Geoff Neale: The Embarrassing New Libertarian Chairman

Texan Geoff Neale, the new chairman of the Libertarian Party, wasn’t even a candidate for that post until the day before he was elected. On the day before his election, None of the Above actually placed higher than any of the slated candidates.

No shy opportunist he, Neale was quick to declare Gov. Walker’s opposition to collective bargaining a step in the right direction.

He couldn’t be more wrong:

It is a simple principle of liberty that any person, in any employ, should have the right to bargain peacefully with, and even against, his or her own government. No worldly thing is as powerful as the state: it alone possesses the right to tax and to arrest. No matter how influential other institutions may be, they don’t possess government’s vast powers to confiscate and detain.
No worker should be denied the right to join with others to bargain collectively against something so unmatched in power as government.

Our state has had difficult times, and has troubled finances. It does not matter; liberty requires citizens’ individual and collective rights even in the worst of times. Contrary views are possible, but to be genuinely libertarian and hold otherwise seems impossible.

See, The Right to Bargain with Government.

I’ve no doubt that Neale thinks his views self-evidently libertarian. He’s wrong, but he’s not alone in this regard – the nation is filled with conservatives who will happily restrict individuals’ power to resist state authority in the name of fiscal discipline. The only guarantee of true fiscal responsibility is a smaller government, with reduced authority and influence.

Neale did better in the LP’s search for a national chairman than None of the Above did, but it’s a pity that nameless, but sharper, candidate lost the race.