 This is Mises weekends with your host Jeff Dice Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back once again to Mises weekends and a very very happy Thanksgiving Day weekend to all of you down here in Flyover country in Auburn, Alabama. Of course, we're focused on this football game against our hated rival the Alabama Crimson Tide But today we have a guest a repeat return guest Justin Romando The editorial director of anti-war comm if you're not reading him on that site and especially if you're not following him on Twitter At Justin Romando, you are missing out. He recently wrote an article called how we will win Which was about the Trump Revolution and basically talking about the libertarian angles That you sometimes have to look hard for in that revolution, but we're so pleased to have him with us and Justin Good morning. Thank you. Good to talk to you. Yes. It's great to be back Well, I think I know what you're gonna say, but let me ask you this. Do you think that Trump and Brexit Actually represent a real threat to this inevitability of Globalism and Francis Fukuyama's view of the world or do you think this is a a hiccup or a road bump for for progressives? Well, I mean for every action. There's a reaction. So you know the media elites and the whole political class have been You know trying to impose this this agenda of you know world government on us for a long time and so people are waking up and going hey, you know what we don't want this So whether there's a counter reaction to the reaction and what that will be We don't know yet. You know, of course in England There is a counter reaction, you know, you had a mass mobilization of the political class and The elites they actually had a march and they had a had an online petition Of course, it was being signed by people in Tunisia but so You know the battle was on there is a battle and Libertarians have a side They ought to start recognizing what side they're on Yeah, it's interesting to me. I remember talking to Lou Rockwell maybe a year ago about how Neoconservatives and the War Party wouldn't let Trump win So to speak now that he's won. How do you think neoconservatives in the War Party will try to control him? Right. I mean, that's what you know, like that's what we're seeing with the appointments, you know drama Especially over Secretary of State and all these national security, you know positions But you know in policy is personnel to a great degree, but then you have Trump. I mean here is somebody who not only said that you know the whole Iraq War was a total disaster and He said it at the South Carolina GOP primary debate and was booed and of course he you know his a whole response was go ahead and boo me and he laughed at them and Then he said we were lied into war now that is a radical critique that you know I think that only a few people have made and so That is I mean he is now the president of these the United States so what that means to the neocons is They're in big big trouble and they know it Well, let me read what I thought was a very profound Sentence from the article I mentioned earlier that you wrote and this is speaking to libertarians You say yet what they fail to understand is that his meaning Trump's proposed dismantling of the new world order America's role as world policemen would if put into effect represent the biggest rollback of state power since the American Revolution and I Certainly think that this is where a lot of libertarians fall down that they fail to understand that this pushback against elites is actually a profoundly libertarian opportunity right you know Murray Emphasize this and people have sort of forgotten that But war is the health of the state I mean the whole mechanism of statism and it is a mechanism will run backwards if we Can just start dismantling the empire and and that's what that's our primary task You know and the folks over at reason magazine don't understand that you know like they think well, you know If we have gay marriage and if people can smoke pot, then you know, we're gonna start having more liberty. No Wrong, you're not the key is let's Start Thinking about America first and America first foreign policy and then almost automatically You know the state will be rolled back here at home, you know because look at all the money That is sent overseas. I mean Trillions of dollars trillions of dollars spent three trillion dollars spent on the Iraq and Afghan wars and That's at a minimum So we can't really have a debate about well, you know, should we have a welfare state or not because all our money is tied up abroad And so, you know, we go into debt and then you know the Fed keeps printing more money to prop the whole thing up So that's the mechanism right there We can you know as Murray said we can roll back for 20th century in a famous speech to the John Randolph Club, but you know, we have to beat the Mensheviks You know, we got the Bolsheviks and now the Mensheviks we're living inside a Mensheviks Fantasy is that would he you know, that's what he said in his speech and yeah, we are and Their vision is global and so we've got a pushback on that level well, you mentioned earlier that personnel our policy that we're seeing some Neoconservative favorites Floated as possible cabinet picks. Do you ever think that Trump is trolling us to an extent in other words? He he lists or floats the idea of a controversial nominee for State Department like John Bolton And that ultimately his real nominee will be someone that is harder for the Senate to go after because Relative to John Bolton, they're less controversial All right, I mean, you know, it's useless to really speculate, you know Until he actually makes an announcement, you know, especially the Secretary of State thing I mean all kinds of people have been floated even Dana Rohrabacker, right? So, you know, we don't really know what's going on You know, I think a lot of this is you know, the people who want the job like Romney, for example Are actually floating their own name and a Kaleigh Ann Conway his Campaign manager actually said that I mean, you know, it's not about Romney, but about in general and so I Would take it all with a pillar of soul It's interesting everybody who wants a job is the kind of person we don't want in the job At least it seems to me. Well, I'm yeah, you know, maybe that's true and maybe it's not but I mean, you know If somebody is an actual non-interventionist they would want a job there so that they could you know Fulfill the promise of the Trump campaign That's kind of a libertarian type, you know generalization, but it may not be actually empirically true Well, let me ask you this cabinet aside What do you think the best-case area and worst-case scenario for libertarians? What is Trump's first year potentially look like? Number one, I mean here is the main threat to peace in the world today and that is conflict with Russia I mean all this stuff about you know, the Middle East and Iraq and Afghanistan. I mean, that's over So, you know the next step and of course you could see this from the actual campaign that we just endured We had Hillary Clinton actually Calling Trump a quote Russian puppet unquote. I mean, it's just unbelievable That's that that hasn't happened since the early days of our Republic When you had the Federalists and the Jeffersonians going after each other one said you're a French puppet and then the other one said you're a British puppet and of course it was the Federalists who were the British puppets As as a Gordy doll pointed out Hamilton was a British agent So this is pretty extreme and it's clear that you know, the Clintons have always been anti-Russian I mean, that's what the Kosovo war was about. I mean ever since The the Russians over through communism. You'll notice that the left has been anti-Russian And there's a reason for that You know, like the main threat now is Conflict with Russia, you know, like a revival of the Cold War and this has been going on for quite a while I mean ever since Russia refused to endorse the invasion of Iraq you know, the neocons have been been after them and so This is the new big issue. Are we going to have a new Cold War with Russia? Trump says no and The left says yes, so now I mean, you know, it's very interesting every say 30 40 years There's a switch in polarities You know as far as foreign policy is concerned At one point the right was anti-interventionist back in the 1930s and 40s and up until the mid 50s even and then came the Cold War and so You know, the left was anti-interventionist and the right was you know, like let's roll back communism Let's you know bomb the Russians and now it is switching again and the old right is rising again and Trump Trump's victory is a great victory for us. I mean, I can't even begin to even tell you It's it's a seismic event. It's an earthquake and it's shaking the whole world Well, it's interesting when you mention this because Trump I think divided libertarians as much as he divided anyone Is your view that that not only on foreign policy, but on all things at the left in this country has become just so bad That defeating Hillary was more important than libertarian purity Look, you know, the libertarian movement has always been divided since 1983 You know, you have the coctopus people and you know, you have the Rothbardians basically and out of that Split came on the one hand, you know the Cato Institute types and on the other hand the Ron Paul movement So, you know, like there was no libertarian leadership and So Trump won because he saw what the real issue is What the real issues are? You know, even his protectionist stuff, you know, you have to look at that and go, whoa, look Okay, he is criticizing the consequences of American imperialism because what's the deal that we made with the South Korea Okay, here's the deal We will give you quote-unquote free trade, but one way free trade if You will let us occupy your country. So you become part of the Empire and We'll have free trade. So what's the result? Well, you know, the result is that we have the rust belt Right and South Korea has US military and and the money behind it Right. And so, you know, the same is true in Japan and now they're moving into Vietnam They're actually going to have a base in Vietnam a military base and We are, you know, giving them military aid. It is all to encircle China That's what this Asian pivot was all about under under Obama But beyond the foreign policy, don't you feel like there is a a globalist mindset Among certain libertarians Is libertarianism Overly tied to universalism in other words Do we need to convince the whole world that libertarianism is the way or should we just be worrying about ourselves? I would argue the latter, you know, we saw this after some of the French terrorist attacks, you know All these cries well, they need our version the second amendment, but that's that's not really how Murray saw the world I don't think well. Yeah, and you know, in fact, I wrote a column on this whole question called libertarianism in one country and if you look at What has been going on in the rest of the world, I mean Where has there been a libertarian revolution like the American Revolution? I mean all the all the a liberal in the old, you know, classical liberal sense All those revolutions in the mid 1800s failed They failed and so What you have is, you know, statism. I mean, you know, like America is Surrounded by a sea of statism. We're in island and so We have to have libertarianism in one country now You know ideas travel internationally and it's possible that there could be a libertarian revolution In the intellectual, you know, in political sense Abroad but there's no way to import that certainly not by force of arms and certainly not with the u.s. Government propaganda I mean, it just doesn't work that way So for the foreseeable future. Yes, if we're going to have libertarianism It's going to be in a single country and that's that and if somebody is living in say, argentina or something And they want to have freedom while they should come to the united states. I mean, that's my advice to them If they can of course under trump Well, it's going to be unbelievable to watch how this first year unfold because none of us were expecting it Again, the article I mentioned by jester romano is called how we will win We'll link to it on our youtube page and also on our website great conversation fascinating insights, justin Thank you so much for your time and ladies and gentlemen have a great weekend Subscribe to mises weekends via itunes you stitcher and soundcloud or listen on mises.org and youtube