2020 Candidate's 'Different Approach to Freedom' Would Eliminate the Federal Government
Let freedom ring. We can all get behind that.
But Adam Kokesh, a candidate for the 2020 Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination, wants to let freedom do much more than ring.
Kokesh wants freedom to dissolve the entire federal government.
Kokesh may be smoking a bit too much of that Libertarian-approved hashish, but he’s not joking when he says it.
When announcing Kokesh as a guest Monday on the Fox Business Network’s “Kennedy,” Judge Andrew Napolitano introduced him as a candidate who, if he wins, “will dissolve the entire federal government on his first day in office and then resign as president.”
Kokesh giggled a bit at the introduction but didn’t refute it.
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” he said.
“America is too good for this government,” Kokesh explained. “It’s time for us to be united in freedom instead of government.”
Kokesh was not without specifics for his plan.
“My proposal is the localization of the federal government — dissolving it through a bankruptcy process, in a peaceful, responsible, orderly manner that would leave us with 50 independent states, and, of course, up to 562 sovereign Native nations,” Kokesh said.
“Yes, I would be resigning on Day One. The only thing you can do when handed the ring of power is to throw it directly into the fire.
“The thing about this is that it is a fundamentally different approach to freedom,” Kokesh explained. “Instead of saying ‘let’s have a president who gives freedom to the entire country,’ let’s instead localize government so everybody gets what they want out of it. And that is really unifying people. That brings people together.”
Check it out here:
Always great to see Libertarians on the media. You should also check out the prior appearance by Kim Ruff and this appearance by Adam Kokesh! Liberty has some great and passionate defenders within the LP. #Libertarian https://t.co/wc1pBuC0I2
— Alex Merced (@alexmerced) June 18, 2019
Kokesh believes his plan to abolish the federal government will increase unity.
“Localization is the cure for polarization,” Kokesh told Napolitano. “You see Americans fighting at the extremes left and right and it’s so silly when you could just say, ‘let’s instead respect each other’s rights to develop communities that are based on our values.'”
When Napolitano asked him whether the entitlement-obsessed people of America would agree to such a plan, Kokesh responded “you can have as much government as you want, as long it’s voluntary, as long as it’s local, as long as it’s based on the community and you’re not forcing it on someone. If you want this out of government and you want that, when government is localized, you all can have it.”
Next, Napolitano addressed the largest concern of whether Kokesh’s plan could sustain a healthy and robust defense for American citizens.
“A de-centralized militia-based defense is more in line with the founders’ vision,” Kokesh said. “It’s more efficient. It’s more effective. And the only legitimate defense of a free people is a well-armed population that refuses to be governed by anyone.
“Localizing the military to the states, getting it focused more on defensive rather than offensive and world-policing type forces — that is going to be a first step in the right direction.”
While I am certainly a huge fan of liberty and localization, I disagree with Kokesh that a localized defense would be more effective.
I think the aggregate effort of the federal government can better research and fund defense than duplicating that across the states.
Besides, as a resident of Arizona, there is no way on earth I am trusting California to protect me from enemies entering the mainland.
They would just pass a law — and the 9th Circuit would approve it — to make the North Koreans citizens while Kim Jong Un rolled over San Francisco in a swarm of tanks.
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