Things I Saw at The 2024 Libertarian National Convention
Hijinks in the capitol
So I went to the 2024 Libertarian National Convention, a legit political party convention, with presidential nominations and everything (Yep, we’re real!). It was held at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., over the long Memorial Day weekend, and was attended by just shy of 1000 delegates from around the country. As Libertarians can be paradoxically described as a “group of radical individualists,” there was plenty of argument about pretty much everything. It’s how Libertarians work; we bully each other for practice, which makes us extremely hard to bully in normal life.
But I’ll circle back around to that. First, I want to take some space here and talk about the venue, and record some memories of things I saw there. Why do I want to start with the venue? Well, this is why, in a before and after you might recognize.
The Washington Hilton is where President Reagan was shot. He’s not in that bottom photo, as he was already in the car when a shot ricocheted (they figure) into him, and didn’t even realize he’d been hit until he started coughing up blood. This is one of those moments of history that you don’t really think about unless you actually end up at the site. Which I did.
There is a little plaque out on the wall where it all went down back in 1981. You’ll note the stone texture in the pictures above. Some of my libertarian hoodlum friends and I briefly flirted with trying to recreate one of the old pictures from that fateful day, but it never quite came together (because we ran out of time, not because it’s arguably in poor taste, though either way it’s probably for the best).
I hung out for much of the weekend with several other guys from California, including the man who served as the convention’s head of security. That meant he was the point of contact for several other security details coming in with guest speakers (in this case, RFK, jr. , and Donald for-real Trump). That in turn meant he was deeply interfacing with hotel security, outside contractors, and the for-real Secret Service. THAT meant he got to see some of the features of the hotel that aren’t what you’d call “public,” which meant his buddies (including me) got to see a subset of those features after hours. Here’s an interesting few that feel like they’re worth remembering.
One of the reasons Reagan got shot was that he was out in the open. He had exited the building from an exterior door, which is to the left of the group in the top photo; they’re walking away from that door. Since that fateful day, steps have been taken regarding that access point. Check it out.
See that garage door on the left? That’s a bunker building that can contain two big Suburbans. A … dignitary (if you know what I mean) can be driven into that bunker, and doesn’t get out of the car until the doors roll down. Then he exits and enters the hotel, never in the open air.
Where does he go? As it happens, he comes down some stairs into a below-ground-level suite of rooms set aside specifically for high-end (i.e., Presidential) visits. The Hilton has two full floors of convention space and ballrooms that sit underground. One of them is where the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner gets held every year. There’s a secured path from the bunker-garage directly to the stage in the main ballroom. Here’s where it starts.
The door you see there on the left is the entry from the stairs linking the garage-bunker to the building. That door leads into this little rotunda that has an office space and a couple of waiting rooms branching off it. Yes, we rolled the carpet back to see the engraved seal. We were being tourists and stuff. Yes, we fixed it before we left. We might have considered re-enacting the Reagan scene outside, but we’re not total philistines.
Anyway, the blue carpet at the the bottom, where I’m standing to take this picture, runs out of the little rotunda and into a hall that leads right out onto the stage, thus:
This is the view peeking out from between the curtains at the back of the stage, looking out over the ballroom. You can see it set up for the convention, with state delegations’ tables marked out.
Cool stuff! Presidents have spoken here for decades. The Washington Hilton isn’t any old convention center. It’s a really nifty little corner of the whole D.C. “thing.” That’s probably part of what sealed the deal in inviting some pretty big names to come make their pitch. And some heavy hitters came to make their pitches. Robert F. Kennedy, jr. came and spoke, and tried to explain why libertarians should vote for him (interesting, Bobby, but nah). Vivek Ramaswamy came and spoke, and tried to explain why libertarians should vote Republican (no thanks, V). Senator Mike Lee came and spoke, and tried to explain why libertarians should vote Republican (I mean, Ending the Fed is a good idea, though, so yeah, Mike, you should get on that). And Senator Lee also introduced this guy:
Donald Trump, the man himself, tried to come explain why libertarians needed to not just vote for him, but should consider making him the LP nominee. Big nah, Don. Thanks to his speech, the internet briefly erupted in websearches about who Ross Ulbricht even is and what End the Fed even means, but most of the headlines around the speech declared “Trump Booed at Libertarian Event.” There was certainly plenty of booing, but libertarians, for all their radical individualism, tend to also be pretty open minded folks, which has the added benefit of making them pretty fair minded about a lot of things. So yeah, we booed stuff Trump said that was silly (no, Don, we’re not nominating you as our guy, and you should fire your speechwriter for even penning the request), but we cheered things we liked (sure, we’ll take a Libertarian cabinet appointment and would love to see Ross Ulbricht finally walk free). Did Trump win some libertarian votes? Probably not. But it’s hard not to respect the attempt; he soldiered through the speech in spite of finding himself on the receiving end of treatment he was clearly not expecting.
Brief aside: We finally elected the Presidential ticket of Chase Oliver and Mike ter Maat. RFK, jr. actually got nominated but didn’t survive the first round of balloting. Some dedicated contrarian from New Mexico actually tried to nominate Trump, but since Trump’s not a member of the Libertarian Party he didn’t qualify for our process, which we dutifully looked up after the booing died down (we’re a tough crowd, but fair).
Brief extra aside: you know who’s glad he didn’t come speak? Joe Biden. Yes, he was invited, too, because why not? No, he did not attend. You and I totally know why. ‘Nuff said.
Overall, it was a great weekend. I got to hang out in a cool historic hotel, got to meet and enjoy the energy of almost 1,000 liberty-loving radicals, and got to see Donald Trump play a live set (warts and all). These are memories worth preserving, so here they are. Thanks for watching my vacation slideshow.