I have written 2 prior rants vs. Nate Thurston and Chuck Thompson of the "Good Morning, Liberty" podcast who were critical of the Trump impeachments here and here. I've been working through a backlog of GML episodes and finally stumbled into episode 358. Now I'm not going to write a post every time I disagree with these guys (I can go through any progressive thread on Twitter and quickly take exception to 150 Twitter users); moreover, we libertarians notoriously disagree with each other/ (And I don't think I've written one yet on Tom Woods, although I've mentioned in the past a petty exchange with him on his old Facebook group page a few years back. (He loathes Mitt Romney and took a cheap shot at him while wishing Ron Paul an obsequious Happy Birthday.))
In this episode, Nate Thurston goes after Justin Amash (my favorite former Congressman) for his admittedly quixotic and brief pursuit of the 2020 LP nomination, "blind hatred of Trump", including his pro-impeachment (I) vote, and his allegedly indulgent change of party affiliation, not trying to fight for principle from within the more viable GOP.
Now I don't think Amash needs my help in defending himself, but I want to make a few points clear on this discussion:
First, the feud with Trump was not "blind hatred", and it did not start with Amash. Amash and fellow Freedom Caucus members (at the time) had opposed then Speaker Ryan's 2017 "Obamacare's repeal and replace" plan for principled reasons, including an opposition to subsidies and basically being little more a repackaged version of ObamaCare. Trump was livid at the demise of his plan and vowed revenge on Amash and others. Scavino violated the Hatch Act by vowing to primary Amash. Every libertarian I know opposed "repeal and replace", leaving a huge federal footprint in the healthcare sector vs. more decentralized approaches. Did Amash personally dislike Trump? Maybe but totally irrelevant. I left the GOP over Trump's clinching the nomination, well before Amash. Was it personal? No. I do think he's a horrible human being, but I disagreed with him on almost all salient issues: I'm pro-immigration, pro-free trade, non-interventionist, fiscally conservative, anti-imperial Presidency, etc.
Second, impeachment was a principled position, as I explained in the earlier cited posts. Trump abused his authority by trying to get Ukraine to undermine Biden's rival political candidacy. This was not in the legitimate interest of American foreign policy but his own personal interest, irrefutable corruption . Trump's own phone transcript of the Zelensky call was damning evidence. Amash focused on the evidence.
Finally, let's remember Ron Paul himself (who Thurston worships) was the 1988 LP nominee after multiple terms as a GOP Congressman. Paul returned to the GOP about 8 years later, resuming his Congressional career. Amash found himself increasingly isolated in the Trumpkin caucus, and flipping party affiliation made him the most successful LP politician in the party's history.
