This entire year has seen an eruption of massive acrimony in the US over foreign and military interventionism, with constant narratives pushed by deeply funded and organized entities for more of the same. Michael Rectenwald, anti-war advocate and former NYU professor, who was almost nominated to be the LP candidate for President in 2024, has just started AZAPAC, an organization founded to combat the undue influence of Israeli lobbying:
Join us on Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 12:00 pm (noon) for a social meeting at our annual Christmas or Holiday Luncheon. The meeting will be at our Astoria venue, Stamatis Greek and Mediterranean Restaurant at 29-09 23rd Avenue in the back area (menu details at https://stamatisrestaurant.net/). This talk will follow (if needed) a monthly business session, covering Queens LP planning and subcommittee updates.
At the luncheon we will informally review local party development and fundraising plans beginning in 2026, and organizing for the LPNY ballot campaign in the spring. Some plans may evolve around the progress of the decision of Larry Sharpe to run for Governor, more on college outreach, and building a fundraising machine to support a statewide petition drive in 2026 and beyond. Those who have additional ideas or proposed projects are welcome to discuss them. Details and Directions
Libertarian Party National Chair Steven Nekhaila brings up a slew of stats discussing how to gauge public support for libertarian philosophy:
I want to make the Libertarian Party equal to the Democrats and Republicans in size, money, visibility, and electoral success in less than ten years.
I want to do this by taking yes for an answer. If people want to say yes to less state aggression, more individual liberty, and increased personal responsibility, then I want to say yes back to them. This means I want to prioritize…
Discovery before persuasion
If you first find the people who mostly agree with you, that will give you the resources you need to persuade those who disagree.
Do the discovery first and the persuasion second. Not discovery instead of persuasion, but discovery before persuasion.
It really is that simple.
What’s the potential?
The potential is huge. Eleven different studies suggest that 30-60 million Americans already self-identify as libertarians and/or hold mostly libertarian positions on the issues. I list all of these studies under my signature below. But I want to highlight five here…
- Nate Silver says 11% of Americans self-describe as libertarians. I rounded that to 30 million for my low-end estimate.
- Pew found that 14% self-identified as libertarian in 2014 = 34 million
- Nate Silver further estimates that 22% hold libertarian views = 54 million
- A Reuters study found that 20% self-identify as libertarian and know what the word means = 49 million
- A Public Religion Research Institute study found that 7% (17 million) of the population is “hardcore libertarian” while 15% (37 million) lean libertarian. 17 million + 37 million = 54 million.
Still other studies push the numbers higher. You may ask…
Are these people the same kind of libertarian you are?
A tiny percentage are probably voluntarysts. A larger number are limited-state libertarians like Ron Paul. And even more are probably classical liberal types like Gary Johnson. ALL of them are people who can help you move in the direction you want to go. I will show you how to make that happen in a big way.
Perhaps you have another question…
Are the studies still valid?
The Nolan Chart Quiz showed similar results decades before, and continues to do so now. And the word libertarian is far better known and understood than it was in the 80s or 90s. Libertarian characters constantly appear in movies and TV shows, and the word libertarian is often used in conversations. We even have a libertarian president making global headlines in Argentina, with prospects for more in South and Central America.
How many libertarians do we need to find?
Recruiting even one hundred thousand of the currently dormant libertarians would transform the LP’s viability. And one million would revolutionize the impact our party has on elections and American culture. But it gets better…
Can you really doubt that our discovery of already existing libertarians would stop at just 100,000 or one million?
Isn’t it true that each new libertarian we discover can help us find even more, and also persuade some non-libertarians to move in our direction?
What are we waiting for?
We’ve spent decades focused on external persuasion and internal faction fighting, while doing little to discover and recruit the people who already mostly agree with us. Do you want to change that?
Do you want to find the 30-60 million Americans who already self-identify as libertarians, or who hold mostly libertarian positions on the issues?
Do you want to equalize with the Democrats and Republicans in size, visibility, and electoral success in less than ten years? If so, FUND IT!
Second, make a commitment to do a simple volunteer task. Open every single message we send you, even if you don’t have time to read it immediately. This simple act will help prevent Google and Yahoo from delivering our messages into spam and side folders. But, please, also read what we send you. That’s how you’ll become a part of the change we’re going to cause.
More information is coming. This email is only one in a series that describes this new undertaking. Keep yourself informed about what we’re doing.
Sincerely,
Steven Nekhaila
Chair, Libertarian National Committee
- Nate Silver says 11% of Americans self-describe as libertarians. I rounded that to 30 million for my low-end estimate.
- Political scientist Jason Weeden agrees that the number is about 11%
- Cato Institute estimated the number at 14% back in 2010 = 34 million
- Pew found that 14% self-identified as libertarian in 2014 = 34 million
- Political scientists Stanley Feldman and Christopher Johnson estimated the number at 15% = 37 million
- A more recent Cato study puts the estimate at around 19% = 47 million
- Nate Silver further estimates that 22% hold libertarian views = 54 million
- A Reuters study found that 20% self-identify as libertarian and know what the word means = 49 million
- A Public Religion Research Institute study found that 7% (17 million) of the population is “hardcore libertarian” while 15% (37 million) lean libertarian. 17 million + 37 million = 54 million.
- A 2011 Reason magazine study says that 24% are libertarians. That equals 59 million adults. I rounded that to 60 million to arrive at an upper estimate.
But some studies exceed 60 million…
- American National Election Studies has counted libertarians equal to 25% of the populace = 61 million.
- Numerous Gallup surveys have found 20-27% libertarians = 49-66 million.
- A Zogby study found that a whopping 44% (108 million) have libertarian views on the issues and don’t object to being described by that label.
German libertarian tweets what he thinks of bureaucrats, and police investigate him for speech crimes. Could this be you tomorrow? From Substack:
A new insane German speech crime investigation just dropped.
On 29 September of this year, a German man of libertarian persuasion known only by the pseudonym Damian N. tweeted the following:
No, anyone who is financed by the state pays no net taxes; they live off taxes: Every civil servant, every politician, every employee in a state-owned enterprise, everyone who is subsidized and financed by the state. Not a single parasite pays any net taxes.
You can find the tweet here; as I write this, it has a grand total of 402 views and ten likes…
No matter: Yesterday morning, police acting on behalf of the Ulm public prosecutor’s office raided Damian’s home. He is suspected of the crime of inciting hatred (in violation of Section 130 of the German Criminal Code) for his rough remark about government “parasites.”
“At almost exactly 6 a.m., my doorbell rang. I went to the intercom and heard: ‘Police, please open the door, we have a search warrant,’” N. recounts.
“They then gave me a choice: ‘Either you unlock your cell phone and give us the PIN, and we’ll take the cell phone with us, or we’ll take everything.
“Under pressure, I naturally cooperated, unlocked my cell phone, and gave them the PIN,” he said. The officers then took Damian N. to the police station for identification procedures. “The whole program,” said N.: “Weight, height, photos from many angles, and all the biometric data from my hands. I felt like a serious criminal.” The police also asked for a blood sample – “for your DNA,” as one officer is reported to have said. N. refused. “I thought I hadn’t heard right.”…More
For his service as Vice President, America honors him. For his lead role in promoting expanded military adventurism, mass surveillance, torture, and other non-stop neocon mischief over the last generation, we don’t. From the Libertarian Institute:
Former U.S. Vice President Richard “Dick” Cheney died on November 3, 2025 at age 84; his family said he had suffered from pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease. Best known for steering national security policy after the 9/11 attacks, he became the dominant force behind a Global War on Terror that unleashed torture, preemptive war, and mass surveillance. Amnesty International has described him as one of the principal architects of a program that amounted to torture, while the Brown University Costs of War project attributes more than 900,000 deaths and trillions of dollars in spending to the post‑9/11 wars he championed. Dick Cheney’s legacy is one of unprecedented destruction and the erosion of civil liberties.
During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, then-Defense Secretary Cheney and Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell resisted calls to topple Saddam Hussein. Cheney argued that invading Baghdad would force the United States to occupy Iraq alone, risk its territorial integrity, and require unacceptable casualties. “It’s a quagmire if you go that far,” he told PBS’s Frontline in 1994, asking how many additional dead Americans Saddam was worth. Those words reflect a prudence that vanished after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Within days, the vice president laid out a radical new doctrine. On NBC’s Meet the Press he said America must operate on the “dark side,” spend time in the shadows, and use “any means at our disposal” to achieve its objectives.
Cheney’s longtime counsel, David Addington, and Justice Department lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee drafted memos arguing that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to detainees captured in the Global War on Terror. The State Department’s legal advisor warned that claiming the president could suspend the Geneva Conventions was legally flawed and would reverse over a century of U.S. policy. Cheney pressed ahead, telling The Washington Times that he “signed off” on the CIA’s secret detention and rendition program and, as a principal participant in National Security Council meetings, he authorized the agency’s interrogation program, including waterboarding. In 2006 he called waterboarding a “no‑brainer,” and in 2009 he acknowledged knowing about the practice “as a general policy that we had approved.” Read More
Zohran Mamdani looks like he’s the next Mayor of New York, says former LP Vice Presidential candidate Wayne Root, due to more residents having embraced a form of libertarian socialism (Marxism, plus some personal liberty issues) that has replaced the traditional ethnic make-up of the five boroughs:
…I’ve warned for weeks now on my national TV and radio shows that if Mamdani wins, it’s because the New York I knew…the New York I grew up in…is gone. Today’s New York is filled with foreigners, and most of them are illegal aliens.
Gone are the days of Catholics and Jews- who all spoke English, worked their fingers to the bone, pledged allegiance to the flag, and celebrated capitalism. Today’s New York is a city of Muslims, and communists, and atheists- many of whom should never have been allowed to enter our country.
They not only don’t love America, they hate America. They hate white people. They hate Jews. They hate patriots. They hate anyone who is successful. And they choose socialism and communism over capitalism.
When I read the details of polls in NYC today, I’m proven right…
The general breakdown of voters is exactly what I predicted…
Jews are voting 75% for someone other than Mamdani (mostly Cuomo).
Catholics are voting 70% for someone other than Mamdani (mostly Cuomo, but also Republican Curtis Sliwa).
But foreigners are voting overwhelmingly for Mamdani.
That’s why Mamdani is winning.
This explains everything. The New York of today is nothing like the New York I grew up in. Yes, it was predominantly Democrat then… and it’s still predominantly Democrat today.
But in the old days, those were normal, sane, Democrats who elected law-and-order Democrat Ed Koch as Mayor three times.
And who elected Republican Rudy Giuliani as Mayor two times.
And who elected Republican Michael Bloomberg three times.
And who elected Republican George Pataki as Governor of New York State three times.
That old New York was a combination of Jewish, Italian, Irish and black.
But today’s New York is a foreign country.
I don’t even recognize my old hometown. It’s filled with foreigners- most of them illegal aliens. No one speaks English. Walking on the streets of NYC is like being at the United Nations. They’re from every country in the world, but America. And many of them, if not most, hate America and our capitalist system.
Think I’m guessing? Nope. The Democracy Institute is the most accurate pollster in the country for the past decade. Their latest poll shows New York City voters prefer socialism over capitalism by 61% to 39%…Read More
Join LPQC for a lively discussion about college activism on November 8 at noon, at our Astoria location, Stamatis Greek and Mediterranean Restaurant at 29-09 23rd Avenue (in the back area, menu details at stamatisrestaurant.net), titled “Libertarian Outreach on Queens 
Campuses.” Faculty and students (or recent graduates) enrolled at the five schools in the county are invited, and will get their lunch paid, for attending to speak on building a liberty oriented club or group on their campus.
Concerned about free speech and intellectual freedom? Assaults on civil liberties and due process? Too much smearing of young Americans as traitors if they object to supporting endless intervention abroad? Or for not being ‘woke’ enough at home? Then this is the meeting for you! In the wake of the recent tragic assassination of youth activist Charlie Kirk, Libertarians in Queens and elsewhere seek to emulate his approach to stimulating real dialogue at campuses throughout the area. We also would like feedback on the LP’s current candidates, or future projects in NYC and state. Hope to see you there! Details and Directions
Christian libertarian Lawrence Vance on the basic distinction between NOT tolerating something morally, while tolerating it as a civil matter. If gambling is wrong, does that mean we should shut down Atlantic City? Since strippers are also sex workers, should we lock them up too? If another human being is not harmed or forced into it, shouldn’t personal liberty be the rule? From his Rockwell column:
The winner of New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary was Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim democratic socialist who has been a member of the New York State Assembly since 2021. Conservatives are ecstatic that they have a professing socialist to attack so as to deflect attention away from their support of socialistic programs and policies like Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and public education.
Mamdani advocates higher taxes on rich property owners, corporations, and millionaires; free childcare for children up to five years old; rent control; fare-free city buses; raising the city’s minimum wage; single-payer healthcare; and city-owned grocery stores.
Although many conservative opponents of Mamdani are hypocrites, their criticisms of his plans are nevertheless spot on—except for one thing.
Mamdani has advocated the decriminalization of prostitution. He told reporters he wants his policies to reflect those of ex-mayor Bill de Blasio, who advocated “community-centered services” for sex workers instead of arrest…
No one with any sense—except a deranged left-libertarian opposed to value judgments at all—would support or be ambivalent about his wife, daughter, aunt, mother, grandmother, granddaughter, mother-in-law, niece, or sister being involved in prostitution. No one but a libertine (which should never be confused with a libertarian) wants prostitutes hanging out on their street corner or near the local high school.
From a libertarian perspective; that is, a property and freedom perspective, prostitution is okay—not because it is wholesome, good, or harmless (it is just the opposite)—but because it is not the job of government to concern itself with how people choose to make a living, spend their money, or have sex as long as they don’t violate the personal or property rights of others when they are doing these things. Read More