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David Boaz, an apostle of reasonable, radical libertarianism who argued that Americans are entitled to pursue life, liberty and happiness without government meddling in their bedrooms or boardrooms or with their cannabis, died on Friday at his home in Arlington, Va. He was 70.

The cause was complications of esophageal cancer, his longtime partner, Steve Miller, said.

Mr. Boaz encapsulated libertarianism, the philosophy that prioritizes individual freedom over government overreach, with characteristic perspicuity:

You learn the essence of libertarianism in kindergarten, he wrote in Libertarianism: A Primer, a 1997 book that was updated and rereleased in 2015 as The Libertarian Mind: A Manifesto for Freedom. Dont hit other people, dont take their stuff, and keep your promises.

As executive vice president of the Cato Institute, the Washington-based libertarian think tank, since 1989, Mr. Boaz was a frequent contributor to the libertarian magazine, Reason. He also wrote opinion essays for The New York Times and other publications, advancing a philosophy that had been embraced for centuries by thinkers like John Locke, Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman, but whose practical application posed challenges to some potential disciples.

Summing up his holistic view of individual liberty, Mr. Boaz told The Times in 1984, I dont think its any of the governments business to protect people from themselves, whether its seatbelts, cyclamates or marijuana.

Nor, he argued, did it make any sense to deny gay people legal equality. Government benefits, for example, should not be withheld from same-sex partners in stable relationships, he said, when children of single-parent families or of unmarried heterosexual partners were receiving that support. Mr. Boaz was openly gay and a founding member of the Independent Gay Forum, a website that aggregated articles by gay conservative economists in the mid-1990s.

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David Boaz, a Leading Voice of Libertarianism, Dies at 70 - The New York Times

Attendees of the Libertarian Party National Convention at the end of May selected Georgia resident Chase Oliver to be the partys 2024 presidential nominee. Oliver, 38, was the last nominee standing at a hectic (and at times turbulent) Libertarian National Convention held over the weekend of May 24-26. His win at the convention was anything but expected.

Oliver was born in Nashville, Tennessee and now lives just outside of Atlanta, in Snellville, Georgia. The nominee for President recently spoke with Connect Savannah about his campaign, his background, his answer to a popular sentiment of third-party voting being a waste, and what Georgia voters have at stake come Election Day on November 5.

A third-party candidates chances are never great in the current two-party system, but irritated voters searching for options other than the polarizing frontrunnersformer President Donald Trump (Republican) and incumbent President Joe Biden (Democrat)should turn to Oliver, he says.

I don't believe we're taking votes away from anyone. Nobodys vote is owned by anyone except for the individual voter. They should pick for themselves, but it's up to them to make that determination. Itll be up to the voters; who do they believe best aligns with their individual values? There is a route for voters in November to turn the tables on the two-party system.

The countrys third largest political party gets its nominee through a series of voting rounds for delegates at the national convention. After each round, candidates are eliminated from the bottom of the ballot. Oliver was never a frontrunner; he was not the leading vote-getter following any of the first five voting rounds. Following the sixth round of voting, Oliver (49.5 percent) took a lead over Michael Rectenwald (44.8 percent) with five percent of the delegates casting votes for NOTA (None of the Above). Mike Ter Maat is his running mate as Vice President.

[CHASE OLIVER FOR PRESIDENT]

We have to hit a certain threshold for this race, because if we do not, we lose our statewide ballot access as a party, he said. So I urge every libertarian, even if you disagree with me on an issue or two, this is the time for us to unite together to preserve the ballot in Georgia. It's vitally important that you have your voice and your vote heard. And it is dependent upon you to make that happen this November.

[JOE DEHN]

Oliver with media at the Libertarian National Convention

The weekend received national attention, thanks in part to speeches made by Trump and Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The latter seems to be Olivers biggest challenger for voters looking to stay away from either major party candidate. Oliver was asked about the difference between a vote cast for RFK Jr. and a vote cast for him.

Unlike with RFK Jr., who is a one time candidate, when you vote still within a party structure, it creates a foundation for growth and building that spreads over the years, but it also spreads down in government, Oliver says. So for elections that are not a presidential (race) in Georgia, or any other state, you would see growth there too.

There are many different metrics for victory. The greatest one, of course, being winning the election. But if we were to have a major breakout in votes of, say, 5 percent or 10 percent, we would naturally and foremost be taken a lot more seriously a lot sooner. We would see the levels of fundraising and activism go up almost instantly with a result such as (5 percent to 10 percent in 2024).

He began his political activism opposing the War in Iraq while former President George W. Bush was in office, but Olivers first time having a political impact on the national stage came in Georgias 2022 Senate race featuring Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker. Oliver was a third option that November, and he received more than 80,000 votes (a little over 2 percent) by the time it was over.

Its an example, Oliver says, of people making an impact with their vote. He says a stigma exists around third-party voting, with many people feeling pressured to pick a side. Oliver adamantly disputes the wasted vote argument for third party candidates. If Oliver receives say 5 to 10 percent of the vote this November, it will impact the presidential elections four and eight years from now. He refers back to the 2016 election when Gary Johnson was the Libertarian candidate.

He also cites his being left off the stage for the upcoming Trump versus Biden debate on June 27. Its being hosted by CNN in Atlanta, Olivers de facto hometown. Still, Oliver was not invited, and that might be due to results of the past.

Let's say Gary Johnson got 10 percent of the vote in 2016, he said. I have no doubt that at this point we would already be automatically invited to the 2024 debate. I think if we had already had that breakout eight years ago, then of course we would be in a much greater place than we are now. That's why I'm wanting to build that breakout now. So in eight years, we have a real possibility of having gold congresspeople and senators and governors and state legislators that have large libertarian contingents already residing within them.

During the 2020 election featuring Trump and Biden, Oliver was asked who he would support, gun to his head. He responded that the gun would go off.

The platform reflects his partys stances, for the most part.

He is emphasizing immigration and criminal justice reforms as a self-described pro-gun, pro-police reform, pro-choice Libertarian who is armed and gay. A gun owner who is openly homosexual, Oliver doesnt shy away from being a gun advocate. But he is also passionate in his unwavering anti-war stance. There are aspects which could alienate certain segments of voters. Its something he acknowledges when pushed.

That is probably a conversation that's happening in living rooms, barrooms, or on Facebook and Twitter and really, its all across America right now. When someone thinks about stepping outside of the box, a certain segment of the population feels the need to nudge them back, you know, its better to step back inside that box because you're stupid otherwise. I think that's really wrong, even morally wrong, to a degree.

Its a campaign that will be run on an uneven playing field, at least in terms of funding. It wont be a new concept for Oliver, however. He refers back to the Walker versus Warnock race and the numbers from that election cycle. Specifically, Oliver cited a cost-per-vote metric which uses the amount of money raised by a candidate to compare it to the number of votes received.

Herschel and Senator Warnock were spending about $20 to $25 per vote in that election. They will happily pay you that for a vote, because of how they earn. It cost their campaigns and related organizations to get those votes and they are glad to pay for them, said Oliver. I earned 81,000 votes and spent $20,000 ... It was less than 25 cents per vote. Look, we were massively outspent, but when you look at what we did dollar-for-dollar, we got our voters out and at a much lower cost per vote.

We recognize we're going to be out funded again by Donald Trump and Joe Biden. We have a fundraising goal that is somewhere between that $5 million to $9 million and they're going to probably spend $1 billion. So there's still a huge disparity there. We're going to have to be lean and mean in the way that we get our messaging out. We will continue punching above our weight.

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INTERVIEW: 1-on-1 with Chase Oliver, 2024 Libertarian presidential nominee and a Georgia resident - Connect Savannah.com

Im a libertarian, but Im totally turned off by the party. And Im not alone, especially now that Chase Oliver is its 2024 candidate.

Although libertarian ideology has mass appeal, the party has consistently alienated voters with outlandish antics and out-of-touch nominees, and this election cycle is no exception.

Since Oliver won the Libertarian primary late last month, the former Georgia Senate candidate has been going viral for some of his more lefty stances.

In resurfaced clips, the 38-year-old has been dragged for publicly advocating for defunding the police until [they] restore trust with the people, describing drag queen story hours as performance art, advocating for open borders and defending gender-affirming care for transgender kids as the status quo.

The fundamental libertarian principle is live and let live, and there are certainly libertarians who embrace that ethos on both the political right and the left.

But the party is making a massive error by choosing a hard-left-leaning libertarian with values destined to turn off Republicans who might be looking for an alternative in 2024.

The entire country is looking for something different than two old fogies and the same old uni-party, Mark, a 42-year-old libertarian, told The Post. This came to a crashing halt when the party nominated another leftist Libertarian in 2024.

For Mark, who works in IT in Dallas, Olivers nomination was the final straw that led him to re-register on voter rolls as being unaffiliated with any party: So many wasted opportunities in the last two decades, and Ive had it.

Indeed, the party has embarrassed itself for cycles on end with candidates that nobody had ever heard of like no-name professor Jo Jorgensen in 2020 and nominees who are downright outrageous, like Gary Johnson in 2016.

The former New Mexico governor, who peaked at 13% in polling numbers, couldnt name a world leader he admires during an interview and famously did not know where Aleppo, Syria, was during the height of the Syrian refugee crisis.

He actually asked a MSNBC host, What is Aleppo?

To Johnsons credit, he was the only candidate on the 2016 Libertarian primary debate stage who replied yes to the question, Should someone have to have a government issued license to drive a car?

His rivals answered with hell no and Whats next, requiring a license to make toast in your own damn toaster?

Most people associate libertarianism with principles like free speech, small government, religious liberty, and gun rights not the right to get behind the wheel without any qualifications and endanger others lives.

But that viral moment was emblematic of the extremist ideological purity of the party.

A third party needs pragmatism, first and foremost, Sam, a 22-year-old disaffected libertarian who works in communications in New Jersey, told me. Most people, myself included, associate libertarianism with social free-will and free market capitalism. We arent puritans or philosophers.

But the drivers license debacle wasnt even the craziest thing to come out of a libertarian convention.

Other greatest hits include a party chairman candidate stripping on stage during a convention on a dare, and Vermin Love Supreme, who served as a member of the Libertarian Partys judicial committee despite always wearing a boot on his head.

I changed my registration to Independent when I saw how unserious the party had gotten, a California finance professional named Greg, 34, told The Post. It is not an effective or serious party in any real sense.

This years presidential election should be a historic opportunity for libertarians. Two incumbents with record low approval ratings should make a third-party candidate more viable than ever.

Freedom, liberty and self-determination are values that appeal to the right and the left.

And yet the party which has become an anarchist echo-chamber insulated from any real market pressure managed to completely drop the ball by selecting a candidate who is an instantaneous turnoff to many Americans.

Libertarian ideology should be taken seriously. The libertarian party, however, has demonstrated time and again that it cannot be.

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I'm a libertarian but the party has turned into a joke - New York Post

Its a battle flag once again, and a group of Granite State libertarians brought the fight to Nashua City Hall Monday.

The Pine Tree Flag, sometimes called the Appeal to Heaven flag, flew over the Battle of Bunker Hill as Gen. George Washington and American revolutionaries faced the British outside Boston. But when that flag was the subject of a citizens fly request, it was rejected by Gate City Mayor Jim Donchess.

As a result, Donchess rejection may have brought more attention to First Amendment constitutional rights than he bargained for.

On Monday, a group organized by the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire rallied outside Nashua City Hall to protest Donchess decision.

Mayor Donchess censorship of the Pine Tree Flag demonstrates his hatred for New Hampshire values and its history. It also likely violates the First Amendment, since the Nashua government is picking and choosing what speech is allowed to be displayed using taxpayer dollars, said organizer and UNH Law student Zephan Wood.

The flag, Wood noted, dates back to the Pine Tree Riot an April 1772 act of resistance to British authority by American colonists in the town of Weare, N.H.

Donchessviewed the flag-flying issue differently.

The reason we wont fly this flag is that since the attack on the (U.S.) Capitol it has become a symbol of violence against local, state and national government, Donchess said.

Some legal experts believe Donchess stance puts the city, and its taxpayers, in financial jeopardy.

In March, pro-Christian activists successfully lobbied the city to fly a Christian flag above Nashua City Hall. The flag-flying event was attended by Boston-based Camp Constitution founder Hal Shurtleff, whose group won a landmark 9-0 U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2022 after Boston city officials rejected their citizens request. The city paid out more than $2 million to the Liberty Counsel, the pro-faith nonprofit who brought the suit.

Nashua has the same citizen flag-flying policy. Like Boston, Nashua has a policy encouraging citizens to submit flag-flying requests.

Yet Donchess on Monday claimed city officials were within their rights to reject Nashua resident Beth Scaers request to fly the Pine Tree Flag because, we have that discretion.

Scaer, who attended Mondays flag protest, said she is grateful this protest is bringing more attention to the erosion of our First Amendment rights.

The pine tree has been a political symbol in New England for at least 250 years, including the pine cone currently on top of the Massachusetts state house. But critics of the conservative majority on the Supreme Court, including writers at the The New York Times and other left-leaning news outlets are trying to use the flag to attack Justice Samuel Alito. The Times turned the fact that Alito flew the Pine Tree flag over the familys New Jersey beach house into major headlines.

However, the City of San Francisco, known for its aggressive progressive policies and history of Democratic Party dominance, had flown the same flag on city hall grounds for upwards of six decades until its removal late last month following The New York Times expose.

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Libertarians Gather to Protest Nashua's Pine Tree Flag Ban - NH Journal

Lone Tree City Council member Nicholas Gluba plans to run for Congress as a Libertarian in Iowas 1st Congressional District, he announced Wednesday.

Gluba, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, will join what is anticipated to be a competitive race between incumbent Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Democrat Christina Bohannan, a former state representative. Miller-Meeks staved off a primary challenge from David Pautsch earlier this month.

In a news release, the Libertarian Party of Iowa said Glubas priorities include individual liberty, property rights, a free-market economy, gun rights and opposition to foreign intervention.

"I am running on a platform of freedom for all people regardless of ethnicity, religion, social status, and gender. My campaign is built on the principles of personal freedom, economic opportunity, and accountable government, Gluba said in a statement.

Iowas Libertarian Party regained official party status under state law after the 2022 election, when its gubernatorial candidate garnered more than 2 percent of the vote in the state. The partys 2024 presidential candidate will need to take in at least 2 percent of the vote to retain that status.

Gluba was not a candidate in the partys June 4 primary election. The party will need to hold a district convention to nominate him and submit paperwork to the Iowa Secretary of States office to get Gluba on the November ballot.

Betsy DeVos, former U.S. secretary of education under then-President Donald Trump, will be a featured speaker at the conservative Christian group The Family Leaders annual conference on July 12.

The groups annual conference, The Family Leadership Summit, has been a magnet for GOP presidential candidates in recent years as they courted the evangelical vote ahead of the Iowa caucuses.

Joel C. Rosenberg, a Christian author who covers news in Israel and the Middle East, also will speak at the event, along with Egyptian American pastor Michael Youssef.

"With emphases on Israel, parental rights in education, religious liberty, and more, theres no doubt this will be one of the most timely and personally relevant FAMiLY Leadership Summits yet," said a statement from Family Leader President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Vander Plaats.

The group has also invited President Joe Biden and Trump to the event, along with independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to its website.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, both Republicans, are also invited speakers.

Two national political organizations, one Democratic and one Republican, announced endorsements for Iowa congressional candidates following last week's primary election.

Americans for Prosperity Action, a conservative group founded by Charles and David Koch, endorsed Republican incumbent Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Iowas 1st Congressional District following her primary win over Republican David Pautsch last week. The group endorsed Republican Rep. Zach Nunn in the 3rd Congressional District last year.

I am proud to receive the support of AFP Action and its dedicated grassroots team, Miller-Meeks said in a statement. We are both committed to removing barriers to opportunity and helping Iowans improve their lives.

Democratic challengers to Miller-Meeks and Nunn also notched endorsements after last weeks primary by the nations largest federal employee union.

The American Federation of Government Employees announced it had endorsed Christina Bohannan in the 1st District and Lanon Baccam in the 3rd District. Both are Democrats.

The union said both candidates will fight for federal employees and their right to collectively bargain.

Lanon Baccam has the perfect resume to fight for federal employees, said District 8 National Vice President Ruark Hotopp in a statement. As a combat veteran, a former USDA official, and a public servant, he understands the unique challenges and needs of federal workers.

Both districts are expected to be competitive elections that have already attracted significant national attention.

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Libertarian announces bid for Congress in Southeast Iowa - The Gazette