Kibbe On Liberty

Matt Kibbe is joined by Kelley Vlahos from the Quincy Institute and Matt Purple of the American Conservative for an emergency special edition of Kibbe on Liberty to sort out what is happening in Afghanistan and whether President Biden should be praised for ending the twenty-year conflict or condemned for mismanaging the withdrawal. Americans have voted for anti-war rhetoric in each of the last six presidential elections, and now at last they are seeing some results. Ending the war was never going to be pretty, but it was nevertheless necessary and long overdue.

Matt Kibbe sits down with Gene Epstein, director and moderator of the Soho Forum, to talk about the importance of debating big ideas. The Soho Forum has hosted over 50 debates on a variety of topics of interest to anyone who values liberty, philosophy, economics, public policy, and political science. Epstein offers his opinion on what makes a good debate, and the role that these conversations play in shaping public attitudes toward things like capitalism, socialism, and the role of government. He also explains why debating socialists can be a difficult and dangerous enterprise, primarily when members of the audience become hostile.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Tom Woods, host of the Tom Woods Show, who discusses public speaking, communication, and the importance of communicating complex ideas in simple language. Too many libertarians talk like economists, resorting to obscure and overly specialized jargon. If we want to spread the message of freedom, we need to get better at boiling our ideas down to their essentials. They go on to discuss the insanity of COVID-19 lockdowns, misleading caricatures of libertarians, political strategy, and the future of the movement with young people.

Matt Kibbe sits down with Lily Tang Williams, a survivor of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, to discuss her concerns about the direction America is going. Having fled the horrors of Chinese communism, Williams is dismayed to see public health officials openly admiring the Chinese government’s authoritarian approach to disease control. Not only that, but the type of critical race theory being pushed in American schools resembles Chinese propaganda that seeks to divide people into “oppressor” groups and “oppressed” groups. We see Americans reporting each other to the government, as Mao encouraged his citizens to do, and the proposed vaccine passports resemble China’s social credit system. Mao’s policies ended up killing tens of millions of people; it’s vital that we not repeat his mistakes here at home.

Matt Kibbe sits down with comedian Dave Smith, host of the Part of the Problem podcast, to talk about the diverse ways in which we can communicate libertarian ideas to the broader public. Smith uses humor and satire to skewer the absurdity of big government and its apologists. But in a crowd of 2,500 libertarians at PorcFest 2021, it’s possible to find examples of just about every other strategy you can think of. Both Smith and Kibbe stress the importance of building a community of writers, artists, and public speakers, because your ideas are only as good as your ability to communicate them.

Matt Kibbe talks to Martha Bueno, Candidate for Miami Dade County Commissioner and the daughter of Cuban immigrants, about the developing situation in Cuba, where locals are rising up in protest against government oppression. Bueno recounts the ways in which her whole life has been haunted by the specter of Latin American socialism, and explains what the situation is really like for people living in Cuba today. While American politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez continue to apologize for socialist policies, people who have actually lived it know that the answer is freedom, not socialism.

In the first of a series of shows filmed at this year's PorcFest, Matt Kibbe sits down with organizers Carla Gericke and Dennis Pratt to discuss this remarkable gathering of liberty lovers from all across the nation. PorcFest is just one part of the larger Free State Project, an effort to gather libertarians and other freedom-minded folk in the state of New Hampshire to influence public policy and build a community. Whether you want to run for office, start a business, or just live near people who share your ideals, the Free State Project hopes to create an island of liberty apart from the increasingly polarized and authoritarian tendencies gripping the rest of the country.

Matt Kibbe sits down with Ted Mitzlaff from Goodwood Brewing and Oliver Dunford from the Pacific Legal Foundation to discuss the ways in which the capricious mandates from Kentucky’s governor have all but destroyed the state’s brewing industry. After struggling to comply with a series of ever-shifting COVID-19 regulations, the brewery has decided to take Governor Andy Beshear to court, challenging his authority to unilaterally wreak devastation on his citizens’ livelihoods. Goodwood’s situation is one out of thousands of similar businesses driven to the point of bankruptcy by draconian lockdown policies.

Matt Kibbe is joined by professor of economics Christopher Coyne to discuss the new book “Tyranny Comes Home.” Coyne’s thesis is that the abuse of military power works like a boomerang, with our nation-building efforts abroad returning to our shores in the form of police militarization, domestic surveillance, and massive civil liberties violations. It’s not actually possible to have a free and open society at home when we insist on acting as the world’s policemen abroad. Tyranny Comes Home: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084JC1DX2/

Matt Kibbe sits down with Blaze Media founder Glenn Beck to talk about the Great Reset or, as Kibbe calls it, COVID socialism. Under the guise of public health, we’ve seen terrifying expansions in government spending, debt, inflation, and outright authoritarianism. In the midst of all this, we hear President Biden admitting that the democratic process itself is inconvenient to the goals he wants to pursue. China is not only being praised for its handling of the pandemic, but for the top-down way it runs its economy. Basic American values like freedom and responsibility have gone from ends in themselves to problems to be overcome by our supposedly enlightened leaders.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) to talk about where Republicans have strayed from their traditional values. As a high school dropout who turned a bad situation into a phenomenal success story, Rep. Mace stresses the importance of compassion and second chances in politics, crossing party lines to work on issues like ending foreign wars and reforming the criminal justice system. We can create opportunity and lift people out of poverty, but not by mortgaging our children’s futures with irresponsible spending and a one-strike-and-you’re-out prison-industrial complex.

Matt Kibbe talks with Li Schoolland, who grew up in China under Mao Zedong, about the many ways that Chinese communism persecutes individuals and crushes opportunity. As elites in the U.S. increasingly look to China for ideas about economic and social governance, we have to remember that country’s abysmal record of human rights violations and grinding poverty. Not only does communism emphatically not work, but the government knows it doesn’t work, yet clings to it anyway because political power is more important than an improved life for the Chinese people. It’s a road that the U.S. must shun at every opportunity.

Matt Kibbe talks to Gil Dagan, Leadership Outreach Coordinator for Students for Liberty in Israel, about the recent riots and rocket strikes in Jerusalem. In this highly charged atmosphere, Gil attempts to give a balanced take from a libertarian perspective about both the historical roots of the conflict and the situation as it exists today. As extremists on both sides continue to escalate and provoke violence for political reasons, ordinary Israelis and Palestinians generally just want to live their lives in peace and freedom.

Matt Kibbe sits down with blues guitarist Tommy Z to talk about the hazards of living in a blue state, with a governor bent on destroying the live music industry and stoking public fears. Being a musician in the time of COVID is hard, especially when you’re a freedom-loving Ron Paul acolyte trying to promote a new record. Tommy Z’s album “Plug In and Play” will be released on May 28, and you can listen to it as long as Andrew Cuomo doesn’t make it illegal. Get "Plug In and Play": https://tommyzband.com/pre-order-plug-in-and-play

Matt Kibbe sits down with Mark Pellegrino, a film and television actor who’s had roles in such successful projects as “The Big Lebowski,” “Lost,” and “Mulholland Drive.” They talk about Mark’s devotion to Ayn Rand and the philosophy of freedom, cancel culture in Hollywood, postmodernism, and how dignity comes from autonomy and self-worth, not a government handout.

Matt Kibbe sits down with economist Peter Boettke to discuss his new book, “The Struggle for a Better World,” about the hope that comes along with the vision of a free society. Too often, economists are seen as raining on the parades of the do-gooders who want to fix injustice in society. Boettke argues that we can be just as positive and inspiring as progressives, only instead of depending on privileged elites to solve our problems for us, we can recognize that a truly great society comes from ordinary people being allowed to pursue happiness in their own individual ways.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Stephen Kent, author of “How the Force Can Fix the World,” and Free the People executive producer Matt Battaglia to discuss the valuable moral and political lessons of the world’s most popular movie franchise. The Star Wars saga contains deep and highly relevant truths to help us repair much of what is wrong with the world today, starting with the need to reject fear and embrace hope. At a time when it seems like every aspect of society is dominated by the fear of what might go wrong, we are desperately in need of a moral compass that points toward redemption, forgiveness, and a future that can be better and brighter than today.

Matt Kibbe sits down with economist Phillip Magness, who has been documenting the historical record of America’s most powerful bureaucrat, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Although we’re supposed to trust everything Fauci says on faith, it turns out he has a long record of flip-flopping, baseless assertions, and just plain incompetence. In the 1980s, Fauci speculated wildly about the possibility of transmitting the HIV virus through casual contact, leading to persecution and social stigma for homosexuals. And last year, he freely admitted that lockdowns and mask mandates don’t work before realizing that it was in his political interest to claim the opposite. We should stop treating him like an expert and start treating him like a power-hungry political hack.

Matt Kibbe is joined by civil rights attorney Matt Larosiere to talk about the government’s various attempts to restrict our access to firearms. As is the case with most regulations, gun control doesn’t eliminate guns; the rich, the powerful, and the criminal will always be able to get them. Instead, what these laws do is prevent the poorest and most vulnerable citizens from being able to defend themselves. Anyone concerned with systemic racism and violence against minorities should oppose rules that disarm working Americans.

Matt Kibbe talks to former Libertarian vice presidential nominee Spike Cohen about government fearmongering and the threat of vaccine passports to liberty. They also discuss how living with a chronic illness can be surprisingly motivating and what the Libertarian Party needs to do to get its house in order and start attracting voters. Cohen argues that Libertarians need to be better at addressing the practical concerns of real Americans and stop their bad habit of gatekeeping the movement.