Younger voters online are closely watching Blake Masters’ Senate race in Arizona. Masters’ background as a disruptive innovator in technology and his penchant for irreverently challenging sacred cows has made his candidacy stand out in a noisy political moment. Despite an attempt by Democrats to fund an out-of-touch Libertarian candidate to spoil his chances, Masters represents an opportunity to build a family-focused liberty movement with broad appeal.
When I tuned into the recent Arizona Senate debate, I was surprised to see a Libertarian Party candidate on stage with Blake Masters and Democratic incumbent Mark Kelly. That the LP candidate would use the opportunity to bring attention to the idea of lowering the age of consent reminded me why that party has so far failed to resonate with millions of Americans with liberty instincts. The idea of lowering the age of consent may be fascinating to some of the D.C. types in the left-wing groups funding this Libertarian to curb Masters’ chances for an upset, but that’s about it. Americans are much more interested in liberty ideas that enrich their families and local communities.
Although they get almost no coverage, serious liberty lovers need to take a closer look at the reforms Masters has shown interest in bringing to Washington. I recently interviewed him on my podcast and found his willingness to creatively roll back D.C.’s aggression against families promising.
In our discussion, Masters expressed interest in politically challenging the Federal Reserve’s insane monetary policies—something the Senate desperately needs more ambitious voices to do immediately. Both parties printed trillions of dollars, using the pandemic as an excuse to enrich cronies and corporations. Now historically high rates of inflation continue to tax our savings at close to 10 percent while wages are stagnant and food, energy, medicine, and housing costs soar.
As Steve Bannon recently echoed from Ron Paul’s lifelong crusade, we need to abolish the Federal Reserve. A more moderate but urgent proposal Masters affirms would be simply to remove capital gains taxes on gold, silver, and cryptocurrencies. This simple move would give families—young and old alike—life rafts out of this inflationary disaster. Being able to have precious metals and crypto would provide middle class families a low-cost ability to have their checking and savings appreciate in value relative to the goods and services they need. Instead of having 15 percent of a monthly income and savings stolen through inflation—on top of high taxes—families could actually build wealth. What a novel concept—middle class families building wealth outside the control of Wall Street.
With D.C. seemingly hellbent on precipitating a dramatic dollar devaluation with its disastrous Ukraine policy, families need this relief from inflation now. As the Mises Institute’s Tho Bishop has pointed out, Masters could be a key addition to a block of senators who could leverage such a provision in a Republican-led Senate tax reform.
Another fallout from D.C.’s exploitation of the pandemic, climate change hysteria, and the Ukraine conflict is food system failures. Barren shelves are a staple of Biden’s America. Recent cyber attacks on our oligarchic beef system revealed the national security imperative to decentralize food distribution. Cronyism has created nutrient-depleted groceries disrupted by chaotic foreign affairs. The answer to lawless globalism is stable localism. Even liberals love their farmers markets.
We need a cyber attack-resilient local food renaissance that will provide families with high quality nutrition at prices less affected by far away world events and actors. What stands in the way is rigged regulations written by big business. Masters has signaled interest in bringing reforms like Representative Thomas Massie’s (R-Ky.) PRIME Act to allow farmers more freedom to sell beef and other products direct to local consumers.
Masters and I talked about how families should be free from the humiliation of watching their tax dollars subsidize rancid vegetable oil-laced foods—despite the growing scientific evidence that they drive diseases like debilitating chronic pain, menstrual agony, obesity, and diabetes.
The iconic localist farmer Joel Salatin recently said, “Wealth is far more than paychecks; it’s far more than cash. I would say the most valuable things in life have nothing to do with cash. Resilience in food, clothing, shelter, and relationships is better than cash.”
That’s something Beltway Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians do not understand. Life is not about money and power for normal people. We need to promote a family focused culture to win liberty again. Families deserve the freedom to have money that actually appreciates in value. They should have the right to buy food from local farmers they know. They should be free to use generic, inexpensive medicine that is safe and effective without government running interference on behalf of Big Pharma. All of these are values Blake Masters has a real shot at bringing to the halls of power in the U.S. Senate.