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Democrats, Libertarians Rally In Kalispell

Democratic U.S. House candidate Rob Quist rallied supporters in Kalispell this weekend with the help of Senator Jon Tester. Libertarian candidate Mark Wicks was in Kalispell too, inviting his backers to show off their ugly trucks. Nicky Ouellet reports.

Nicky Ouellet: It was a big political weekend in the Flathead Valley with two of the three candidates vying for Montana's lone U.S. House seat hitting the area to rally voters. Libertarian candidate Mark Wicks made his first campaign trip to Whitefish.

On Saturday Wicks set up shop in a parking lot to shake hands and chat party ideology and cars with a dozen voters at an ugly truck competition. A playful reference to his campaign slogan to quote bring the work truck.

On Friday I caught up with him at a libertarian discussion night at Casey's bar.

Mark Wicks: So I like to say I'm the power pill of Montana politics. I'm the guy that if you send out there I've got more juice than the other two to get more voice for Montana. There's 435 representatives, and Montana only has one, and I can stand out where the other two just blend into the crowd and disappear.

NO: What what's it like running as a Libertarian in this special election, what's your experience been?

MW: Well people don't know I'm out there, and I think that's really sad because the people I've talked to are really happy to see a third party candidate that has common sense, that is honest. I'm pretty blunt spoken in my answers, and they like that. As a libertarian, being the only one in Washington, I bring a lot of clout from Montana into Washington because when they start asking for opinions on the six o'clock news they've got the Democrat opinion the Republican opinion and the libertarian opinion. Well guess what, the libertarian opinion is the Montana opinion. And so it brings a lot of power.

NO: What are the ideas that you see yourself bringing in to the special election?

MW: Well. As a Libertarian, I believe in liberty and freedom. I believe in less regulation and less government. Most people can get behind that.

NO: What issues do you see yourself as championing if you are elected and go to Washington?

MW: Oh, fiscal responsibility. As a farmer, we learn we have to stay within our budgets and we have to be very fiscally conservative just to get by.

NO: What other issues are really important to you?

MW: I would like to phase out the Department of Education and just block grant the monies to the states; get rid of that whole level bureaucracy and we'll have 50 experiments in education going on in the country. Each state would be able to do what works best for them.

NO: What about the health care bill that the House speaker supported?

MW: Well, I've I've never been in favor of government-run health care. I'm a repeal guy. I've never seen the government do any program that didn't get out of control, and I can't imagine how this one's going to be any different. To me, if they're serious about health care, you've got to get the cost down.

NO: How do you do that?

MW: Well part of it is just start with getting the liability costs down, get the insurance down. Another thing is to get the cost of the pharmaceuticals under control. So I advocate passing a law that the pharmaceutical companies can't sell drugs outside the U.S. for cheaper than what they're selling them inside for. You know, as far as health care, hospitals should have to list what they have, what they're going to charge you. It shouldn't be a dart board that you throw it at the dart board and see what the price is going to be.

NO: If you are not able to secure that seat, who would you want to see one Montanans sends to Washington?

MW: Oh. You know, that is a very hard question. And I'll just I'll just be honest like I always am. I feel like that if Mr. Gianforte gets in there we're not ever going to be able get him out unless he decides to leave himself. He has the money and the connections to be there forever. And Mr. Quist, honestly I think he's a one term guy. That if he's elected he can easily be defeated in the next election. That's just my feeling on it. I don't think I can get more honest than that.

NO: Even though the discussion night was not an official campaign stop, many of the 30 or so people there paid a visit to Wicks table for some one on one time with the candidate.

NO: Angie Killian is from Big Fork.

Angie Killian: And I'd really like to see a lot more attention paid to Mark Wicks because I feel the Libertarian position is far more, much more in common with general Montanans than either the religious Republican or the socialist Democrat.

NO: Killian says building the economy and lowering debt are her pet issues.

AK: We can't offer free education. We can offer free food and free housing and free medical care to the whole world. It just is impossible. We have to push a lot more personal responsibility.

NO: She says people are disappointed with the other guys in the race and Wicks supports a mix of Montana values that transcend party platforms.

AK: He thinks people should be able to do what they want to do as long as it's not hurting somebody else. And that is where I am and have been for most of my life.

NO: While Wicks' ugly truck campaign stops drew a dozen people, more than a hundred people spilled out of the room at the museum at Central School in Kalispell on Saturday to see Democratic candidate Rob Quist and Senator John Tester.

Quist hit on the issues that have become the hallmark of this campaign: Public Lands, public education, and his opposition to the health care bill recently passed by the house.

"The wrong people were at the table making the decisions," Quist told the crowd. "Were there any women represented in [inaudible]? Were there any people that was representing the veterans in this country? Anyone representing the seniors? And anyone representing Indian country? So once again it was the pharmaceutical companies and the insurance companies making all the health care decisions ...

NO: Quist also dedicated a fair amount of time to bashing Republican candidate Greg Gianforte.

"To me, he has a credibility issue. He's telling the people of Montana one thing, and he's telling the donors another thing," Quist said.

NO: People at Quist's event were vocal and responded to the barbs Quist threw. But at least one person in the room was tired of that type of negative rhetoric.

Stephanie Baca: I would like to see something pro and positive rather than 'I'm against this, against that, against this.'

NO: Retired Kalispell schoolteacher Stephanie Baca says her values align pretty well with Quist's. But before this rally she said she didn't feel like she knew him as a candidate.

SB: I wish I had heard more, but I know what his opponent is championing, and I can vote against that.

NO: Have you considered voting third party in this election?

SB: I did. And I listened to him, and when he started saying he frequented all the gun shows, that kinda lost me, to be honest.

NO: Baca adds she herself is a gun owner and supports the Second Amendment.

Quist was briefly joined on stage by Senator Jon Tester. Tester is the latest in a string of big names from Washington to visit the state. Vice president Mike Pence, Donald Trump Jr. and Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke all joined Greg Gianforte on the campaign trail in eastern Montana Friday. Tester emphasize the symbolic importance of the special election for Montana's House seat which hasn't been held by a Democrat in two decades.

"You want to talk about a shot fired across the bow. We elect Rob Quist to Congress and it will reverberate around this country, I'm telling you," Tester said.

NO: Montana's special election is May 25. Voters can request absentee ballots now.

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Democrats, Libertarians Rally In Kalispell - MTPR

Over the past couple years; the concept of privilege has grown to be a ubiquitous part of the public discourse. Its moved from a topic confined in large part to the ivory towers of academia, to one that is a commonplace aspect of mainstream political and social commentary. Its propagation can be seen in the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, perhaps the most visible (or at least most militant) force for racial identity politics.

Before the last presidential election, I wrote that Gary Johnsons approach to Black Lives Matter, and the issues BLM raises, was the correct one; because, whenever individuals are being targeted simply because they are members of a certain group (be it racial, ethnic, religious, sexual, or otherwise), then it becomes a fight that those who love liberty should support.

Racial discrimination is real, and it should be combated. How we choose to combat it, whether through state action or fostering better social understanding amongst our fellow citizens, is another matter. But we should not have a knee-jerk reaction to the notion per se.

Libertarians frequent tendency to belittle the notion of privilege has had the unfortunate consequence of rendering their views tangential to the debate. This has resulted in negative consequences, as in the absence of rigorous interrogation the idea of privilege has come to mean something far broader than the mistreatment of certain historically underserved ethnic groups. It permeates all manner of discourse. Not only is there white privilege now, but also male privilege, straight privilege, cis privilege, thin privilege, and wealth privilege.

Privilege is a slippery concept, because it usually connotes not just an unearned status, but an undeserved one. We would say that status, especially status created by socio-economic means, cannot be called underserved per se.

To borrow a concept from Socrates (if you will permit me to use the philosophy of an old white man to mansplain for a moment) it seems that all the different kinds of privilege pose a ti esti question.

A ti esti or what is it question is a cornerstone of the Socratic method of philosophical inquiry. It essentially posits that one can only really understand a thing, and make judgments about it, when one understands what that thing actually is. Admittedly, Socrates, at least as he is portrayed by Plato in his dialogues, can be awfully pedantic to the point of obtuseness. Yet, the idea that one ought to know what a thing is before making statements about it is a sound one.

After all, how can anyone check their privilege when they do not understand what privilege actually is, let alone what constitutes their privilege in particular?

When people are told to check their privilege, or are instructed in what makes them privileged, there is never a rigorous explanation of what the locus of privilege actually is. It is a question to which the answer is usually assumed, and that is not a good thing. Without recognizing that a whole range of things has now been grouped under a single unhelpful descriptor, the notion of privilege has instead served to position public discourse. Rather than enhancing understanding of how certain groups are treated in a society, the concept of privilege has created a fracturing into tribes.

In reality, the notion of privilege has come to be a weapon used by political activists, principally of the left, to sow divides between segments of society and to create a hierarchy of oppression within a movement.

Oppression (which might be seen as the opposite side of privilege on a notional axis of entitlement) has become a kind of currency within certain groups. This has been thanks to groups like Occupy Wall Street, and its intellectual successors, who fostered the notion of the progressive stack, in which people would be heard on the basis of their level of lack of privilege.

The problem with this sort of thinking is two-fold.

First, it assumes that one can actually define all the kinds of privilege and how they impact individuals. I already explained how that was impossible to do and that no one has ever really tried to do it.

Second, the progressive stack assumes that all the kinds of oppression, once defined, can be added together into a coherent formula. This too is simply leftist black magic, since it is patently obvious no such calculation is possible.

The result is a number of competing formulae, often competing within the minds of individuals. So whether someone who is black, or an immigrant, or trans-gender, or gender queer is more oppressed than another is entirely in the eye of the beholder. That alone should be proof that the concept of privilege, as it is understood, is deeply flawed. Worse still, it is now clear that some activists have started claiming kinds of oppression in order to appear more worthy of a platform. This should be no surprise; given the perverse incentives the progressive stack and the philosophy behind it create.

The problem with discussing privilege as a monolith is that it obscures real social issues from those that are fabricated to win attention. As people who support individual liberty, we should be excited to see people finding new ways of expressing their identities. The truest flowering of freedom is the ability to be ones self without any external authority telling one otherwise.

Yet, we must also stand against the notion that being different automatically means one is oppressed by the white mono-culture, or whatever you want to call it.

We are all different, and society benefits when we embrace those differences.

Trying to turn those differences into weapons to segment the worthy and unworthy is wholly wrong. It is every bit as moronic as the old tools of division like racism and sexism, which the left claims to be fighting against.

This post was written by John Engle.

The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.

John Engle is a merchant banker and author living in the Chicago area. His company, Almington Capital, invests in both early-stage venture capital and in public equities. His writing has been featured in a number of academic journals, as well as the blogs of the Heartland Institute, Grassroot Institute, and Tenth Amendment Center. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and the University of Oxford, Johns first book, Trinity Student Pranks: A History of Mischief and Mayhem, was published in September 2013.

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What is Privilege? The Right Engle - Being Libertarian

Trigger Warning: I am sure that I am going to cause a lot of eyebrows to raise from the second sentence, but please bear with me for this very succinct article.

A lot of libertarians and non-libertarians alike have the misunderstanding that libertarians are against collectivism, socialism, redistribution and social justice. Additionally, liberty, freedom and rights are some of the most ambiguous concepts within the studies of political science, ethics and philosophy. In actuality, the basis of libertarianism is the concept of liberty which contends that everyone has the capacity and autonomy to achieve and pursue whatever their inclination or preference as long as its not at the expense of anyone elses liberty. Henceforth, if someone has their liberties violated, then this is what I call coercion and even extortion whether thats from a private individual, an aggregate of individuals, bureaucrats, the federal government, governments abroad or anyone!

In this case, some may argue that the concept of liberty does not denote or connote true freedom which is the power or right to act, think or speak in anyway without any hindrance or constraint and they are actually right. The reason being the most quintessential component of libertarianism is the non-aggression principle, an axiom meaning that it is iniquitous or immoral to violate the liberty of another individual or group of people. In this case, if a group of people wants to practice redistribution and practice or catalyze an outcome of social justice within their own societies, then ideally, they should have the prerogative to do so under the contextual and paradigmatic framework of libertarianism.

The only times that these aforementioned ideals that are lauded by the left become problematical and adversarial to the liberty movement is when government, corporations, terrorists or any group of people coerce other people to abide or acquiesce to universal healthcare, socialism, bureaucratized charity (welfare), redistribution, etc. To force someone to do something against their will is criminal and no one or entity is an exception.

Therefore, volunteerism is another essential ideal to libertarianism because people should have the right to provide mutual aid in the form of finances, healthcare, jobs, food, housing, air condition/heating for ones property, clothing, security protection, education and other necessities and amenities to someone or others if thats their inclination to do so.

If people volunteer to provide resources to others then its their right to do so, but when government forces society to pay people that are impoverished, then this violates the non-aggression principle and this is unscrupulous and criminal. If we look at this on a microcosmic or miniature scale, this is like an extortionist pointing a pistol to your head and forcing you to withdraw funds from your savings account to give to the extortionist because he wants to feed his family and friends! The definition of a right is a moral and legal entitlement to life, liberty and the pursuit of property and happiness as long as no one elses rights are violated.

In closing, people have the right to redistribute their resources, universalize healthcare and do other socialist oriented initiatives as long as they dont violate the rights of us freedom loving or non-freedom loving individuals. To coerce a group of people from practicing socialist or redistributionist initiatives within the private sector is anti-libertarian. In this case, lets go back to basics and focus on the non-aggression axiom and prioritize volunteerism over coercion.

This post was written by Baruti Libre.

The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.

Baruti Kafele, who is affectionately known as Baruti Libre, is an intellectual entrepreneur, social scientist, proud libertarian, and real estate broker who ensures quality and superiority from his enterprises to his scholarship. Baruti Libre is the chief executive of the successful fashion and multimedia firm called LiBRE BRAND-Freedom of Flyness which is a globally-recognized and viable brand based on the ideals of liberty and freedom. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @BarutiLibre and visit his websites for literature and apparel.

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Volunteerism over Coercion Back to the Basics - Being Libertarian

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) are up in arms after Attorney General Jeff Sessions released sentencing guidelines last week indicating his favor of mandatory minimum sentences that were being phased out by the Obama administration.

The two libertarian lawmakers have been long-time advocates for criminal justice reform. They feel that the Trump Administration under Sessions is clearly headed in the wrong direction on this particular policy, which will only serve to clog the prisons further while doing little to prevent crime.

Mandatory minimum sentences have unfairly and disproportionately incarcerated too many minorities for too long, Paul said in a press release. Attorney General Sessions new policy will accentuate that injustice. Instead, we should treat our nations drug epidemic as a health crisis and less as a lock em up and throw away the key problem.

Amash concurred with Pauls statement. He said the following in a Twitter post from May 12, Lets pass criminal justice reform to put an end to this unjust, ineffective, and costly policy.

Despite their objections, Sessions is determined to return to tough on crime policies that have cost America billions and left the country with the largest prison population in the entire world. He released a memo last week including a strong endorsement for mandatory minimum policies.

It is a core principle that prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense, Sessions wrote. This policy affirms our responsibility to enforce the law, is moral and just, and produces consistency. This policy fully utilizes the tools Congress has given us. By definition, the most serious offenses are those that carry the most substantial guidelines sentence, including mandatory minimum sentences.

This is not the only issue in which the Trump administration has been hostile toward civil liberties. Trump publicly indicated his support for civil asset forfeiture, and Sessions has been a fervent crusader for drug prohibition throughout his political career. Criminal justice reformers expecting common sense reform while either of these men are in charge will likely be disappointed.

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Libertarian Lawmakers Criticize Trump Administration's Support Of Mandatory Minimum Policies - The Liberty Conservative

In the less than three months since the race began to fill the vacancy in Montanas at-large U.S. House seat, political groups have spent millions of dollars in television ads portraying the Republican and Democratic hopefuls as beholden to out-of-state interests or out of touch with Montana values. Against that largely negative backdrop, Libertarian candidate Mark Wicks is presenting himself as an outlet to what he sees as growing disillusionment with the two dominant parties in American politics.

Most people just want to be left alone, to live their life, and thats the Libertarian principle. If youre not hurting me, youre not hurting anybody else, go ahead and do it and thats fine, Wicks said Saturday. People should be happy to do whatever they want, so long as theyre not hurting anybody else.

The 47-year-old rancher and Army veteran from Inverness was speaking during an interview at his Ugly Truck Contest campaign stop in Whitefish, an event built around his closing statement during the special elections only debate last month. He compared Republican candidate and Bozeman businessman Greg Gianforte to a luxury car that is only comfortable when hes parked at the country club with other luxury cars, and Democratic candidate Rob Quist to a little, half-ton pickup that breaks down easily despite having a great sound system.

Wicks sees himself as a work truck candidate, running reliably on small-government ideals and equipped with the tools needed to get the job done in Congress.

When I really started thinking about doing it was right after Trumps election, and we were seeing rioting in the streets. The country started looking like it was tearing itself apart, he said. It was getting very obvious that we need some change in Washington.

Hailing from a remote, rural community on the Hi-Line, Wicks said that his political philosophy entered his life from an early age. Following a violent Memorial Day storm that knocked out power to most of his agricultural community on the outskirts of Havre, he said the farmers banded together to prop up telephone poles and reconnect electrical wiring, so that the electric company had only to flip the breakers to restore power to a town that had been without electricity for five days.

They were just amazed that we went out and did that, Wicks recalled. But thats how people work together out there. They didnt need people from the outside.

Wicks describes himself as a Constitutional Libertarian, meaning his fiscal conservatism and liberal stances on social issues (pro-choice and favoring marijuana legalization) are focused through a constitutional lens that questions the federal governments right to regulate.

Notably, he feels that health care falls outside the purview of federal jurisdiction. But he also acknowledged that its a complicated issue.

Were gonna have to keep some Medicaid. Were going to have to work on that make sure its viable and protect these people, he said. ... One way or another, were gonna pay for this, whether theyre walking in and getting in the door and not paying their bill in the hope were gonna pick it up on part of our bill, or were gonna pay an insurance program to help them.

Wicks faces a steep uphill climb against the other two candidates on the ballot a Republican who narrowly lost a hard-fought campaign for governor last year and a Democrat who has campaigned aggressively across the Treasure State since his March nomination.

While Montana voters are historically more receptive to Libertarian candidates for federal office than the national average, U.S. House and presidential candidates still only attract 3 to 5 percent of the states vote. Last November, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson received 5.7 percent of the vote in Montana, improving over the 2.9 percent he captured in 2012. And longtime Libertarian Mike Fellows averaged around 4 percent in his recent bids for Montanas U.S. House seat, peaking at 5.7 percent in 2010.

But Flathead Countys chapter of the Libertarian Party believes the states electorate feels increasingly under-represented by the two major parties, and that the appetite to take politics in a new direction is growing, despite the arguments that third-parties act as spoilers by siphoning votes away from voters second-choice candidates.

You kind of gotta bite the bullet and realize that your vote isnt for the opposition. If you vote Libertarian, youre voting for a Libertarian future, Flathead Libertarian Party Vice-Chairman Sid Daoud said Friday during the groups Liberty Think Bash event.

Both he and Wicks saw the outsider candidates inclusion in the April 29 televised debate, hosted by KTVH in Great Falls, as a victory in itself.

If theres two podiums there, you get one guy standing up and saying Im not him, so you should vote for me, Daoud said. If you get a third podium up there, then you have to actually stand for something.

While only about a dozen supporters milled around the Firebrand Hotels parking lot for Wicks Ugly Truck campaign rally, Larry Seydell represented the type of disillusioned voter with whom Wicks is hoping to connect.

Im just tired of it. The millions of dollars they spend on bullsh--, they could have done a lot of good stuff with it, the Columbia Falls carpenter said of the largely negative campaign advertisements hes seen so far in the race.

Seydell happened to hear Wicks during a talk-radio interview on Friday, and said he was struck by the message the third guy presented and decided to drop in on Saturdays event to meet him in person.

I was impressed. I think Im going to vote after all, Seydell said. ... Here we have a real guy with a real job and real problems like we all have.

Although early forecasts gave Gianforte a substantial lead over Quist, recent polls indicate the race is narrowing to single digits.

Some Flathead Libertarians at Fridays and Saturdays events worried that support for Wicks could erode as Election Day nears, with voters increasingly worried that a third-party vote will throw the election to what they see as the worse of two evils.

Longtime Libertarian and Bigfork resident Angie Killian said during Saturdays rally that her friends both Republican and Libertarian have pleaded with her to not throw her vote away on a third-party candidate.

I would rather see the Quist people vote for Wicks, and then maybe he could have a chance against Gianforte, Killian said.

Since casting her ballot for President Ronald Reagan in 1984, she was mostly a Republican voter until supporting Libertarian Gary Johnsons bid for the nations top office in 2012. For Killian, Republican stances on gay marriage, medical marijuana and abortion rights ultimately moved her to support the third party.

Id love to see a Libertarian in Congress. I think we need to start making breakthroughs to get away from the two-party system, she said. If we all voted for who we believe in, we might have a chance here.

Montanas special election for its statewide U.S. House district takes place May 25.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.

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Libertarian Mark Wicks stumps in the Flathead - Daily Inter Lake