Nicholas Sarwark was the head of the Libertarian Party from 2014-2020. That’s very odd, because he has taken a host of pro-big-government, anti-free-market positions that seem incompatible with being a libertarian. But Sarwark says that “Libertarianism came from the left and belongs on the left,” and that “Libertarianism is traditionally of the left,” as his social media posts below show.
In his social media posts below, Sarwark has backed big increases in government spending, and attacked deregulation. Sarwark has promoted public ownership of electricity and attacks on the pro-free-market President Ronald Reagan for “deregulation.” Sarwark endorsed a socialist who wants government-owned grocery stores, calling that candidate “the most libertarian,” pro-liberty candidate. Sarwark has attacked transportation deregulation, and promoted the idea of making permanent a temporary increase in Obamacare subsidies, subsidies that would cost taxpayers $138 billion annually. Sarwark has attacked transportation deregulation. Sarwark has suggested that pro-market centrists like Steven Pinker should be fired from Harvard’s faculty, and has attacked FIRE, a non-partisan civil liberties group that opposes campus censorship.
Nicholas Sarwark supports illegal race-based diversity mandates for law schools imposed by the ABA, which pressured law schools to violate the Constitution and federal laws against racial discrimination, as law professor Gail Heriot has pointed out. Sarwark agrees with a leftist feminist that that “our whole society is built on” “misogyny.”
Sarwark implies that libertarian philosopher Ayn Rand’s free-market ideas don’t work. Sarwark wants the government to break up private companies like Meta and Google using coercive antitrust laws. Sarwark suggests pro-free-market President Reagan who deregulated was an “authoritarian anti liberty” politician. Sarwark likes leftist Michael Mann who hates free-market libertarians like the Koch brothers — Mann sued a free-market libertarian think tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, leading to a court imposing sanctions on Mann for unethical behavior.
HERE ARE A FEW OF NICHOLAS SARWARK’S LEFTIST SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS:
Nicholas Sarwark promotes “public ownership of electricity”, an idea favored by socialists:
Nicholas Sarwark blames Reagan’s “deregulation” and “messaging” for the rise of Trump:
Nicholas Sarwark attacks landlords during push for harsher rent controls in New York City:
Nicholas Sarwark says self-proclaimed socialist who wants government-owned grocery stores was the “most libertarian,” pro-liberty candidate:
Nicholas Sarwark attacks Republicans for not extending the temporary increase in Obamacare subsidies that was passed during the COVID pandemic:
Nicholas Sarwark backs government-imposed family leave mandates on private businesses:
Nicholas Sarwark expressed disapproval of a college for inviting a speaker from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a nonpartisan civil-liberties group. FIRE defends free speech for conservatives and liberals alike (and thus offends progressives who want to censor campus conservatives). Sarwark did this in reposting an attack over a college’s decision to invite a speaker from FIRE and Mitch Daniels, a conservative university president who curbed wasteful spending and froze tuition, reducing tuition in inflation-adjusted terms:
Nicholas Sarwark suggests pro-market centrists such as Steven Pinker and Larry Summers should be fired from Harvard’s faculty:
Nicholas Sarwark opposes deregulation of transportation:
Nicholas Sarwark supports illegal race-based diversity mandates for law schools imposed by the ABA, which pressured law schools to violate the Constitution and federal laws against racial discrimination, as law professor Gail Heriot has pointed out:
Nicholas Sarwark agrees that “our whole society is built on” “misogyny”:
Nicholas Sarwark implies that libertarian philosopher Ayn Rand’s free-market ideas don’t work:
Nicholas Sarwark suggests pro-free-market President Reagan who deregulated was an “authoritarian anti liberty” politician:
Nicholas Sarwark likes leftist Michael Mann who hates free-market libertarians like the Koch brothers (Mann sued a free-market libertarian think tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, leading to a court imposing sanctions on Mann):
Nicholas Sarwark wants the government to break up private companies like Meta and Google using coercive antitrust laws:
Nicholas Sarwark says that “Libertarianism is traditionally of the left”:
Sarwark, once again: “Libertarianism came from the left and belongs on the left.”
During the “Great Awokening” that began in 2014, some of the Libertarian Party’s leadership cadre became woke leftists who lost interest in free markets. A classic example is Nicholas Sarwark, the head of the Libertarian Party from 2014 to 2020. Sarwark can be found on social media attacking Republicans for trying to cut Obamacare subsidies and wasteful healthcare spending that has fueled America’s $2 trillion budget deficit. Sarwark has peddled the idea that “what the Democratic Party is doing” is “generally good” and the claim that “the best kinds of socialism (of which there are many) fulfill the promises of liberalism.”
Sarwark boasts that “Libertarianism came from the left and belongs on the left.” Sarwark has reposted Democratic attacks on fiscally-conservative Republicans like New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu for seeking to reduce welfare spending.
On Bluesky, he reposted an attack on the pro-free-market Cato Institute, which said that “No real libertarians would work at Cato or Scalia Law [School] or AfP. Those are at the top institutions of authoritarianism and control — the opposite of libertarianism.” AfP is Americans for Prosperity, a pro-free-market group that lobbies in favor of economic deregulation and civil liberties. For example, AFP seeks to get rid of unnecessary occupational licensing restrictions that make it harder for people to get a job and earn a living. AFP also won a landmark First Amendment case in the Supreme Court.
Sarwark defended Joe Biden’s student loan bailout, which would cost taxpayers at least $427 billion, and perhaps well over $1 trillion. It was blocked by the Supreme Court as illegal. All libertarian and conservative economists think the bailout is a bad idea. So do even many Democratic economists, such as Jason Furman, chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, who called Biden’s plan “reckless.” Furman said “Pouring roughly half trillion dollars of gasoline on the inflationary fire that is already burning is reckless.” Even the Washington Post, back when it was more left-leaning, admitted that Biden’s student-loan bailout was “a regressive, expensive mistake.”
“Under Sarwark’s tutelage, the national Libertarian Party [falsely] depicted police Officer [Darren] Wilson as a murderer. In 2020, it listed ‘Michael Brown’ and his death as an example of ‘systemic’ racism and ‘extrajudicial killings, and blatant violence toward black communities’ by police. Many libertarian criminal justice ‘reformers’ falsely peddled the claim that Michael Brown was shot as he surrendered with his hands up. This ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ claim was later debunked by the Obama Justice Department, but only after it was widely peddled on CNN and other liberal media.” Sarwark falsely claimed that a man hated by leftists bore the burden of proving self-defense “beyond a reasonable doubt,” when in fact it is the prosecution that bears the burden of disproving a claim of self-defense, as any competent lawyer would know.
