(The Center Square) — Last yr, Libertarian Chase Oliver compelled Georgia’s U.S. Senate race — through which Raphael Warnock defeated Herschel Walker — right into a runoff.
Now, Oliver, a 37-year-old Atlanta resident vying for the Libertarian presidential nomination, sees the political panorama — one through which many citizens don’t need to see a rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden — aligning completely for his birthday party.
“We want to make sure that we are providing a really good contrast,” Oliver informed The Center Square. “And I think the fact that I am half the age of my Republican and Democratic opponents — or likely Republican and Democratic opponents, rather — I think that provides a great contrast, and I’m trying to speak to the next generation.”
Why is 2024 the yr for the Libertarian Party?
“Because this is going to be likely a Biden versus Trump 2.0 election, it presents a very unique opportunity for the Libertarians to break out. Because more and more voters are dissatisfied with both of those choices — and they’re going to start looking elsewhere. And so, we have a unique opportunity to present ourselves in a way that’s professional, in a way that attracts new voters to the party and to the movement and can really break through. Similar to Ross Perot 1992, both the Republican and the Democrat were both broadly not as popular as past candidates at them, and so, there was room for Ross Perot to be able to get 19% of the popular vote. I think there’s going to be a similar political condition for the Libertarians in 2024 — and maybe even more so.”
You’ve advocated getting rid of the U.S. Department of Education. How most likely is that to occur?
“Post-COVID, so many parents have seen how broken the public education system is, and we need to have more marketplace competition. They got to see how bad it was watching their kids try to do public education via Zoom in the wake of the pandemic. And the silver lining of that is many parents have looked for alternatives to the traditional public school education. And we need to be supporting those parents and those students who are looking for alternatives to a failed public school model. And so, the easiest way for us to do that at the federal level is to end the Department of Education, block grant that money back to the states and then start advocating for more choice in the education marketplace on a state-by-state basis, which is what you’re seeing all across the country.”
When you get to the truth and the legislative piece of it, how most likely is it to be in a position to say, let’s simply do away with a division?
“If you can’t eliminate the department outright, you can start eliminating the excess layers of bureaucracy and spending that come with those departments and start defunding them that way. Start getting rid of the worst fat first, cut that first, and it allows you to start showing proof of concept. As you eliminate layers and layers of the federal bureaucracy and you see that the government is actually more responsive to the needs of the individuals, people will become more and more convinced that getting things away from top-down government and more towards a decentralized governance at the lowest level, the most local level, is preferable.”
How will we truly trade the dialog in regards to the federal debt and the debt ceiling?
“If anybody thinks that we can tax ourselves out of the debt crisis that we’re in, that will never happen. We’re never going to revenue generate ourselves out of this. What we can do is we can cut spending and be smart about it and do what every other person has to do, which is work within their means. And it’s important for us now to get a grasp on this because the longer we wait, the more harsh it’s going to be if that debt bubble bursts. And so if we don’t start working towards it now, it will be worse on down the line, not just for my generation, but for the kids and grandkids that my generation is going to be having.”
Check again for extra of The Center Square’s dialog with Oliver.
This article First seemed in the center square