Last weekend I went to the 2024 LP Georgia convention in Conyers. This year was my fifth convention; my first was back in 2020 in Douglasville. That convention in 2020 was a remarkable experience, and since then I have been serving the state party as a member of the Executive Committee and the IT Director, in addition to being a founding officer of the Libertarian Party of Fayette-Coweta, GA.
Let me go ahead and put out a disclaimer. This post has my personal opinions. I’m not speaking on behalf of the party. This is an attendee’s perspective.
You Are The Power
The morning started off with guest speakers from You Are The Power, a network of volunteers formed by Spike Cohen, former LP VP candidate1. Their business is grassroots help for people who have been stepped on by government. They shared stories about some of the heart-wrenching cases they’ve taken up.
They’ve helped a homeless vet in North Carolina find justice after police assaulted him and tased his service dog. They’ve been fighting to help homeless shelters stay open. They’ve been investigating the cold case of a young man in Mississippi whose body was found decapitated a month after he’d called his mother, expressing fear for his life.
Closer to home, here in Georgia, they have been helping the Hernandez family. Matt and Tuckey Hernandez were separated from their two daughters by DFACS over false accusations of child abuse. No investigation was even performed, but the state split the family and filed criminal charges. The good news is, the Juvenile Court Judge has reversed her decision and ordered the family to be reunited. Hopefully the charges will be dropped quickly.
While dealing with this situation, the YATP folks have been encountering more and more cases of trouble in the Georgia DFACS system. They dropped this bit of information: Over 1,800 children “in the system” went missing during COVID shutdowns. Missing. That’s terrifying.
Please consider joining You Are The Power. Donate, if you can! They even have a free tier of membership. This is real grassroots action that can help make the world a better place.
The Debate
I came to the debate hoping to get to know the candidates better. I’ve known Chase Oliver for years, he even knocked on doors for one of my Town Council campaigns. I remembered meeting Jacob Hornberger four years ago. I’ve run into Josh Smith at a couple of conventions, and I met Mike ter Maat at last year’s Georgia convention.
My verdict: Chase, Mike, and Lars gave good, solid, principled libertarian answers through and through, even when they were attacked for it. Jacob is good on principles, and I like him as a person, but seems to be very set on portraying himself as “the most Libertarian in the room”, even calling his opponents socialists on the one hand and right-wingers on the other. Rectenwald came across as a conspiracy theorist. Smith struck me as rude and immature, only outdone in that by another podcaster up on the stage.
For some reason I have yet to fathom, someone named Toad, who is not running, was seated with the candidates. Barefoot and in a baseball jersey. Every serious candidate was dressed as a serious candidate. But even Toad said that he wasn’t running. He insulted the party, insulted the other candidates, and was a clown.
One of the moderators of the debate was almost as bad. Clint Russell, another podcaster, seemed to want to be in the debate rather than moderating it.
The worst part of the debate came when the moderators asked the candidates whether they had gotten the COVID vaccine. Mike ter Maat started off with the only answer any of them should have had to give: “Nunya.” As in, “Nunya business.” Way to go, Mike. That is the Libertarian answer. But the debate descended into a gutter of noise as conspiracy theorists tried to harass and shame candidates over their own personal medical decisions. It only stopped when I shouted, from the audience, “Shut up about the damn vaccines!” The crowd echoed my sentiment. And I was not ashamed.
There was a final moment of levity at the very end when a Trump impersonator appeared from the sidelines, and cracked a few actually good jokes.
I didn’t stay around for the rest of the evening’s entertainment, which included a podcast with Toad, Russell, and others, and some stand-up comedians. Not my cup of tea.
The Business Meeting
Sunday’s business meeting actually went very well. Procedurally, everything went smoothly. With no disagreement, the Libertarian Party of Georgia adopted some meaningful resolutions: A statement in favor of Defend the Guard legislation, and a strong condemnation of swatting. We fixed a loophole in the bylaws that would have allowed a convention to lower the vote margin needed to amend the Statement of Principles. We even passed a few bylaws changes!
In spite of myself, I am once again on the state Executive Committee for the coming year. And here, I have to ask for some help. Executive Committee members are expected to help raise donations. So if you wouldn’t mind helping me out, please use one of these links so that your donation can be tagged as something I helped to bring in. Hey, let me know you donated, and I’ll subscribe you to this Substack! You’ll be able to comment on posts, and look through my archives!
Finally, if anyone can help me get to DC around Memorial Day weekend, I’ve also been voted in as a delegate to the 2024 Libertarian National Convention. How does this happen?
Also known as Tasha’s husband.