The Wrighter’s Block Episode 57 – Ben Boren Gets Wrighter’s Block

The Wrighter's Block

Ben Boren is the current Vice Chair of the Libertarian Party of Michigan. He is a former congressional candidate and speaker at LP events, spreading the word of Big Tent Libertarianism. He is talking about the Libertarian Party of Michigan’s convention and whatever we decide to talk about.

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Episode Transcript

DISCLOSURE
This episode transcript is auto-generated and a provided as a service to the hearing impaired. We apologize for any errors or inaccuracies.
FULL TRANSCRIPT TEXT

[Music]
i’ll go
[Music]
as a life raft cause if there’s room
enough for one there must be
[Music]
now
is
[Music]
i am waving while i
[Music]
i will only drag you
[Music]
the legs
[Applause]
[Music]
yes everybody it is me welcome
to your thursday night it is me
with the writer’s block
uh i cannot tell you how exceptionally
happy i am that you choose to spend
every thursday night with me uh
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today to all of you for showing up
uh on this thursday and to siesta cava
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my guest today is uh we’ve been friends
on facebook for
well on this account since i had it but
uh we were friends on my old account too
before it got sucked but uh he is the
current vice chair of the libertarian
party of michigan
he is a former congressional candidate
uh and he is a
well sought-after speaker at lp events
they call him
big get ben borin and i am happy to have
him on my show today
ladies and gentlemen welcome with me the
big get himself mr bim boy
did you say bigoted oh
thanks for having me matt yeah man i’m
glad i am glad that you are here i’m
glad we get uh we got a chance to do
this and we were able to make our
i’m glad you made your schedule work and
i’m glad the rain didn’t
didn’t and uh impede upon us being able
to do this
wash you out yeah yeah and we survived
the introductions too and we got through
that
and there was some very interesting
stuff i learned a lot and if i need a
purse i know where to go
i want to try mud water too i like that
mud water
so the mud water stuff um like we make
fun of it a lot because
it because of what’s in it uh but it’s
it’s not bad i mean i drink my i
literally drink mud
every day but that mud is completely
different
and it’s it’s not it’s not bad um if you
throw honey in it
it’s tasty i actually like it a lot got
yourself a treat
yeah it’s it is a good way to start the
morning and it gives you a lot of focus
um hannah lay says that
apple auto corrects boring to biden and
yes it does because i had to try three
times on twitter
that’s terrible so
uh ben let me ask you
how is it that you found your way into
the libertarian or
yeah into the libertarian party when did
you discover you were a libertarian
well i mean i caused like student
walkouts and stuff in high school and
i’ve always
been asking why forever i was like on
the student council and then also
created student walkouts and did things
like that so i’ve always had a little
bit of that in me and i used to live in
uh boston montana i was going to college
out there
and a good friend of mine out there like
dropped off like some sort of a ron paul
video or something and i was watching
that and he was uh doing like a lot of
activism in the community
so i got involved then and uh started
researching libertarianism and
you know naturally found a home uh i
guess i was like a soapbox politician
you know you’re like one of those dudes
on the side of the road with the
megaphone
talking about the wars and how many you
know bases we have in different
countries and stuff and you got people
flipping you off like get a job you know
like thank you sir may i have another so
i did that for a while
and uh then when i moved to michigan i
guess about four years now
three coming up on four um i actually
joined the national and state party and
got involved and i helped form
a local affiliate up here in my area
which was previously
unaffiliated and yeah i just found my
way
my first convention state convention was
pretty wild i sat in the back and people
watched i was like these people are
pretty weird i feel kind of normal here
you know and then um the second one i
decided to run for vice chair
so that was wild so the very second
convention i ever went to i was like
yeah sure let’s just run for vice chair
of the state
and um still here you know two death
threats later and whatever else
still here so i was in a clubhouse
earlier today
and uh somebody said if you haven’t
gotten the death threat yet are you even
a libertarian
and i’ve yeah and i could like i
couldn’t respond
because i was driving and my phone had
fallen to the ground and i was on the
highway so i wasn’t going to bend down
to pick it up to
speak to that comment but uh spike and i
back before spike was you know a spike
um
yeah spike um back before he was you
know just
the guy that i did a show with um
he and i uh got a death threat from a
cop
who was mad at us because he was
talking about how all drug addicts go
even if they quit
he was telling us because we were in
we’re in recovery both spike and i are
in recovery
he said yeah like 80 of you guys go back
and start using again so it’s only a
matter of time
and he had a we we figured out he was a
cop pretty quickly
but he had one of those joint accounts
where it was like
tom and janice murphy and we were like
and so i responded with from our
experience eighty percent of the people
who have joined accounts is because one
of them it was you
wasn’t it it was like i started hitting
him on the
you cheated on your wife angle and then
spike came in with the
40 of cops beat their wives and we
just started bashing him and he
threatened to kill us over that and then
he blocked our page
that’s a good one i don’t know if i’ve
gotten one from a cop that i’m aware of
yeah only like really but i do agree
with you
there’s like a couple things you should
you probably have to do to get your like
libertarian rite of passage and one of
them is certainly a death threat
i received my first one within a week of
being the vice chair of the state
so good good start was it by another
libertarian
had they signed had they signed the nap
right yeah it was like his first
convention and he had like just gotten
out of prison which we found out later
um he had done you know some stuff with
an underage minor
and i told him that you know you’re free
to vote for whoever you want but i don’t
think you should be involved with the
internal politics yadda yadda
so then he told me that he was going to
have ms-13 show up to my house you know
cocked and locked ready to go come on
yeah and uh
later his dad like got a hold of me
somehow he’s like i’m sorry my son is
really weird and he’s going through a
lot and i was like
yeah yeah i can see that
so you know he uh hasn’t been around
anymore thankfully
so good start during the campaign
uh people would find the fine muddy
waters media website muddywiresmedia.com
for anybody it’s going right across the
bottom right now
but they would um they would email
the website to get in touch with spike
which was a terrible way to get in touch
with spike because that got to me and i
would read everything and then i
wouldn’t forward it because that’s where
all the crazies went
the the real people went to his campaign
website
and there was this one guy who i wish i
still had this email because it was so
good
but he was going off about i guess he
watched one of our shows and he goes
you guys are just not taking this
seriously
and you’re making a joke out of the
libertarian party and at the time i
wasn’t a member of the party so i wanted
to respond with
no they’re doing a good job of that on
their own like they nominated my co-host
are you kidding me
um but um
you and he he was he was like this is an
easily winnable election for a
libertarian and i was just like
what are you even talking about
in what world do you think this is going
to be an easily winnable
election for anybody that doesn’t have
an r or a d
after their name um and in that email at
the end he goes if you guys keep this up
i’m going to come and find you i was
like
we talk about where we are all the time
come and find me like i
okay you you want to come to a cava bar
in florida you could probably use some
um
but uh so
what now that you are the vice chair of
michigan um what are the big issues
obviously covet has to be a big issue
for you guys up there
yeah definitely um covid and then you
know
all the other things that you deal with
uh our state
is certainly dealing with the bad
end of liberalism um we have very
draconian
rule you know our governor sets mandates
statewide
and trying to deal with all that and of
course the
you know million dollar question what
about the roads because everyone always
says that
um but we just are coming off of our
mandates and our restrictions
we have been wearing masks and or
supposedly been forced to for like
over a year now um i
stopped doing it quite some time ago
personally i i respected everyone’s face
you know it’s very consensual about it
but i just personally didn’t want to
wear a mask anymore it’s hard to breathe
in um
and my uh one of my jobs that i worked
finally
was like okay you guys don’t have to
wear a mask anymore i was like oh cool
and i was like
just trying to smile at work again i was
like [ __ ] is this how i was working
yeah what’s wrong with my face i haven’t
done this in a while
you know like it was just uh so you know
we’re dealing with a lot of that and um
i think for our state party one of the
largest
hurdles that we have is you know just
dealing with the
uh duopoly mindset and you know trying
to
turn would-be voters our way when they
agree with us the majority of the time
but they’re too scared i think that’s
probably the one of the largest issues
in the country i would imagine it’s like
so you know trying to turn
that and make it a business thing and
yeah
um that’s how i approach it always and
it’s amazing if you take the time to
talk to someone who’s interested about
helping out and volunteering like how
far that will go
if you if you have enough time to feel
the you know and like do a phone call
and stuff because i don’t like texting
very much
um it seems to go a really long way is
what i’ve noticed
right yeah and i mean here in florida
we’ve been dealing with you know trying
to in the duopoly for
years and florida has one of the largest
libertarian parties
uh state parties in in the country um
i think uh that’s how much that’s how
involved i am now
um but uh i remember back when i was
more involved
uh i think our gov our governor
candidate was adrian wiley
and i think at the time he got the most
amount of votes of any libertarian
ever and then uh i think john mons ended
up beating him
uh the next year or maybe it was uh
larry sharp beat him uh but he ended up
losing it but
at the time he was the largest and the
biggest issue that we had going out
trying to get this guy elected
was um you had so many people that were
like yeah but
i agree with him but can he win
i’m like well yeah you know if people
would stop
asking that question yes it’s like i
always just say well that’s up to you
you know like what do you have to lose
by voting for one of us like you’re
gonna get the same crap again
you know for the next two to four years
you know regardless and
right you know if you’re if you’re
agreeing with this you’re feeling yeah
it’s like that fear i don’t know what is
up with that fear like how exactly to
beat that
i got really lucky in my race personally
um
i did you know some canvassing and i was
out there a lot and i know a lot of
people in the community so
a lot of people like from the right and
left you know their respective parties
jumped
for their first time and voted
libertarian just because like they were
a friend or i’d met them somewhere
you know like i always save numbers and
i network a lot i got a few like random
texts like hey is this you on the ballot
and stuff was like yeah that’s me
like cool i’ll vote for you you know and
like so there’s all kinds of democrats
and republicans that voted for me um
so you know i i don’t know exactly how
we can
approach that in a different way but
getting them to do it just one time
you know even somewhere down the line if
it’s just local
right and right that’s stigma that’s one
of the things that i talk about often
um yeah i’m yes the libertarian party
has to
has to run a president president
presidential candidate and vice
presidential candidate they have to
because that’s how you get people to
hear about the party on a grander scale
um and you kind of can’t get people to
be introduced to the ideas of
libertarianism that way
um but they’re not
they’re not going to just switch their
vote for a libertarian president they’re
not going to say oh i don’t like biden
and i don’t like i’m just going to go
out on the limb and guess desantis
uh for 2024. um so i’m not and let’s be
honest it’s going to be harris it’s not
going to be biden
that’s what i’m thinking right um but
you know i don’t i don’t like either of
these guys and but you know i have to
vote for one of them like
they’re still going to vote for one of
them in 2024 that’s not going to make
the difference
the thing is when you run that uh when
you run
your presidential candidate you will
then be able to
get more people learning about it and
then they’ll start looking at local
candidates who are running
and once you get them to vote for those
people
and they’re like okay it’s working here
in uh
the in the local in the localities like
i really like the libertarian that’s
sitting on city council right now and i
like the way that he or she
is voting um they see it working and
that person moves up to you know
like state house state senate and then
eventually you get
into the uh into congress
and that like you have to take that
progression you’re not going to be able
to just jump automatically
and hit president so and then the
confusion by mainstream media too you
know it’s like we have to battle
with them calling people like rand paul
a libertarian and things like that and
they’re like
trump’s the most libertarian president
in history and then people associate
libertarianism or something like that
like
right you know and that there’s like
millions and millions and millions and
millions of americans
watching this and we have to like
somehow compete with that [ __ ] it’s like
let me break so it’s it’s so tough like
because that’s going to be their first
impression of libertarianism and
that’s unfortunate right and yeah when
you have it where
you have people saying trump’s the most
libertarian president
ever which trump actually trump may have
said that
um but but when you have him saying that
and people associating some of the stuff
he was doing with libertarianism it’s
like
well that just hurts us because how are
we supposed to fight that
yeah oh there’s no brand recognition
there it’s very
it’s very skewed he always says that
there’s no such thing as bad press but
having him claim to be a libertarian
was bad press yeah that put us back in
the stone age
i’ve thought about that too it’s like do
we just change our name and try and
restart or something because now
everyone thinks that trump’s a
libertarian
like i don’t know what the easiest way
to do that is but
he’s still pissed off that the
libertarians outperformed his reform
party
i love that they were talking about how
they’re going to start that new
party and they’re like talking about all
that i was like oh good luck guys
um i don’t know if you’ve heard of
ballot access before but if you’re going
to come into this and get all those
signatures in all 50 states like good
good good luck yeah well in all fair
like if trump was going to start
if trump was going to start his own
party he would get a lot of financial
donors that they would just be able to
buy the access they wouldn’t have to get
the signatures
um and it would have been a
cheap work around for him but he would
have been able to do it
and then he’d be like i created the
greatest party out of in america
the greatest party ever and everybody
would have been
the republican party never would have
gotten elected again his party never
would have gotten elected again
and the democrats would just steamroll
all the way through
um so when you were
first you said that you started doing
walkouts and stuff in high school
what were the walkouts over um
one time me and my friends were like
screwing around and it was like during
some test
type thing and it was uh it was during
the bush administration when they were
doing like the standardized testing and
you know that was like the beginning of
no child left
behind so they like gave us some
standardized tests they’re like oh it’s
not for anything but we’re gonna pull
you out of class for like four hours and
you guys can
answer all these multiple choice
questions so like i wrote
c on every answer on the thing and there
was one like open spot and i was like
this is the crap
like i’m not wasting my time doing this
i could be doing so many other things
and i wrote that on there
and my friend who was behind me like
looked over
because he wanted to like cheat off my
test and he looks at that and then he
just starts busting up laughing right
and um so then everyone like figures out
what’s going on the teacher comes off
then it’s just full-on pandemonium
and um like so then the principal comes
in and everyone’s laughing and everyone
else is like yeah this is stupid why are
we doing this you know and the next
thing you know the principal’s like
everyone has in this class has in-house
detention tomorrow i was like
all right we’ll see about that so then
like i i even got like some of you know
the
the better students and everything like
that and the more loyal ones to the
you know the state to uh even walk out
and not show up and everything
so uh it was pretty entertaining that
was that was a pretty good one right
there i enjoyed that moment it was a
small victory which definitely bit me in
the ass later but
you know what can you do well to be fair
fair um in school suspension
or in-school detention was a was it in
school suspension or
in detention i guess it was in-house
detention
yeah okay so it was after school yeah i
think so
i i we never actually had it so i don’t
know how they were gonna do that one but
i just can’t imagine like that would if
they would have put us all in the same
room again it would have been the same
outcome
like some one of us would have done
something and it would have been chaos
yeah anytime that i got in school
suspension i thought that was the worst
punishment you could possibly give me
like out of school suspension fine like
all right i’ll sit at home but like
in school suspension it’s like i’m
sitting in a room i can’t even do work
i’m just
sitting there for eight hours and that
was
terrible when
so as uh how long have you been the vice
chair of michigan uh just over two years
okay all right yeah um and in your
tenure
what has been the biggest challenge that
you have had to deal with in michigan
that’s a really good question i would
say we have a lot of different
personalities and we have so many
different types of libertarians you know
being a big tent party
um trying to get everyone to work
together and having
like you know
getting everyone on the same page is
certainly one um
and getting people who actually want to
follow through
with what they say they want to do like
it’s one thing you get people that say
they want to volunteer
and like i’m the affiliates director so
my goal is to you know get the
unaffiliated
areas um affiliated so sometimes you get
people that say they want to volunteer
and then it’s like you know two weeks
later they ghost
so that’s like it’s you know it’s like
every single time so it’s very difficult
to actually
get people um to follow through on that
sort of stuff i’ve noticed
and uh thankfully i you know i have had
some success with that
and there’s some like we got the upper
peninsula affiliated during this
tenure and um so somebody uh
the eskimo libertarian in the comments
just now just said the up
like just as you were getting ready to
say that yeah so
that shout out to ryan roberts and the
awesome merry band of misfits up there
for keeping it together and like just
killing it
so and uh it’s been that’s been a real
pleasure it’s been amazing to watch them
just take off and
it’s a great spot it’s right for
libertarianism those people are
up in the up are incredibly resilient
and they
certainly are defiant and dislike their
government very much so
i think there’s a lot of potential there
to grow that that area
now that’s all and michigan has been one
of those states that especially
during the pandemic you have seen uh
just blatant disregard for
any of the citizens you see it the uh
what’s the phrase
uh rules for thee not for me you have
seen that
in vast uh in
vast a vast amount of times from your
governor and her husband
um and some of the stuff like when
he wanted to drop the boat in when she
told everybody that you couldn’t and
i will say that the guy who owned that
dock
uh when he was like when he was like
don’t you know that i’m the governor’s
husband and he goes
yeah i know that’s why i’m not letting
you drop your vote
right um
the the other good one was she’s like
nobody travel right now don’t do
anything like that and then like a week
later they’re on a jet going down to
florida or something yeah she came here
yeah yeah she came in she came down here
to florida
um what i was actually betting on her to
be the vp
pick um up until
she [ __ ] the bed in michigan um and like
her state
started hating her i was like well okay
never mind i changed my bet yeah and
it’s incredibly
it’s it’s fascinating the imagination of
people that back a candidate
like that you know they’re so about it
and it’s like no matter what they do
it’s like that person walks on water so
like you know her to her base like her
base just still
like no matter what she says they could
you know she could be the pied piper and
just lead them right into the water
if she wants exactly yes um that’s
something too bad
uh andrew heaton that he used to work
with reason now he’s the host of the
show political orphanage uh he talks
about that a lot
and uh he talks about tribalism and how
it how it really applies in
politics and you definitely see it big
time
in the republicans and the democrats and
he compares it to uh sports teams
he’s like whenever you go to a city
they’re like we won and
i always say did you play i don’t think
you did
and but that is how a lot of people view
politics
um libertarians aren’t any different i’m
not giving us a pass at all
but uh once they pick their team it
doesn’t matter what that team
does they will support it
till the end and you see that big time
like with gretchen whitmer
with gavin newsom out in california with
a
sexual assault guy in new york cuomo um
and big time in in those three states
especially
you’d see that tribalism that just
fierce
bloodthirsty tribalism coming from both
sides it’s like
i hate your guy so i want him out or i
want her out
and the other side going you’re not
taking our person now to put in your
person and it
it is one of the most divisive things
that i have seen in america
is that divide it’s the south park
argument too it’s a giant douche versus
a turd sandwich
exactly that’s literally what we’re
dealing with and uh yeah it’s
it’s amazing uh
and there’s no rhyme or reason to it
either it has nothing like we’re not
even
at the space right now or we can talk
about ideology or like what we believe
in our principles or anything it’s like
we are at each other’s throats and i
don’t remember growing up like things
being like this it seems like it’s
gotten a lot more hostile and it feels
it’s got that really good wwf
vibe to it like you know this is just
great reality tv
with no substance what’s the world
wildlife foundation have to do with this
um you’re showing your age by saying wwf
well i don’t know i never really watched
wrestling wwe is that better
yeah doesn’t sound any better i got so
mad at the world wildlife foundation
when they sued wwf for that i was like
they’ve been calling themselves
since the 70s like why are you suing
them now in 2006
we got a case i think we got a good shot
of winning this and they did
which is why it’s now wwe um
but uh yeah tribalism is one of those
things that
it people will always talk about
classism
and uh that there’s like this racial
divide i don’t think that it’s as bad as
people think it is on either of those
things like
there’s definitely classists and there
are definitely racists out there
but i think that tribalism especially
towards political parties
is the true divide that we are dealing
with in this country
um and you even see that in the
libertarian party like
anybody involved in libertarian politics
in the libertarian party
itself sees that same tribalistic divide
and it’s because we as humans tend to
pick a team and then
that’s our team and we are going to
support it no matter what
and it’s one of the things that we as
libertarians and
just as people in general need to
get over because that is what’s creating
so much animosity in my opinion
i’m gonna agree more i you know and
obviously guilty as well here and i’ve
definitely had some rants with inside
the party and done that it’s like
but you know one of my goals is just to
try and remain as neutral as possible
and
you know sitting vice chair like it
doesn’t do me any good to be a part of
that so it’s
you know gotta just try and do that and
what’s funny is like some of my friends
might be involved with other
um you know groups and it’s like i check
them harder and i check their intentions
harder than anyone so like my closest
friends like i will rip into them if
like i even
smell any sort of [ __ ] you know
right and uh
but those are my good friends and it’s
like i want to make sure they’re true
no absolutely and i get that 100
definitely get it
um somebody that’s not a real
libertarian
uh asked what’s your advice to new
affiliates
um for new affiliates the key is
creating a good energy and a level of
excitement
and then you know if it’s like a
quarterly goal or something like that
create some sort of an event and
something to work for you need a
short-term goal
and you want long-term goals and that is
the best way to keep the energy going
because once you light the fire
everyone’s really
excited but if there’s nowhere to take
that energy and nothing to funnel it to
it’ll it’ll burn out very quickly so uh
having different events speaking events
and keeping that going is
you know it’s very important to keep it
you know alive and
you know functioning and then growing
too that’s the ultimate goal
fair yeah one of the things that uh i’ve
always noticed with new affiliates that
are getting kicked off and get
you know trying to get their footing um
get getting support from surrounding
affiliates to come to your events to
help
keep that energy going to keep the
excitement up
that’s been that i’ve noticed has been a
big help
um there were times that when i was
definitely more active here in florida
that
i would drive to new affiliates out in
the middle of the state just to you know
i’d go to their meetings and you know
go to their speaking events that they
would have just so
people would be there and be like you’d
be getting together with friends
for this event and it created the
camaraderie and that way
people would be excited to show up to
these events
absolutely andrea o’donnell said what’s
your advice for
starting an affiliate in this climate
within the party
i wouldn’t worry about the climate
inside the party like that
that should be the last thing on your
mind like all you really need to do is
find several individuals
who want to see a world set free in
their lifetime the rest is irrelevant
like you guys
you know you could argue semantics all
damn day but that doesn’t get you
anywhere
so it’s really about you know the 80 20
everything like that just make sure
you pick some solid people that are
going to show up um
and don’t worry about the climate like
that’s you know
i i lose zero sleep over that i don’t
even think about it
um you just find good people you know
and just build from it
right and that that’s one of the things
i like to tell people too
um i spend a lot of time on i spend a
lot of my free time on clubhouse
and there have been people who i’ve
heard this a lot
over the last few weeks where they will
say i’m very
interested in the libertarian party but
then i hear about things like what’s
going on
and why do i want to join that and to
them what i always say
is look what’s happening in you know
national or anywhere else in the country
unless you are in that state
doesn’t matter because you need to worry
about what is happening in your
affiliate if there is not an affiliate
in your local county or
city or however you do them then start
one and if you want to do that talk to
your state figure out how to do it talk
to the
uh your state party figure out how to do
it and start your own affiliate
and then work within that affiliate or
the state’s affiliate you don’t need to
worry about what’s happening anywhere
else because
you need to worry about getting
libertarians elected in your area
because like like i said earlier
national doesn’t matter
you need to worry about the local before
we can even think about the
yeah national supposed to be a you know
a bottom
what is it bottom bottom organization
yeah there we go bottom up yeah bottom
up so
yeah that’s what that’s why we get
screwed a lot yeah but
you know the local is where it’s at and
that’s the most important thing and you
have to have like something cohesive
there
to even start to form a state affiliate
or anything like that
it’s uh it’s uh funny how maybe five
percent
can overshadow the amazing work of 95
percent of the activists in the party
so it’s like i’m i’m gonna you know use
my headspace to like talk about those
people and the amazing things that are
happening
uh i could care less about the rest of
it um
you know and i’m not in those rooms i
don’t know the details so it’s not
what why is do i need to comment on just
some other [ __ ] from the peanut gallery
over here you know
yeah and that and that’s been the
biggest thing like anytime that there
were issues here in florida or there
were issues in anywhere else that i was
involved with
um you had your the 80 20 rule is
typically a good rule
uh up until up until we look at
yeah um well up until we look at the
people who are
causing issues in the party because i
think it’s the five percent that talk
the loudest that caused the biggest
issue
and that is where we see most of our
issues
uh is in that five percent the 95
percent they just want to go out they
want to do the work they want to try to
get people elected they are not worried
about
whatever drama is being brought up by
them
um yeah as uh liberty shamrocker says
don’t feed the negative
and yeah that’s bingo right
it’s the best way to put it um
our kbs was going like way down i was
like oh the storm’s hitting
um but so you guys have
an event this weekend i think yeah we do
yeah you do um but uh
so let’s uh let’s talk a little bit
about what’s going on in michigan this
weekend because
the way you guys had to do this is
actually really interesting
um i’ll do my best to do a quick rundown
there’s an incredible amount
of stuff starting tomorrow evening going
on for this weekend
this is also one of the first times and
you know i guess
i didn’t get the actual year the last
time michigan had a two-day convention
but you know no one actually knew so
this is the first time michigan’s done a
two-day convention in a long time
it was go bigger home go home and we
went big and so far it has paid off
um so we’re going to start off on friday
night we’re going to do a shooting event
with spike
so we’re going to get you know it’s his
birthday weekend and everything we’re
going to get spike some rifles and see
uh
see how he performs you know trying to
get him in the dirt and see what happens
there
so uh from seven to nine we’ll be doing
a shooting event with spike
um saturday you know we got our normal
business thing from 9 30 to 5 p.m
during that at lunch we’re gonna have
spike doing uh pitting lifetime members
um different things like that this whole
thing is also being sponsored by
nicholas somberg who is our
bearded attorney here in michigan he’s
the only person
attorney i know that has prosecuted a
prosecutor
so i’m very excited to have him there
and come speak as well
um about four to five p.m we’re going to
have
justin amas showing up there’ll be some
pictures taken with good old justin i’m
happy to finally
be uh around him haven’t seen much from
him but it’s
very exciting so he’ll be there he’s
going to do our keynote speech
uh larry sharp is going to be emceeing
that
we’ll also be doing an auction uh our
libya awards
things like that you know for our
activism we like to reward that stuff
um hopefully by 9 pm we’ll be partying
and having a good time
um sunday we got a 9 a.m breakfast we’re
going to have
nicholas somber talk about you know the
justice system in us
uh he actually wrote it like just us you
know
it was kind of i liked it um and then
we’re going to do a bunch of seminars
with spike cohen you know talking about
the um
what is it the atmosphere winning i just
forget how he calls that power of
winning
something like that culture always
forget yeah
close enough larry sharp will also be
doing uh
a seminar kara schultz angela mcardle
uh we also have some other speeches
coming from magnus pen
vidya he’s uh i like that guy he’s he’s
been on this show
yeah he’s certainly very interesting
he’s a good character i’ve done uh
i’ve went to some different events with
him we uh we ended up one time
at uh gretchen whitmer’s house actually
with a megaphone and there’s like five
of us
and we’re we’re you know giving her a
piece of our mind
so that was entertaining we definitely
got the cops called on us that time they
were
all around um so that was a good time
uh we also have criminalized nature
that wasn’t the kidnapping plot on
gretchen whitmer
heck no no that was just us ranting in
the in her driveway
so it was harmless i think i figured
that was the media spin it was like five
people like ranting in her driveway
there was a kidnapping plot
yeah you never know right um
decriminalized nature they got uh
psychedelics
legalized in ann arbor michigan so we’re
going to talk about that and how they
were able to accomplish you know
doing that because that’s quite defeat
right there
and we also have shane hazel the 2020
georgia senate candidate and talking
about his helo
initiative helios initiative so it is
going to be a jam-packed weekend
yeah you guys have that is quite the
lineup there
yeah superstar it was incredible that we
put that together um
it took all of us again working together
to like accomplish this and i feel like
we got a little bit of something in
there for everyone like
regardless of where you are on the
spectrum i feel like there’s something
that you would be interested in with
that lineup no absolutely
no you have a there’s a ton of people at
that thing that i would love to go see
speak um and the british people that
i’ve seen speak that i would watch again
yeah basically spike’s the only one i
wouldn’t pay to see because
yeah you get to hear them every week i
do
um and so does everybody else
they just have to tune in uh but
no that’s and you guys are holding this
at a uh at a native reservation correct
we are at their casino part of the
planning with that
we were going to choose a venue that was
in grand rapids i believe but it’s where
we got canceled when coveted started
so our thinking was you know it’s a
sovereign nation
so they are outside the laws of the
united states and they get to basically
pick their own stuff so you know
whitmer can’t necessarily have mandates
there if they choose to have an event so
that was part of our planning
was to do that there which i thought was
an incredibly genius move that we all
came to together i’m also on the
convention committee planning committee
uh
andrew chatterdon is the chair of that
committee and he’s done a phenomenal job
getting this all put together too
so uh hats off to that gentleman um
but yeah i thought that was a real boss
move right there like oh let’s just
let’s just make sure we can’t get in
trouble here and just throw it on the
indian reservation and
you know so that’s a great idea it’s
going to be at a casino so i can’t
imagine
you know throwing this many libertarians
into a casino
this could be interesting um so i i know
that uh
indiana has some casino laws where they
can’t give you free drinks does michigan
have those same laws
i want to say that i’ve been to casinos
here and gotten free drinks
um then again if i was drinking maybe my
memory is a little fuzzy so that’s very
not 100 on that um but yeah i think that
you know if you’re gambling or something
you usually get free drinks i mean i
grew up in nevada that’s that was like
their whole thing they didn’t care
about alcohol they’re like let’s get
this person drunk let’s get them to
empty their bank account
you know spend the kids college tuition
call the wife at two in the morning
you know uh according to brandon
according to brandon w um
i can’t say his last name either i i
yeah i looked at it i’m not even trying
that one yeah
um it says not on reservations they can
do what they want so
i don’t know if that means they get free
alcohol if you’re gambling or not
um but yeah that was when i was in
indiana we were at a casino there
and i was like at a game i was
i was playing a game uh craps or
something i don’t know i was already
drunk
and i was like and i was like hey can i
get it can i get a drink
and she goes yeah and she came back and
she was like that’s going to be 12
and i was like but i’m gambling and she
goes oh we can’t do that’s illegal here
oh okay well that’s just destroyed the
whole purpose of coming here
right where’s the closest liquor store
because i will be right back round bag
so um no i’m excited like i’m excited
for you guys that that
entire weekend sounds amazing like you
get to go pew pew with the juju
um and you get to go pew pew with the
juju then you get justin amash
uh going to be there carey schultz
angela mcardle uh larry sharp
like everybody there is their own
force in the libertarian party and all
of them
uh i respect all of them for the work
that they are doing
uh whether i agree with them or not i
respect them for the work that they’re
doing and what they’re putting out there
um so and the way they uh
somebody says that you remind him of
tony hawk
that’s a new one i’ll take that thank
you yeah i was gonna say i can see it
now
but uh i wouldn’t it’s the busted nose
isn’t it it’s that
big old beak right there yeah
um but yeah i i read that and i looked
at you and i went wow yeah i can see
that one
um but uh yeah i
i would be very excited to go to this
event and normally i don’t say that
about a lot of libertarian events
usually i’m like yeah i’ll go uh
i know most of those people we also know
how to throw a pretty good party too
i’ve been told
so um yeah it’ll be fun i think it’ll be
a very positive experience
hopefully and you guys said that uh you
got a raffle going on what are you
raffling off
um i just picked up some stuff from a
local artist here in michigan her name’s
edith pearce she has some very whimsical
sophisticated whimsical um artwork that
she does
like different animals and using
different mediums to create such animals
it’s kind of wrapped up otherwise i’d
grab it uh we’re gonna auction off
i think uh you know probably it’s like a
older piece of gold from mexico
oh gosh uh you know i heard talk of a
bump stock
um and some other fun things like that
it’ll probably be signed by spike
or shot by spike hopefully at least
right and uh
i think we need to get him on a bump
stock that’d be pretty funny either that
or a binary trigger at the very least
right so yeah that’d be good we have all
kinds of media coming in too um
i hit the horn on that we got a lot of
people and uh
we have a lot of other out-of-state
people coming into bringing
like a documentary janae leblanc from
texas will be coming in and she has like
a whole documentary around her so we’re
gonna have them there free press
so yeah it’s gonna be quite interesting
hopefully we can be on our best behavior
this will be the first like state
convention i believe for the redacted
caucus
so i’m curious to see how that turns out
that’s a lot of new people that didn’t
just join the caucus that were part of
the libertarian party
these are hawaiian shirt-wearing people
that like our principles and
now are coming into the libertarian
party so there’s a lot of them coming
from out of state too and i’m just
curious to see how this
all comes together it’s going to be a
quite a wild bunch you know
yeah from so i’ve got multiple friends
from michigan
and uh all of them are wonderful people
uh wonderful people that
i truly adore but all of them party
really hard
i i would be terrified to go to a
libertarian convention
because libertarian conventions already
get wild uh but one in michigan
i would be literally as somebody in
recovery
i don’t know if i’d be able to be there
um
but um so we are almost out of time here
uh but what where should people go to
support the libertarian party of
michigan go to support you
go to support artists go to sport
whatever you pitch whatever you want
let’s see what is it oh crap i forgot
our own web page michigan lp.org
yeah michigan lp.org and um we still
have
several seats available for the
convention that we could fill as well so
if you guys are close by or if you’re in
the state and you’re considering doing
this
come out and hang out with us and come
say hi to me and i’ll make sure you get
to meet everyone i’m
pretty good with that and making sure
that new people feel welcome
even if you’re on the fence about the
libertarian party i mean
who isn’t um definitely come out come
show some support and again i want to
thank like our sponsors like nicholas
somberg for coming out and doing these
great things
and you know thank you to all the
hard-working activists in michigan that
have been making this possible it’s like
it’s just a it’s a full-on group effort
i’m uh you know
grateful to be a part of that and you
know it’s been a it’s been a blast these
last two years getting to learn the
insides and outs and
concentrating on the positive you know
so um
it’s going to be very exciting i don’t
you know i don’t think i really have
anything else to
rep too hard uh i also wanted to confess
that i’ve never aided a waffle house
so well based on the places that you
have said
in the last hour and minutes that we’ve
been talking uh that you have lived that
makes perfect sense
i get it i didn’t eat at my first waffle
house for a really long time
because i didn’t live near one um
yeah before i let you go
there’s a conversation going on in the
comments here
between brandon w and andy evans
to which brandon says dude builds up how
crazy it’s gonna get and then
is like oh but our prizes are super
sophisticated
to which andy replied i was really
hoping for the full
color dildo set and brandon said
i’m certain a former congressional
candidate probably will have us covered
on that front
so are you going to have them covered on
that front
you know i could bring some gummy bears
or some different things like that i
do not have a set of dildos that are
colored
um but you know there is still time so
if that’s really something that’ll
get some more people out there i mean
maybe we could get spike to autograph
one
that’d be that’d be epic yeah i’m
betting that would be a first for him
i’d like to get justin amash to sign it
too
that’s not gonna happen that’s not gonna
happen but if it does you can auction
that off
on like your facebook or your on your
website
and that would bring in a lot of money
for the michigan lp
just talking it out there yeah just get
his fingerprint on it even or something
i mean right
real close like a microphone
well uh i i i appreciate you taking the
time out of your
busy work like you you are such a busy
person so i’m so glad that you took the
time out to uh talk to me today
absolutely it was a pleasure i wanted to
make it happen too so i’m about to go
put the work shirt back on and go sling
some more drinks for a couple hours and
call it a night
well thank you so much for coming on um
anytime you want to come on just let me
know i’m happy to have you
and i hope you guys have a fantastic
weekend
and uh give spike a hug for me tell them
i will give them a hug for you
i appreciate that all right thank you
very much thank you man i appreciate you
i will talk to you very soon
sounds good bye buddy see ya
to everybody else uh if you are in the
michigan area and you want to uh
visit their convention go to
michiganlp.org and pick up tickets so
you can go to this
this event sounds amazing and i wish
i could go um so make sure that you get
out there
uh yes thank you andrea o’donnell great
show yes brandon he killed it
but i expected nothing less from him um
but again to everybody else thank you so
much for tuning in
thank you for spending your thursday
nights here with me
and the writer’s block uh there’s i
don’t know if nbc still has must-see tv
but if it does you could have been
watching that instead you chose to watch
me and i appreciate that
um let’s see this sunday
this well spike’s gonna be in michigan
as we just covered this sunday
there is a brand new episode of cajun
and eskimo from bayous to igloos
uh at sunday at three o’clock on
tuesday you can meet me and spike right
here
roughly at eight o’clock uh where spike
and i will delve into the week’s events
like the 2020 wonder boys that we are
and then on wednesday spike has
spike has dave’s killer bread
on had it oh okay still alive
um and then on the first day of august
on the first day of august i have yep
jonathan reels
jonathan reals will be joining me live
on this program
so be sure to tune in for all of that
thank you to everybody for tuning in
uh have yourself a fantastic weekend
get all the stuff done that you need to
so on thursday you can watch
we ain’t left-wing right we are bouja
deen
yes um
uh so you can uh sit down and tune in to
cajun and eskimo from bayous to igloos
i will see you all next week signing off
for muddied waters this week
i am matt wright and you
are perfect just the way you are talk to
you all soon
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
you down i’ll try to use your body as a
life raft
cause if there’s room enough for one
there must be
[Music]
i will be
[Music]
the legs i’ll go
to convince the whole damn world i don’t
need anybody’s head


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Jason Lyon
Jason Lyon
Jason Lyon - USN Submarine Vet -Minarchist/Constitutionalist - #Liberty advocate - Principles over party - Constitution over Idolatry
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