Can Libertarians Win? Hope for Liberty in Our Lifetime Revisited, with Jacob Huebert

Can libertarians win meaningful victories for liberty in our lifetime? Jacob Huebert, revisiting his 2011 Mises Circle presentation "Is There Hope for Liberty in Our Lifetime?", delivers a clear verdict: not through the paths most people chase. Electoral politics poisons principles and delivers more statism, grassroots populism like the Tea Party is less interested in freedom than its proponents suggest, and it fizzles without real change, and pushing for freedom in the courts can offer beneficial but limited results. Yet hope exists through quieter, surer means—the remnant strategy of personal improvement and idea-spreading leads to incremental gains in personal and societal freedom. For Christians committed to a free society, this conversation offers a principled alternative to short-term political fixes: focus on becoming the change, draw the receptive, and trust ideas to bear fruit when crises demand them.

Huebert's update shows why libertarians should reject the lesser-evil trap and embrace long-term fidelity to individual rights and sound economics. The episode argues that true progress comes not from capturing power but from changing minds among those who think independently.

Who Jacob Huebert Is and Why His Perspective Matters

Jacob Huebert serves as senior litigation counsel at the New Civil Liberties Alliance, which fights administrative state overreach—most notably contributing to the Supreme Court case that overturned Chevron deference. As a Mises Institute associated scholar and author of Libertarianism Today, Huebert brings a rare combination: deep theoretical grounding in Austrian economics and libertarian philosophy, plus practical courtroom wins for liberty. His 2011 talk captured pessimism amid Ron Paul and Tea Party optimism; now, with hindsight including Trump-era disappointments and recent freedom trends, he sharpens the case for why libertarians win by refusing to play the conventional political game.

Why Electoral Politics Cannot Deliver Liberty

Electoral politics consistently fails libertarians because it rewards compromise, short-term thinking, and team loyalty over principle. The Tea Party promised anti-federal backlash but delivered standard Republicans with mild rhetoric—not radical reduction in government size or scope. Polls showed less than half of Tea Partiers even angry at federal power, and mainstream exploiters quickly co-opted it. Fifteen years later, the pattern repeats: libertarians who backed Trump as the "lesser evil" against perceived leftist threats rationalized away his statist actions, accelerating government growth instead of reversing it. Even bright spots like Javier Milei prove exceptions, not the rule—politics attracts few consistent principled voices like Ron Paul or Thomas Massie, who remain isolated outliers rather than catalysts for systemic change.

Grassroots Populism Lacks the Clarity for Lasting Freedom

Movements like the Tea Party or MAGA surge on unfocused rage against elites but lack a coherent vision of a freer society. They attract liberty-curious people yet funnel them toward conventional Republican figures who preserve the status quo. True liberty requires rejecting collectivism—whether left-wing central planning or right-wing racial or national collectivism that creeps in among some libertarian-adjacent circles. Populism exploits frustration without building the intellectual foundation needed for real reform, leaving participants more prone to statism when the pendulum swings.

Courts Offer Discrete Wins—but Are Not the Whole Solution

Legal activism through groups like NCLA yields tangible liberty expansions where public opinion already leans that way. Overturning Chevron constrained unelected bureaucrats, Heller affirmed individual gun rights nationwide, and other rulings erode old censorship norms. These victories matter because they protect rights concretely and shift cultural recognition of those rights. Yet courts cannot impose libertarian limits against majority will or entrenched political demands for spending and intervention—the Constitution itself permits far more than a free society demands. Sustainable freedom requires a critical mass of people who understand government action as immoral when private actors would face condemnation.

The Remnant Approach: The One Reliable Path to Advance Liberty

Albert Jay Nock's "Isaiah's Job" provides the blueprint libertarians need: stop chasing mass conversion and focus on improving yourself—deepening knowledge of morality, economics, and liberty. This draws the "remnant"—independent thinkers scattered everywhere who sense the status quo's failures and seek better answers. They approach receptive, not resistant, because they ask first. When crises expose statism's bankruptcy (as in Argentina's turn toward Austrian ideas), prepared remnant ideas stand ready. Christians especially grasp this: faithfulness to truth persists even without immediate societal transformation, much like discipleship amid an unremade world.

Practical Ways to Increase Liberty Now

The remnant strategy works in daily life through personal choices that expand freedom despite the state. Homeschooling exploded post-COVID because remnant families had already built alternatives—curricula, networks, conviction—ready when government schools faltered. Moving to freer jurisdictions (states, countries), minimizing taxes legally, starting businesses in low-regulation areas, and making trade-offs (e.g., Switzerland's high freedom with grocery shopping across the border, or prioritizing family proximity) let individuals thrive. These steps reject the false binary of total liberty or misery, embracing pragmatism while holding moral absolutism on aggression and intervention.

Positive Trends Show Liberty Quietly Winning

Despite federal overreach, liberty advances incrementally. Marijuana legalization spread far faster than predicted, gun rights expanded via court rulings, conscription ended, speech protections strengthened compared to World War I repression, and slavery's legacy ended. Globally, freer markets slashed extreme poverty and boosted living standards. The Cato Institute's human progress indicators confirm markets quietly improve lives even amid bad policy. Americans overlook these gains while fixating on negatives, but the trajectory favors more freedom when ideas spread among the remnant.

Conclusion: Can Libertarians Win? Yes—Through the Remnant, Not Politics

Libertarians can win real victories for liberty in our lifetime, but only by abandoning electoral shortcuts that erode principles and embracing the remnant path that builds lasting change. Politics delivers more government; personal action delivers discrete freedoms; the remnant spreads the moral and economic case that makes freedom sustainable. For Christians called to a free society, this means living the truth now—improving ourselves, drawing seekers, celebrating incremental wins—trusting ideas to prevail when the moment arrives. Liberty grows not by capturing the state but by freeing minds one at a time.

Additional Resources

• Isaiah's Job by Albert Jay Nock — The classic essay on the remnant strategy.
• Libertarianism Today by J...