Back and forth and… back in the race!
Kurt Evans wants you to know that he’s asking the Libertarian Party to nominate him again, this time, to run for U.S. Senate against Democrat Dan Ahlers and either incumbent U.S. Senator Marion Michael Rounds or State Representative Scyller Borglum, whichever one wins the Republican primary.
Evans considered running as an independent, but the only way to get on the statewide ballot as an independent is to circulate a petition, collect 3,393 voter signatures, and submit them to the Secretary of State’s office by April 28. Since going door to door with a clipboard and holding large public gatherings violate our current civic duty to stay the heck away from each other and save two million lives, I am pleased to see Evans taking the far more responsible route and seeking nomination from a simple convention to be held this summer. (Hey, can we do political conventions by teleconference?)
Evans offers the following brief bio to reintroduce himself to the voters:
Evans, 49, is a 1993 graduate of South Dakota State University and a former high school science teacher. The son of the late country musician Kyle Evans, Kurt Evans was previously the Libertarian Party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2002. In 2018, Evans received 4,848 votes as the Libertarian candidate for governor of South Dakota [link added; Kurt Evans, campaign announcement, 2020.04.04].
Evans won those 4,848 votes by spending $80 on travel. (Seriously, that’s all he reported on his 2018 year-end report. His 2018 pre-general report showed zero dollars in, zero dollars out.) If South Dakotans turn out to vote in the same numbers as in 2016, the last time they had a U.S. Senator on the ballot, we’ll see 370,000 voters. If Ahlers can pull into a dead heat with the Republican nominee, Evans could target one third plus one of the electorate for a plurality win. That would be (let’s round up) 124,000 votes. Multiply Evans’s spending of 1.65 cents per vote in 2018 by 124,000 voters, and that’s a measly $2,050. If Kurt could make that math stick, spend $5,000, and Tweet more, he could win by a landslide!
Ooookay. Once more, into the breach!
I will always be fond of Kurt for draining enough votes from Thune in ’02 to give Tim Johnson the election.
I am not sure I’d like my kids and grandkids to learn “science” from him, although they act like they already did.
As for a teleconference convention, that sounds like something right up the LP’s alley.
If the LP nominates him, I’ll manage a betting pool over what date he drops outa this race.
The road goes on forever and the party never ends.
I’m always open to a true Libertarian Renaissance… or maybe just a Naissance, Bob?
Gotta have a nai before y’can have a renai. Everyone knows that.
Can Libertarianism grow amidst a pandemic? The current crisis, like the Depression, seems more likely to demonstrate to voters the importance of a robust government and coordinated community action. How does Libertarianism respond to a pandemic and sudden economic Depression?
By pointing out the obvious: The so-called “War on Drugs” is responsible for diverting national attention from the threat of pandemics. Libertarians have always opposed jailing people for trying to feel better.
@Cory — Seriously? Maybe it’s just my nature, but I can’t imagine anyone seeing the government’s dismal reaction to COVID-19 and thinking, “Oh, just what we need: More red tape!”
We could have had fast testing solutions months ago had the FDA not held private industry hostage in a bureaucratic quagmire. But don’t take my word for it: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/many-private-labs-want-do-coronavirus-tests-they-re-facing-n1156006
Not to mention the government stepping in and forcing distilleries, who are voluntarily rising to the occasion to make hand sanitizer, to add denaturants to their product in case somebody somewhere dared to drink it without a tax stamp: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/distillers-lawmakers-pressure-fda-revise-hand-sanitizer-guidelines/story?id=69918064
Oh, and even states are likely to have their fill of federal interference: https://www.wwlp.com/news/massachusetts/3-million-masks-ordered-by-massachusetts-seized-at-port-of-ny-in-march
Also, door-to-door checks in more populated areas and curfews enforceable by jail time will inevitably lead to less trust of government than more: https://www.katc.com/news/acadia-parish/crowley-police-use-purge-siren-to-signal-curfew-for-city-says-it-wont-happen-again (ok, that link is kind of just for fun, but still illustrates the point)
And to your overall supposition, my friend Andy Craig over at CATO makes a series of excellent points: https://www.cato.org/blog/libertarianism-coronavirus-pandemic
Cory asks:
Reuters reports:
My position is that, as Gideon seems to suggest in his comment above, nearly everything government has done in response to COVID-19 will eventually cause more human suffering and death than it alleviates.
Thanks for covering my announcement!
Mr. H might consider changing the title of his bloggings, to “South Dakota’s True Libertarian Press”, given the frequenting presence of Messrs. Evans and Oakes, plus my good friend Bob and myself.
We are, of course, the four most prominent Libertarians in the state..
Dear grudznick,
As one of the four most prominent Libertarians, we’ve been trying to contact you about your state dues. Please email info@lpsouthdakota.org at your earliest convenience. 🤣
All the Best,
goaknick
Thank you for the reminder, goaknick. I’ll get those dues off straight away.
Various governments have made bad choices, but so have various individuals.
Is the Libertarian position really to take no coordinated community action, let the disease run its course, and lose two million Americans and cause a collapse of our hospitals?
Andy Craig’s essay is just excuse-making. Fundamentally, it doesn’t offer anything different from Democrats who talk about smart government. Craig offers Libertarians flexibility to do some big-government things in reaction to crisis as they would during an invasion, but he ignores the smart government actions we can take to mitigate public health crises on an ongoing basis before they happen, like maintaining a robust public health system, moving health care coverage from job-based to universal and publicly supported, and funding public universities to expand research and educational opportunities.
Bob Newland had written:
That was probably the most widely circulated narrative, including by Thune himself, but as I’ve told Bob before, I believe one likely net effect of my 2002 campaign was actually to narrow Johnson’s margin of victory. In any case, Bob’s comment reminds me of a story.
In 2014, Iowa’s major-party candidates for the U.S. Senate were Democrat Bruce Braley, who had a strong record of support for the Fourth Amendment right to be secure against warrantless government seizures of our personal information, and authoritarian Republican Joni Ernst, who seems to support giving intel agents literally unlimited access to it.
On October 11, the Des Moines Register published results from its well-regarded poll, which indicated that Ernst’s lead had shrunk from six points to one point in two weeks:
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/iowa-poll/2014/10/11/iowa-poll-ernst-braley-race-tightens/17114281/
Two days later, on October 13, 2014, Libertarian candidate Doug Butzier suffered an unexplained “loss of airplane control” while flying himself home from a campaign event and died in a fiery crash:
https://kmch.com/blog/2015/10/05/questions-remain-year-after-fatal-dubuque-plane-crash/
If it was a coincidence, it was really quite a coincidence, and I’m obviously hoping my campaign this year ends better than Doug’s did.
Five Eyes, no doubt about it…nailed it Mr. Evans.
Just thinking, “Five Eyes.” Two normal guys and a cyclops? Inquiring minds don’t care.
Kurt, I know i shouldn’t extrapolate my thinking to the rest of the electorate (I thought as late as 9 p.m. on November 8, 2016, that there was no way a sane Republic would elect Donald Trump), but I’d like to believe that voters this year will be looking for practical responses to answerable questions, not unsubstantiable conspiracy theories. Viruses pop up. Planes crash. If super-powerful, super-secret groups are behind those incidents, you and I won’t catch them; they’ll kill us or just drain our bank accounts and frame us for some vile, irredeemable offense before we ever get enough evidence to make our case.
Don’t let concerns of some conspiracy coming to kill you if you get big hold you back from waging a full-tilt, coalition-building, problem-solving campaign. Run for real. Mobilize a Pressler-sized 17% of the electorate to make Rounds nervous. Find donors who want real change, and convince them you can make real change.
Cory writes:
I believe Five Eyes intel agents routinely use unconstitutional warrantless seizures of our personal communications to plan their covert murders of U.S. citizens, and Mitch McConnell seems determined to continue giving them more and more of our money with less and less accountability.
You’re right though, Cory. Likely voters, including my fellow Libertarians, generally aren’t interested in my conspiracy theories, and the party didn’t nominate a U.S. Senate candidate on Saturday.
I’d written:
The article at the following link includes a list of the U.S. senators who voted yesterday to let the FBI seize the online search histories of U.S. citizens without warrants:
https://gizmodo.com/heres-who-just-voted-to-let-the-f-b-i-seize-your-searc-1843445032
I’m pleasantly surprised to see that Joni Ernst and Mike Rounds broke ranks with McConnell and voted to secure our Fourth Amendment rights, and I’m unpleasantly unsurprised to see that John Thune didn’t.
Mr. Evans, grudznick hopes you are doing well, and your family is safe. Just remember that as your Lt. Governor, I will promote whatever conspiracy theories you espouse, as that will be my job.
Why would the Libertarians not nominate someone to run for U.S. Senate? Why not fill the ballot and build the brand? If they’ll put a menace like CJ Abernathey on the ballot, why not find a nominally more qualified and experienced candidate like Kurt on the Senate ballot?
I’d written:
Cory asks:
In the party’s defense, CJ’s campaign for the state legislature hasn’t publicly embraced my conspiracy theories, and even if it did, it probably wouldn’t reflect on other Libertarian candidates as much as my U.S. Senate campaign would.
I’m discouraged but definitely not suicidal.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/founder-of-vaccine-safety-website-ex-pharma-insider-found-dead
The one conspiracy I can get behind is that conspiracy theorists are attempting to destroy occam’s razor via sheer force of will and huffed rubber cement.
I’m with you, Dicta. Conspiracy theories are for nihilists who prefer the self-conferred special status of magical thinking over real civic engagement and problem-solving.
I have yet to hear a conspiracy theory that invites real, practical action. If any entity is powerful enough to carry out the conspiracy theories I hear peddled, it will send its assassins to kill us on our doorsteps, or suffocate us with remotely activated gas leaks, or simply hack our credits cards, zero our bank accounts and credit scores, and flame us all in the press with unrecoverable libel before we can hld one secret meeting in the basement to talk about gathering ammo to fight back.
People forget why Occam’s Razor is a thing. Minimizing assumptions is a big way of preventing us from getting things wrong. But these conspiracy theories a rife with them. Look at Kurt’s posts here. He makes assumptions that he probably doesn’t even realize to make his theory work.
1. Group of people or individual supporting Joni Ernst saw Butzier as a threat.
2. Group or individual decides death sentence is appropriate
3. Group or individual determines Butzier travel schedule
4. Group or individual determines means of transportation
5. Group or individual determines way to mess with plane either beforehand with pilot being none the wiser, or finds way to bring plane down in air.
6. Prevents any discovery of these machinations or made law enforcement part of the conspiracy to prevent it getting out.
I get the inclination to want to believe this garbage. Sometimes, terrible stuff happens and it makes no sense to us. The idea that simple chance can lead to terrible things melts our brains. We want to make someone, or something, responsible. It makes us feel less at the mercy of unfortunate circumstances. It gives us something to blame. But man, sometimes something small and ugly can destroy something big and beautiful. That’s life. Grow the hell up.
Oh dear me, Lifesitenews was one of Stace Nelson’s go to sites for unproven information on abortion he used to post here regularly, if memory serves. The site is considered right biased and has a number of failed fact checks according to Media Bias Fact Check outfit.
Poor poor pitiful Kurt Evans. You just know he will be first in line for his covid vaccination in the same order as Marco Rubio and the rest of the frauds. I would feel sorrow for Kurt Evans, but I don’t have a violin small enough to show that.
“Dicta” writes:
What theory do you mean?
The “coincidence” of the Butzier plane crash. I specifically mentioned his name, Kurt. Or were you “just asking questions?”
I’m planning to come back to the conversation above, but right now, on the eve of the extremely important U.S. Senate elections in Georgia, I’m going far off topic to announce my disappointment with Tim Tebow.
As far as I’m aware, Tebow has yet to issue any public comment on his role in promoting the multimillion-dollar fraud at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, let alone to apologize for that role. After RZIM quietly acknowledged the damning findings in the preliminary report just before Christmas, Tebow quietly sold one of his golf course mansions for $1.4 million and went back to promoting his new children’s book, which releases tomorrow.
Tebow continues to rake in money in Christ’s name and spend it in ways that don’t advance Christ’s teachings.
On January 4, I’d written:
On February 11, Daniel Silliman and Kate Shellnutt write for Christianity Today:
Mr. Evans, at the Spearfish Brewery you once said
I say to you sir, Mr. Tebow sucks.
“grudznick” writes:
I’m pretty sure I’ve never been there.
Sounds like Tim Tebow is acting like Kristi Noem and the rest of her party.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/02/revisiting-a-famous-hospital-confrontation/35429/
https://dakotafreepress.com/2018/11/15/evans-announces-2020-senate-bid-leads-with-push-for-ranked-choice-voting/
https://healthnutnews.com/breaking-authorities-debunk-false-rumors-brandy-vaughan-died-of-gallbladder-attack-disease/