If you follow my announcements of upcoming events of interest in the sidebar at the right, you will have seen that I will be participating in a debate hosted by the Soho Forum this coming Wednesday, July 22, at 6 PM. This is an online debate, via Zoom, so anyone can participate without having to show up in person.

The subject of the debate is which candidate in the upcoming presidential election should get the support of libertarians. There will be three speakers, one (Ilya Somin) giving reasons why libertarians should support Biden; another (Angela McArdle) giving reasons why libertarians should support Jo Jorgensen (who is the candidate of the Libertarian Party); and then I will be giving the reasons to support President Trump. If I do say so myself, I think that my arguments are compelling.

I won’t completely give away the surprise ending here, but some of my argument will revolve around the inevitability of a two-party system under the American constitutional framework for presidential elections. Many libertarians, and others who would like to vote for a third party more representative of their beliefs than either of our two major parties, frequently ask why we can’t have influential third parties like they have in Europe. If the British can have the LibDems or the Scottish party, or the Germans can have the Greens or the Free Democrats, why can’t we have a Libertarian Party that attracts many votes and gradually grows into a significant force. Many such third parties have arisen in American history, but almost all have fizzled, and the few that carry on (like the Libertarians or Communists) typically get less than 1% of the vote. Why is that? There is a fascinating history that you might not be very aware of.

By the way, I have no idea what the guy arguing for Biden is going to say. It’s Professor Ilya Somin of Scalia Law School. He’s a very smart guy, so I’m sure that he will come up with something, but I don’t envy him in the position he has undertaken to defend.

It would be great if we can get a big turnout for the debate from Manhattan Contrarian readers. Yes, it will cost you $5 to participate. But remember that the MC site is not only free, but also ad free, so this will be the small way that you can give back. None of the money will go to me, but rather it will go to support the debate program.