And in other news largely ignored by Virginia media over the weekend… The Libertarian Party of Virginia nominated Matt Waters, an Alexandria fund-raising consultant, as its candidate for U.S. Senate. Waters will run against Democratic Senator Tim Kaine and whoever wins the Republican Party free-for-all.
In his speech to LPVA delegates, Waters said his biggest concern is the unsustainable national debt. He characterized the $21 trillion debt as the United States’ biggest national security threat, greater than ISIS or China, and he called for an end to the failed war on drugs, the war on terror, and the war on poverty.
Vowing to campaign under the Virginia flag, the motto of which is, “Thus always to tyrants,” Waters said:
My campaign will call fellow Virginians to remember who we are, and why we fight. The tyrant today is not the king of England. It is our $21 trillion debt. The tyrant is a massive welfare-warfare state funded by the Federal Reserve that is completely unaccountable, unauditable, and 100 percent responsible for killing the value of every single dollar we earn in this room. The tyrant is invasive. The tyrant is corrupt. The tyrant is bankrupting this country. … The tyrant invades pulpits, businesses, families, laptops, and smart phones.
It doesn’t have to be this way. I say it’s time to crush the tyrant and restore our liberty now.
Waters’ immediate challenge is collecting 10,000 signatures of registered voters, always a big hurdle for third-party candidates. Beyond that, he faces the perennial Libertarian Party obstacle of gaining media recognition. Libertarians’ traditionally low vote percentages make it difficult for candidates to get reporters to take them seriously.
One outside factor might help Waters. The Republican Party of Virginia seems to be in the process of imploding. Mini-Trump candidate Corey Stewart seems best positioned to capture the Republican party nomination, although his victory is far from certain given the number of other candidates also vying for the honor. If Stewart is nominated, he is so polarizing that he will drive many mainstream Republicans out of the party. While Kaine is widely regarded as a genuinely decent guy, he is a cog in a Democratic Party machine that is tilting farther Left every day. Homeless Republicans may well seek refuge with the Libertarian Party.
