It would disgust decent people everywhere if SBF got a pardon. So I’d say he has a shot! The only question is: what can he offer Trump? Advice on crypto scams, perhaps?
It would disgust decent people everywhere if SBF got a pardon. So I’d say he has a shot! The only question is: what can he offer Trump? Advice on crypto scams, perhaps?
It’s gotta be authoritarian right though… I can’t see a pro-immigration, pro-choice, pro-gun, anti-tariff, anti-corruption (generally pro-freedom, that thing republicans pretend to like) libertarian getting anywhere with trump, it wouldn’t surprise me if a tankie got along better given they’re into most of the things trump likes
I disagree. Most of the people Trump has pardoned, helped or gotten along with are libertarians.
They’re millionaires / billionaires who hate taxation and regulations because it gets in the way of their ruthless means of making money.
Trump is more than happy to help them to do that. He runs the government like a quid-pro-quo crime syndicate where you can buy yourself favours, including getting out of jail.
His authoritarianism only targets the poor; whatever scapegoat-du-jour the far-right hate today (trans, LGBT, minorities, immigrants); and anyone that tries to protect them.
He needs votes to stay in power, and since he can’t appeal to the left because everything he does is diametrically opposed with them (regulation, social spending, taxation of the rich) he has to pander to the far-right to keep a majority. Even if he is likely more right than far-right himself.
There’s a difference between libertarians and republicans looking to make more money. Most of the supposedly anti-taxation anti-regulation billionaires just want less tax for them and fewer regulations for their business; everyone else and especially imported products can be taxed more to give the billionaire’s company more subsidies, and regulations to prevent competitors from growing or starting up is even more welcome. Even when it comes to personal freedoms, they don’t care and will gladly support the government in reducing those freedoms if it earns them some sway.
This all goes directly against the libertarian principles of government non-intervention in the free market and people’s personal lives, both of which are vastly more important than just reducing taxes, which supposedly comes as a side effect later (even if in reality taxes would probably stay the same as you’d need to provide more assistance to low income people)
This isn’t to say that more principled libertarians are necessarily noble or right or whatever compared to people who just want lower taxes, just that saying it’s about reducing taxes and giving power to corporations is buying in to the direction that corporations are trying to move the ideology in
Also this. I doubt he will forget it.
https://youtu.be/ya6-_OA4As0
For fun in case you don’t click. One of the libertarians at the convention said, “I’d rather eat my own foot out of a bear trap.” When asked if she’d support Trump.