of last sessions marijuana legalization bill. But they all said the same thing to me, which was that Susan Gore personally has such an issue with marijuana that the Liberty Group would not be taking a position on it.

Gore traveled to the Capitol to testify against the bill, which ultimately failed.

From Libertarian influencer to espionage

Some, like Freudenthal, believe Gores alleged activity was inevitable.

Gores ties to Wyomingdate back to the mid-1990s, when she first moved to Jackson after more than a decade living in a transcendental meditation community in Iowa. In 2008, Gore entered Wyomings political scene with the founding of the Libertarian-leaning Wyoming Liberty Group.

The mission, according to a former staffer who declined to be named, was smaller government, school choice and low taxes. As the group grew in influence, Freudenthal then in the final years of his second term began to take notice of Gores activities, he said. Freudenthal said he grew concerned over the influence a single, wealthy individual could have on Wyomings politics.

Gore eventually cemented a place amid Wyomings political class. She donated large sums of money over the years to the Wyoming Republican Party, according to campaign finance documents reviewed by WyoFile. After rebooting its image in 2015, the Liberty Groupgained influence. In its growing sway in the Legislature and with the public, Freudenthal said, Gores personal influence grew as well, with candidates eventually tailoring their messages to match her politics.

She played a role in the defeat of House Speaker heir apparent Rosie Bergerin the 2016 primary elections. In 2018, she donated handsomely to Republican gubernatorial candidate Sam Galeotos. Gore was instrumental in a populist wave in the 2020 Republican primaries, donatingtens of thousands of dollarsto hardline conservatives. Many of those candidates went on to win their elections.

What was transpiring was simply a matter of how do we gain power at any cost? Freudenthal said. And unfortunately, theyve been largely successful.

In 2019, then-Wyoming Liberty Group board member Case realized his political philosophy was no longer compatible with Gores, he said, due to his stance on social issues and taxation.

I was always trying to steer the Liberty Group more toward the Libertarian area in issues about economic reform and economic development issues, Case said. But I could never get a lot of traction on the big social issues.

He left the board in 2019.

In recent years, Case has watched Gore funnel thousands of dollars to defeat Democrats as well as conservatives he sees himself aligned with. He wonders when he will be targeted, Case said, particularly as donors like Gore seem bent on purging moderate Republicans in Name Only, or RINOs, from the party ranks.

Paranoia, Rep. Cyrus Western (R-Sheridan), said of the trend. Go figure.

Burlingame considers the rise of Gores influence culminating in espionage inevitable considering current trends, she said.

In a post-Trump world, you have all these hyper-wealthy donors who have been radicalized into a paranoia about the Deep State, Burlingame said. And you also have this small army of con artists who are just out looking for someone to fund them. And theyre a perfect match.

This article was originally published byWyoFileand is republished here with permission.WyoFileis an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.

Related Stories from Oil City News:

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Stun and dismay follow Wyoming political espionage revelations - Oil City News

Thirty years ago, Kemmerer native Madonna Longs life changed forever.

Long, then a senior at Kemmerer High School, was one of 38 passengers in a school bus returning from a ski club trip in Utah. The driver lost control, resulting in a devastating accident that killed two people.

Long was critically injured in the crash, leaving her paralyzed and prone to spasms.

Eventually, she turned to medical marijuana to treat her spasms. Since then, Long has become a leading advocate for medical marijuana legalization. That includes her home state of Wyoming, one of just 13 states without medicinal or decriminalized cannabis.

Long was among several dozen people to deliver paperwork to the Wyoming Secretary of States office on June 11 announcing their intent to pursue two ballot initiatives to legalize medical cannabis and decriminalize its recreational use.

If successful, the signature drive would allow Wyoming voters to decide whether they want to pursue legalization, rather than leaving it up to the Wyoming Legislature. Several legislative attempts have stalled out.

Advocates say it will be a significant victory for cannabis-using patients in a state that currently prescribes some of the nations strictest penalties for users, particularly as Wyoming is now surrounded by states that have already legalized its use.

Medical marijuana has been such a great treatment for a lot of people like me and people all around Wyoming, Long said. This is a peoples act, and the people will pass this.

Advocates likely face an uphill battle. Ballot initiatives are notoriously difficult to pass in Wyoming, which maintains high signature requirement thresholds. To make the ballot, petitioners must gather a number of signatures equal to 15% of voters who voted in the previous election in at least 15 counties. Those signatures then must be verified and, ultimately, affirmed by state elections officials.

Wyoming has failed to even consider a ballot initiative much less pass one in roughly three decades.

The task will likely be more difficult in 2022. After the record turnout for the 2020 presidential election, a ballot initiative effort will now require nearly 42,000 signatures statewide to be successful, approximately 38% more than were required after the 2016 and 2018 elections.

Unlike efforts by local activists to get marijuana on the ballot in 2016 and 2018, however, advocates will have help this time around. In addition to longstanding marijuana advocacy groups like NORML, the effort will be assisted with backing from the National Libertarian Party as well as groups like the Utah-based organization Together for Responsible Use and Cannabis Education, or TRUCE which helped advance a medical marijuana program there.

The leaders of both organizations attended the Cheyenne rally on June 11.

Nationally, the ballot initiative approach has been the most successful method for legalization. Of the 36 states to legalize medical marijuana, 19 did so through citizen-initiated ballot measures, while 13 of the 17 states to legalize recreational marijuana accomplished legalization through a ballot measure.

Apollo Pazell, a political consultant working with the Libertarian National Committee, said the party plans to offer legal and institutional support for the ballot initiative, as well as assistance in organizing several political action committees committed to galvanizing public support for the measure. These PACs, he said, will target groups like law enforcement, patients and political organizations.

All were doing is providing support to what they are doing, Pazell said. They will do all the political work involved in building the campaign. Theyll do all the radio ads, all that stuff. Were just going to be supporting door knockers and canvassers to make sure it gets on the ballot.

Advocates believe there is sufficient support to pass the measure should it get on the ballot. A December 2020 poll conducted by the University of Wyoming showed a significant majority of Wyoming voters in support of legalizing medical cannabis, with a slim majority in support of its use for recreational purposes. And in the 2021 legislative session, a legalization effort led by a tripartisan coalition in the Wyoming Legislature managed to pass committee before ultimately failing.

Freshman Rep. Marshall Burt (L-Green River), a co-sponsor of the failed House Bill 209 Regulation of marijuana, said that outcome helped prompt advocates to pursue a ballot initiative.

The Legislature knows that this is coming, he said at the rally. During the session when we talked about the bill, we let them know if we didnt pass [HB] 209 that the next measure was to take the ballot initiative to the people.

The Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police, which has previously run public awareness campaigns arguing there is No Debate about marijuana use, said it is likely to revive similar initiatives to counter the legalization effort.

We have not had a conversation on the new initiatives, yet, WASCOP director Byron Oedekoeven wrote in an email. I would imagine we will again offer factual education material as we have in the past around the harmful effects and the newer style of marijuana products.

Proponents for legalization are confident in their ability to gather the necessary signatures in time for the 2022 election cycle.

We will have people on the streets. And we will collect signatures, Burt said. And then when the time comes at the next election cycle for 2022, we will allow the citizens of Wyoming to carry their voice, either in support or against.

Excerpt from:
Will Wyoming voters be the ones to legalize marijuana? - WyoFile

I am always wary of those who purport to speak for their respective generation, and a recent New York Post op-ed by a self-espoused libertarian student at New York University put on full display exactly what the Republican Party must abandon in the years ahead.

In close to 700 words, writer Rikki Schlott calls for the GOP to compromise on social and environmental issues and stand up to leftist extremism, ignoring that these two are different sides of the same strategic coin. Schlott concedes a talking point that merely assists the left in its campaign to smear Republicans especially those in Gen Z as operating in extremist fringes who need to be like their predecessors and champion old neoconservatism.

As the GOP rebrands in the post-Trump, post-pandemic era, it has a huge opportunity to make inroads with this new, open-minded contingent, she writes. But appealing to Gen Z will require significant modernization and compromise. Calls for progress are coming from young voters of every political persuasion. In fact, while Gen Z Democrats are almost politically identical to their older counterparts, generationaldifferences among Republicans are far more stark.

Even if we are to submit to polling that finds Gen Z is driven by anti-Trump backlash and more Independent than categorically conservative appealing to Gen Z and its supposed more moderate nature should be far from the primary, secondary, or tertiary objective of the Trump-shifted GOP. As Evita Duffy pointed out in The Federalist last year, polling indicates Gen Z, even while in their likely most liberal youthful years, are significantly more socially moderate than millennials.

Thus, the idea that appealing to Gen Z will require significant modernization and compromise is ill-supported, and a losing strategy. Conservatives who wish to target the lefts institutional monopoly and overhaul of morally shared principles would lay themselves a booby trap by continuing to compromise with the radically left Democratic Party of today.

The GOP ought to instead focus on reinforcing social conservatismas advantageous. Not doing so is a naive rejection of the last four years, which proved there is a massive constituency for taking on the culture war rather than conceding it. Republicans in the past have neglected these voters in favor of the same old fiscal promises that never materialize.

If the GOP can deliver viable, free-market alternatives to the restrictive environmental policies coming from the left, their appeal to Gen Z would skyrocket, Schlott argues. Pushing for innovation and offering economic incentives to businesses fighting climate change is just one way the GOP could show its on team green.

The very last thing Republicans should be doing is keeping governments dead hand on the scale to push one scientific understanding of climate change and its effects, which Democrats have universally campaigned on as a means to expand government and harm the American worker. Worse, Schlott also claims it would be wise for the GOP to join this effort to destabilize the energy industry and provide more opportunities for corporations to yield even more power. In making this claim, the writer cites John Olds, the president of the essentially liberal group Gen Z GOP.

Olds says, If the GOP were to reshuffle its priorities a little bit to address generational issues and present conservative solutions, they would make huge progress with Generation Z, producing a blanket statement all too familiar from the work Gen Z GOP does.

As Saagar Enjeti rightly pointed out last summer upon the group releasing a promotional video, Gen Z GOP is basically Bidenism-lite and a product of the corporate elites who have run the Republican Party for far too long. More than just playing the old game of conservative defense, Schlott and Olds essentially call for Republicans to not be conservative at all. In all this, one wonders as always what is the point of being Republican if it is, as Phyllis Schlafly once said, merely an echo of Democrats rather than offering voters a clearly different political choice.

Meanwhile, Gen Z Republicans say society does not do enough to accept gender non-conforming people at a rate three times higher than some older Republican generations, Schlott writes. Many Gen Z voters imagine Republicans as rigid, evangelizing traditionalists. By adopting a more live-and-let-live philosophy in favor of cultural conservatism, the GOP would appeal to more young people.

A live-and-let-live philosophy is exactly what propelled America into the mess we find ourselves in today. While American jobs got shipped overseas, leftists manipulated language, sexual anarchy took over the country, and Big Tech and Big Business grew into oligarchies, Republicans pushed tax cuts and never seriously cut federal spending.

If appealing to more young people means forfeiting a moral society in favor of worshiping the application of market activities through open borders, the killing of the unborn, and allowing critical race theory to hijack the education system, you can count me out. If a free market means putting the force of law behind constituencies that demand bake the cake, bigot, its clear once again that libertarian slogans are being deceitfully deployed to destroy historic American freedoms.

In short, the GOP should work on rebranding as the modern, reasonable, solutions-oriented party, Schlott concludes. If Republicans succeed in crafting this new identity, it will make enormous strides with young voters and secure its future.

Schlott is operating on a very different definition about what is modern and reasonable than those seeking a GOP that works for more than just Wall Street. The way to solve Americas issues and connect with conservative voters is not to parrot libertarian talking points.

Read more here:
No, Republicans Will Not Win Anything By Bowing Down To The Left - The Federalist

By Tom Harper, Las Vegas

Monday, June 21, 2021 | 2 a.m.

I applaud House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her commitment to an investigation after the majority of Republicans in the Senate voted against a bipartisan Jan. 6 commission. How can the Jan. 6 insurrectionists and those Republicans reconcile their actions with the preamble to the Constitution, which the Republicans swore to protect and preserve and which states, We the people ... in order to form a more perfect union ... insure domestic tranquility ... promote the general welfare ...?

Compare this to the flag held by many insurrectionists the Gadsden flag which depicts a coiled rattlesnake with the words Dont tread on me. Me: the selfish cry of the libertarian, is antithetical to the We of the preamble and the Declaration of Independence, which recognized that laws are for the public (i.e. common) good.

If the Gadsden folks believed they had the right to commit insurrection resulting in the deaths of five people and property damage in excess of $1million, how do we know Republicans were not complicit? Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., raised a fist in solidarity with the insurrectionists, and Republican members of Congress gave tours before the insurrection.

The snake is an apropos symbol for the Gadsden folks. A snake can mean a deceitful and treacherous person; traitor; turncoat. Criminal investigation and prosecution will take care of the Gadsden folks. A full investigation will expose all of the traitors involved in this heinous and despicable event.

See original here:
Insurrectionists picked the right flag - Las Vegas Sun