Rep. Justin Amash, the Michigan libertarian who split from the Republican Party last summer, announced a third-party presidential bid Tuesday evening. Running on the Libertarian Party ticket, he will challenge President Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
I interviewed the 2020 candidate on Wednesday afternoon to find out what he’s thinking and what his policy agenda would be as president.
First, Amash wants to see Congress get its act together. As president, he says he would put his foot down and make that happen.
“The most important thing that we need to do is fix the process in Washington,” Amash told me. “Right now, you have a few people at the top who run everything … this empowers a president who is willing to abuse power … and it also gives a president who is willing to challenge that system the ability to reverse things.”
“As president, I [would be] able to tell Congress to get their act together, or I won’t sign the bills,” the congressman continued. “If Congress refuses to run an appropriate legislation process, I’m not signing the bill.”
For Amash, one key area in which Congress needs to start doing its job again is foreign policy. He takes serious issue with the way lawmakers have largely abdicated their constitutional war powers, leaving presidents able to launch military interventions at will.
“If there are wars that I believe are not authorized, I can tell Congress it has 90 days to provide me with an appropriate authorization, or I will begin to return troops to the United States,” Amash promised. “I think that’s an important policy proposal and leverage point that I will have as president.”
As for the other policies areas Amash’s campaign is focused on, it all comes down to a common thread: individual liberty.
“The things we need to focus on are securing people’s rights,” he says. “There are all sorts of federal government operations, such as civil asset forfeiture, where the federal government [under a new president] can refuse to participate because it’s unconstitutional. There are criminal justice reform issues where the federal government is involved in way too much criminalization … we can withdraw from these processes.”
In focusing on civil asset forfeiture (the shockingly common process wherein police seize people’s private property without evidence that they’re guilty of a crime) and criminal justice reform, Amash seems determined to focus on issues where big government is crushing the little guy.
Also topping his policy agenda is a commitment to a principle seemingly extinct among both party establishments: fiscal conservatism.
“We need to get our spending under control,” Amash fumed. “The federal government is spending a tremendous amount of money and not spending it very effectively, either. On this recent coronavirus relief effort, we spent about $3 trillion … and it didn’t even help the people who need it most.”
“The government is spending money in an ineffective way and not at all caring about the debt,” the congressman continued. “We need to get that debt under control. I will continue to push for less spending. That doesn’t mean … there won’t be any government. It’s just that each level of government [i.e. state, local, federal] has to fulfill its appropriate role.”
But I had to question the congressman on whether there’s really a large appetite among voters for limited-government policies, given the rise of populist impulses — and the seeming lack of political backlash toward Republicans who’ve abandoned them. In return, Amash argued that part of his campaign strategy will be to show people how libertarian they actually are.
“If people spent time thinking about how libertarian their friends and families and neighbors are, they’d be surprised,” he mused. “If you ask people … they will agree that yeah, I’m better at making decisions about my life than my neighbor is, than the homeowner’s association, state capital, or certainly Washington, D.C., or the United Nations. Everyone understands that.”
As for whether libertarianism can sell during a time of resurgent populism, Amash was quite optimistic.
“Well, just look at the ‘populists’ in Washington, D.C.,” Amash lamented. “They put together this coronavirus relief package that spent $3 trillion and didn’t get the relief to the people who need it most. How populist is that? So, you have these people like President Trump and Joe Biden, who claim to be for the people. But when it comes down to it, they’re really not.”
Still, I had to press Amash on the most common criticism he gets from pro-Trump conservatives. They argue the congressman is just egotistical and that his vote for impeachment and campaign alike are simply him seeking media fanfare. Amash’s response was interesting:
The facts don’t really support this narrative that Amash craves media attention. If anything, throughout his political career to date, he has been somewhat camera-shy, declining interviews on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and many other television programs after his impeachment announcement.
Rather, Amash says his run is based on his commitment to limited-government principles and his frustration with the political establishment.
“The most important elections we’ve had in history are the ones where someone came in and really went against the status quo, presenting an opportunity for the country to recenter itself,” Amash said. “I think that we have that opportunity here.”
