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Notes -
The Libertarian Party of Colorado has declined to run Chase Oliver, the national Libertarian candidate, and will instead put Robert Kennedy on the ballot. Colorado is solidly blue (screenshot) according to the prediction markets (screenshot), but the polls (screenshot) are showing that Kennedy is hugely popular in the state.
Whether it's Biden, Harris, or door number 3 on the Democratic ticket, I think this has potential to split blue votes and turn my accursed state red for one brief, shining moment.
I think that may actually be The Libertarian Party of Colorado's plan. Kinda refreshing to see a political party actually playing 2D chess for once, instead of Candyland or whatever the hell the Democrats and Republicans are playing.
Edit: updating with screenshots of prediction sites since they might change
I don't think that's what they're showing. They're showing that everyone prefers him to their political opponents.
That's a fair assessment. The actual Kennedy survey for Colorado is page 16-18 of this pdf, for what it's worth. Way too uncertain and far away to tell what will happen, but I'm enjoying my pipe dream of a once again red state regardless.
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They don't really have anything to lose, with two major party candidates that are unpopular, despite people saying they will still vote for one of them.
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I mean, didn’t the latest round of polling show that Biden was in a dead heat with Trump in Colorado?
I have not seen that poll; could you link to it? I know New Jersey showed a dead heat recently (amazingly), but from what I've been able to find, Colorado is still firmly in Camp Biden if he and Trump were the only options. I'd love to see something to the contrary.
That was Virginia, my mistake. Of course the latest Colorado specific poll was apparently in April, and I think it was a projection based on how the race has been tightening that Colorado is probably within margin of error? I'm not actually sure what I saw.
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Libertarians have surprised me as of late with how pragmatic and Leninist they have become. Not the whole of them, but enough of them that they are able to parlay their small stature into a significant political force, which is pretty new.
Getting Trump to show up at the convention, nay, to actually make some symbolic libertarian promises and generally appear sympathetic to their goals is a big deal.
The lolbert faction is still there, which is how Oliver is even the nominee, but from what I understand of the internal politics it's had to rally around a bunch of interest to get this, which may ultimately have just been the secret agenda of the Mises Leninists all along (what with splitting the Democrat vote to get a sympathetic Republican in).
I wonder if this will last, but it may have an outsized effect. A small but well organized LP could do a lot to sway Trump's hypothetical bureaucratic purges in a libertarian direction.
What does "leninist" mean in this context?
The term is a reference to Rothbard and his study of the tactics of the most successful revolutionary of all time.
In this context it means someone who maintains a pragmatic centrism in tactics as opposed to sectarians on one side and opportunists on the other. Someone who like Lenin is willing to embrace flexibility in service of their ultimate cause, which for Rothbard is of course the abolition of the State, without compromising the goal for short term gains or ideological purity.
It means someone who, like Lenin is committed to victory, not process. To ends rather than means. Something very much opposed to what the LP has been for a while.
This to me at least is an uncommon usage of "Leninism". Other spheres use "Leninism" to describe the process of lifting up a cohort of lesser qualified/politically irrelevant people to power as a mechanism of ensuring loyalty. See also "Bioleninism".
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